diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index b255437..ff60bff 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 [build-system]
-requires = ["setuptools"]
+requires = ["setuptools>=64", "setuptools-scm>=8"]
 build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 
 [project]
@@ -44,8 +44,8 @@ repository = "https://github.com/tskit-dev/pyslim"
 packages = ["pyslim"]
 include-package-data = true
 
-[tool.setuptools.dynamic]
-version = {attr = "pyslim._version.pyslim_version"}
+[tool.setuptools_scm]
+local_scheme = "no-local-version"
 
 [dependency-groups]
 test = [
diff --git a/pyslim/_version.py b/pyslim/_version.py
index 2979a07..3b480d7 100644
--- a/pyslim/_version.py
+++ b/pyslim/_version.py
@@ -1,4 +1,10 @@
-pyslim_version = "1.1.2.dev0"
+try:
+    from importlib.metadata import version as _get_version
+
+    pyslim_version = _get_version("pyslim")
+except Exception:
+    pyslim_version = "unknown"
+
 slim_file_version = "0.9"
 # other file versions that require no modification
 compatible_slim_file_versions = ["0.9"]