diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 95708d92e5450..63940b24a783f 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -109,7 +109,8 @@ include(RootMacros)
 include(CheckAssembler)
 include(CheckIntrinsics)
 
-if(clad AND NO_CONNECTION)
+# Building Clad requires an internet connection, if we're not side-loading the source directory
+if(clad AND NOT DEFINED CLAD_SOURCE_DIR AND NO_CONNECTION)
   if(fail-on-missing)
     message(FATAL_ERROR "No internet connection. Please check your connection, or either disable the 'clad' option or the 'fail-on-missing' to automatically disable options requiring internet access")
   else()
diff --git a/cmake/modules/RootBuildOptions.cmake b/cmake/modules/RootBuildOptions.cmake
index 3f9505d14d854..31e4ce5f25973 100644
--- a/cmake/modules/RootBuildOptions.cmake
+++ b/cmake/modules/RootBuildOptions.cmake
@@ -113,11 +113,11 @@ ROOT_BUILD_OPTION(builtin_zstd OFF "Build included libzstd, or use system libzst
 ROOT_BUILD_OPTION(ccache OFF "Enable ccache usage for speeding up builds")
 ROOT_BUILD_OPTION(distcc OFF "Enable distcc usage for speeding up builds (ccache is called first if enabled)")
 ROOT_BUILD_OPTION(cefweb OFF "Enable support for CEF (Chromium Embedded Framework) web-based display")
-ROOT_BUILD_OPTION(clad ON "Build clad, the cling automatic differentiation plugin (requires network)")
+ROOT_BUILD_OPTION(clad ON "Build clad, the cling automatic differentiation plugin (requires network, or existing source directory indicated with -DCLAD_SOURCE_DIR=<clad_src_path>)")
 ROOT_BUILD_OPTION(cocoa OFF "Use native Cocoa/Quartz graphics backend (MacOS X only)")
 ROOT_BUILD_OPTION(coverage OFF "Enable compile flags for coverage testing")
 ROOT_BUILD_OPTION(cuda OFF "Enable support for CUDA (requires CUDA toolkit >= 7.5)")
-ROOT_BUILD_OPTION(cudnn ON "Enable support for cuDNN (default when Cuda is enabled)")
+ROOT_BUILD_OPTION(cudnn ON "Enable support for cuDNN (default when CUDA is enabled)")
 ROOT_BUILD_OPTION(daos OFF "Enable RNTuple support for Intel DAOS")
 ROOT_BUILD_OPTION(dataframe ON "Enable ROOT RDataFrame")
 ROOT_BUILD_OPTION(test_distrdf_pyspark OFF "Enable distributed RDataFrame tests that use pyspark")
diff --git a/interpreter/cling/tools/plugins/clad/CMakeLists.txt b/interpreter/cling/tools/plugins/clad/CMakeLists.txt
index f6b9d29602460..aa541e1db9fc6 100644
--- a/interpreter/cling/tools/plugins/clad/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/interpreter/cling/tools/plugins/clad/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -52,14 +52,20 @@ endif(LLVM_FORCE_USE_OLD_TOOLCHAIN)
 list(APPEND _clad_extra_cmake_args -DCLAD_BUILD_STATIC_ONLY=ON)
 
 # Wrap download, configure and build steps in a script to log output
-set(_clad_cmake_logging_settings
+set(_clad_extra_settings
   LOG_DOWNLOAD ON
   LOG_CONFIGURE ON
   LOG_BUILD ON
   LOG_INSTALL ON
+  LOG_OUTPUT_ON_FAILURE ON
 )
 
-list(APPEND _clad_cmake_logging_settings LOG_OUTPUT_ON_FAILURE ON)
+# If the CLAD_SOURCE_DIR variable is defined in the CMake configuration, we're
+# skipping the download of the repository and use the passed directory.
+if (DEFINED CLAD_SOURCE_DIR)
+  list(APPEND _clad_extra_settings DOWNLOAD_COMMAND "")
+  list(APPEND _clad_extra_settings SOURCE_DIR ${CLAD_SOURCE_DIR})
+endif()
 
 #list(APPEND _clad_patches_list "patch1.patch" "patch2.patch")
 #set(_clad_patch_command
@@ -88,7 +94,7 @@ ExternalProject_Add(
   BUILD_COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} --build . ${EXTRA_BUILD_ARGS}
   INSTALL_COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} --build . ${EXTRA_BUILD_ARGS} --target install
   BUILD_BYPRODUCTS ${CLAD_BYPRODUCTS}
-  ${_clad_cmake_logging_settings}
+  ${_clad_extra_settings}
   # We need the target clangBasic to be built before building clad. However, we
   # support building prebuilt clang and adding clangBasic breaks this case.
   # Delegate the dependency resolution to the clingInterpreter target (which