diff --git a/eng/Build.props b/eng/Build.props
index ff9b72504..7e501b9fc 100644
--- a/eng/Build.props
+++ b/eng/Build.props
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@
       <When Condition=" '$(InitializeVMR)' == 'true' ">
         <!-- VMR bootstrap -->
         <ItemGroup>
-          <ProjectToBuild Include="$(RepoRoot)src/SourceBuild/Arcade/src/SourceBuild.Tasks.csproj" BuildInParallel="false" />
           <ProjectToBuild Include="$(RepoRoot)src/VirtualMonoRepo/Tasks/VirtualMonoRepo.Tasks.csproj" BuildInParallel="false" />
           <ProjectToBuild Include="$(RepoRoot)src/VirtualMonoRepo/InitializeVMR.proj" BuildInParallel="false" />
         </ItemGroup>
diff --git a/eng/Versions.props b/eng/Versions.props
index cc5b6f750..41f5f60b3 100644
--- a/eng/Versions.props
+++ b/eng/Versions.props
@@ -204,6 +204,12 @@
     <MicrosoftNETWorkloadEmscriptennet7Manifest80100Version>8.0.0-alpha.1.22620.1</MicrosoftNETWorkloadEmscriptennet7Manifest80100Version>
     <EmscriptenWorkloadManifestVersion>$(MicrosoftNETWorkloadEmscriptennet7Manifest80100Version)</EmscriptenWorkloadManifestVersion>
   </PropertyGroup>
+  <!-- dependencies for VMR initialization -->
+  <PropertyGroup>
+    <!-- These two MicrosoftBuild versions are required to build VMR initialization tasks -->
+    <MicrosoftBuildFrameworkVersion>15.7.179</MicrosoftBuildFrameworkVersion>
+    <MicrosoftBuildUtilitiesCoreVersion>15.7.179</MicrosoftBuildUtilitiesCoreVersion>
+  </PropertyGroup>
   <PropertyGroup>
     <!-- pinned dependency. This package is not being produced outside of the 2.0 branch of corefx and should not change. -->
     <CLI_NETStandardLibraryNETFrameworkVersion>2.0.1-servicing-26011-01</CLI_NETStandardLibraryNETFrameworkVersion>
diff --git a/src/VirtualMonoRepo/InitializeVMR.proj b/src/VirtualMonoRepo/InitializeVMR.proj
index fb5070017..b534c897a 100644
--- a/src/VirtualMonoRepo/InitializeVMR.proj
+++ b/src/VirtualMonoRepo/InitializeVMR.proj
@@ -13,8 +13,6 @@
     <InitializeVMR>true</InitializeVMR>
   </PropertyGroup>
 
-  <Import Project="../SourceBuild/Arcade/tools/SourceBuildArcadeTarball.targets" />
-
   <!-- Pull back in some properties from the tarball defaults -->
   <PropertyGroup>
     <VmrGitInfoDir>$(TarballGitInfoDir)</VmrGitInfoDir>
@@ -30,9 +28,7 @@
     Instead of cloning the repositories, we pull the sources via the `darc vmr initialize` command.
     Most of the targets are reused from the tarball generation process (SourceBuildArcadeTarball.targets).
   -->
-  <Target Name="InitializeVMR" DependsOnTargets="GenerateFullNuGetVersion;
-                                                 GenerateVersionFile;
-                                                 InitializeCleanVmr;
+  <Target Name="InitializeVMR" DependsOnTargets="InitializeCleanVmr;
                                                  InitializeRepoAndDependentsRecursive">
     <Message Text="VMR was successfully initialized in '$(VmrDir)'" Importance="High" />
   </Target>
@@ -50,26 +46,24 @@
     <Exec WorkingDirectory="$(VmrDir)" Command="git commit -m 'Initial commit of the VMR%0D%0A%0D%0A[[ commit created by automation ]]'" />
   </Target>
 
-  <Target Name="InitializeRepoAndDependentsRecursive"
-    DependsOnTargets="GetSourceBuildIntermediateNupkgNameConvention">
+  <Target Name="InitializeRepoAndDependentsRecursive">
+    <!-- Get installer's SHA if not passed in -->
+    <Exec Command="git rev-parse HEAD" ConsoleToMSBuild="true" WorkingDirectory="$(RepoRoot)" Condition=" '$(TargetRevision)' == '' ">
+      <Output TaskParameter="ConsoleOutput" ItemName="RootRepoCommitSha" />
+    </Exec>
 
     <PropertyGroup>
       <RootRepoName>$([System.IO.Path]::GetFileName("$(RepoRoot.TrimEnd('/').TrimEnd('\\'))"))</RootRepoName>
       <TargetRevision Condition=" '$(TargetRevision)' == '' ">@(RootRepoCommitSha)</TargetRevision>
     </PropertyGroup>
 
-    <!-- Get installer's sha -->
-    <Exec Command="git rev-parse HEAD" ConsoleToMSBuild="true" WorkingDirectory="$(RepoRoot)">
-      <Output TaskParameter="ConsoleOutput" ItemName="RootRepoCommitSha" />
-    </Exec>
-
-    <Message Text="--> Initializing individual repos recursively. Starting from $(RootRepoName) / $(TargetRevision)" Importance="High" />
+    <Message Text="--> Initializing individual repos recursively. Starting from installer / $(TargetRevision)" Importance="High" />
 
