diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a6281427
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+[build-system]
+requires = [
+    "setuptools>=64",
+    "setuptools_scm>=8",
+]
+
+[tool.setuptools_scm]
+version_scheme = "release-branch-semver"
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index d90b3c2b..b4c72c7f 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -2,23 +2,12 @@
 from pathlib import Path
 from setuptools import find_packages
 from setuptools import setup
+import setuptools_scm
 
 import os
 import subprocess
-import platform	
+import platform
 
-tag_cmd = "git describe --tags --abbrev=0"	
-tag_cmd = tag_cmd if platform.system() == "Windows" else f"echo $({tag_cmd})"
-
-try:
-    tag_version = (
-        subprocess.check_output(tag_cmd, shell=False).decode("ascii").replace("\n", "")
-    )
-except:
-    #an error occurred, potentially an issue with git cli
-    tag_version = "v1.0.0"
-    
-print(f"Tag version: {tag_version}")
 
 def read_lines(path):
     """Read lines of `path`."""
@@ -38,14 +27,14 @@ def read_lines(path):
     packages=find_packages(
         exclude=["docs", "ojd_daps_skills/analysis", "ojd_daps_skills/app"]
     ),
-    classifiers=['Development Status :: 5 - Production/Stable'],
+    classifiers=["Development Status :: 5 - Production/Stable"],
     package_data={
         # If any package contains *.yaml files, include them:
         "": [
             "*.yaml",
         ],
     },
-    version=tag_version,
+    version=setuptools_scm.get_version(),
     description="Extract skills from job ads and maps them onto a skills taxonomy of your choice.",
     url="https://github.com/nestauk/ojd_daps_skills",
     project_urls={