diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 621eb79..10dac1d 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,10 +1,9 @@
 [build-system]
 build-backend = "hatchling.build"
-requires = [ "hatchling" ]
+requires = [ "hatch-vcs", "hatchling" ]
 
 [project]
 name = "interscale"
-version = "0.0.1"
 description = "Multi-scale cell interaction model for spatial transcriptomics data."
 readme = "README.md"
 license = "BSD-3-Clause"
@@ -23,6 +22,7 @@ classifiers = [
   "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13",
   "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14",
 ]
+dynamic = [ "version" ]
 dependencies = [
   "anndata",
   "fast-array-utils[accel]",
@@ -95,6 +95,7 @@ envs.hatch-test.matrix = [
 envs.hatch-test.overrides.matrix.deps.env-vars = [
   { key = "UV_PRERELEASE", value = "allow", if = [ "pre" ] },
 ]
+version.source = "vcs"
 
 [tool.uv]
 # fix build deps when building from source