     <!-- We are hardcoding the package version for the root repo (installer), since there
          isn't a Version.Details.xml file to read it from.
          See https://github.com/dotnet/source-build/issues/2250 -->
     <VirtualMonoRepo_Initialize
-      Repository="$(RootRepoName)"
+      Repository="installer"
       Revision="$(TargetRevision)"
       PackageVersion="8.0.100"
       Recursive="true"
@@ -77,7 +71,6 @@
       TmpPath="$(TmpDir)" />
 
     <Message Text=" -> Done initializing individual repositories recursively" Importance="High" />
-
   </Target>
 
 </Project>
diff --git a/src/VirtualMonoRepo/Tasks/GitFileManagerFactory.cs b/src/VirtualMonoRepo/Tasks/GitFileManagerFactory.cs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2da3d540b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/VirtualMonoRepo/Tasks/GitFileManagerFactory.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+// Licensed to the .NET Foundation under one or more agreements.
+// The .NET Foundation licenses this file to you under the MIT license.
+
+using System;
+using Microsoft.DotNet.DarcLib;
+using Microsoft.DotNet.DarcLib.Helpers;
+using Microsoft.DotNet.DarcLib.VirtualMonoRepo;
+using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;
+
+namespace Microsoft.DotNet.VirtualMonoRepo.Tasks;
+
+public class GitFileManagerFactory : IGitFileManagerFactory
+{
+    private readonly IVmrInfo _vmrInfo;
+    private readonly VmrRemoteConfiguration _remoteConfiguration;
+    private readonly IProcessManager _processManager;
+    private readonly IVersionDetailsParser _versionDetailsParser;
+    private readonly ILoggerFactory _loggerFactory;
+
+    public GitFileManagerFactory(
+        IVmrInfo vmrInfo,
+        VmrRemoteConfiguration remoteConfiguration,
+        IProcessManager processManager,
+        IVersionDetailsParser versionDetailsParser,
+        ILoggerFactory loggerFactory)
+    {
+        _vmrInfo = vmrInfo;
+        _remoteConfiguration = remoteConfiguration;
+        _processManager = processManager;
+        _versionDetailsParser = versionDetailsParser;
+        _loggerFactory = loggerFactory;
+    }
+
+    public IGitFileManager Create(string repoUri)
+        => new GitFileManager(CreateGitRepo(repoUri), _versionDetailsParser, _loggerFactory.CreateLogger<GitFileManager>());
+
+    private IGitRepo CreateGitRepo(string repoUri) => GitRepoTypeParser.ParseFromUri(repoUri) switch
+    {
+        GitRepoType.AzureDevOps => throw new Exception("VMR initialization should not require Azure DevOps repositories"),
+
+        GitRepoType.GitHub => new GitHubClient(
+            _processManager.GitExecutable,
+            _remoteConfiguration.GitHubToken,
+            _loggerFactory.CreateLogger<GitHubClient>(),
+            _vmrInfo.TmpPath,
+            // Caching not in use for Darc local client.
+            null),
+
+        GitRepoType.Local => new LocalGitClient(_processManager.GitExecutable, _loggerFactory.CreateLogger<LocalGitClient>()),
+        _ => throw new ArgumentException("Unknown git repository type", nameof(repoUri)),
+    };
+}
diff --git a/src/VirtualMonoRepo/Tasks/VirtualMonoRepo_Initialize.cs b/src/VirtualMonoRepo/Tasks/VirtualMonoRepo_Initialize.cs
index 6390e4b56..307ee8ecc 100644
--- a/src/VirtualMonoRepo/Tasks/VirtualMonoRepo_Initialize.cs
+++ b/src/VirtualMonoRepo/Tasks/VirtualMonoRepo_Initialize.cs
@@ -7,8 +7,6 @@ using System.Linq;
 using System.Threading;
 using System.Threading.Tasks;
 using Microsoft.Build.Framework;
-using Microsoft.DotNet.DarcLib;
-using Microsoft.DotNet.DarcLib.Helpers;
 using Microsoft.DotNet.DarcLib.VirtualMonoRepo;
 using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;
 using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;
@@ -61,6 +59,7 @@ public class VirtualMonoRepo_Initialize : Build.Utilities.Task, ICancelableTask
 
     private IServiceProvider CreateServiceProvider() => new ServiceCollection()
         .AddLogging(b => b.AddConsole().AddFilter(l => l >= LogLevel.Information))
-        .AddVmrManagers("git", VmrPath, TmpPath, null, null)
+        .AddTransient<GitFileManagerFactory>()
+        .AddVmrManagers(sp => sp.GetRequiredService<GitFileManagerFactory>(), "git", VmrPath, TmpPath, null, null)
         .BuildServiceProvider();
 }
diff --git a/src/VirtualMonoRepo/source-mappings.json b/src/VirtualMonoRepo/source-mappings.json
index 0f2620a51..95e8f949c 100644
--- a/src/VirtualMonoRepo/source-mappings.json
+++ b/src/VirtualMonoRepo/source-mappings.json
@@ -105,8 +105,8 @@
             "defaultRef": "dev"
         },
         {
-            "name": "razor-compiler",
-            "defaultRemote": "https://github.com/dotnet/razor-compiler"
+            "name": "razor",
+            "defaultRemote": "https://github.com/dotnet/razor"
         },
         {
             "name": "roslyn",