diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 16d2f2a..c2bc12c 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 /*
-taxtastic/data/ver
+taxtastic/taxtastic.egg-info/
 __pycache__
-!setup.py
+!pyproject.toml
 !MANINFEST.in
 !README.rst
 !taxtastic/
diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index 644f9de..582d85e 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -2,6 +2,11 @@
  change log for taxtastic
 ==========================
 
+0.11.2-dev
+==========
+
+* Migrated setup.py to pyproject.toml [GH-172]
+
 0.11.1
 ======
 
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index b4f2bdd..e1400cc 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -2,17 +2,18 @@
 FROM python:3.11-slim-bullseye
 
 ARG VERSION
-ENV PIP_ROOT_USER_ACTION=ignore TAXTASTIC_VERSION=${VERSION#v}
+ENV PIP_ROOT_USER_ACTION=ignore
 
-RUN apt-get -y update && apt-get upgrade -y && apt-get install -y unzip wget
+RUN apt-get -y update && apt-get upgrade -y && apt-get install -y git unzip wget
 
 WORKDIR /opt/build
 
 COPY dev/install_pplacer.sh ./
 RUN /opt/build/install_pplacer.sh /usr/local
 
-COPY setup.py MANIFEST.in README.rst ./
+COPY pyproject.toml MANIFEST.in README.rst ./
 COPY taxtastic/ ./taxtastic/
+COPY .git/ ./.git/
 RUN pip3 install --upgrade pip && pip3 install .
 
 WORKDIR /opt/run
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bdef864
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+[build-system]
+requires = ["setuptools>=64", "setuptools-scm>=8"]
+build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
+
+[project]
+authors = [
+  {email = "ngh2@uw.edu", name = "Noah Hoffman"}
+]
+classifiers = [
+"Development Status :: 3 - Alpha",
+"Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8",
+"Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9",
+"Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10",
+"Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11",
+"Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12",
+"Topic :: Scientific/Engineering :: Bio-Informatics"
+]
+dependencies = [
+"decorator",
+"DendroPy",
+"fastalite",
+"jinja2",
+"psycopg-binary",
+"psycopg2-binary",
+"PyYAML",
+"sqlalchemy>=2",
+"sqlparse"
+]
+description = "Tools for taxonomic naming and annotation"
+dynamic = ["version"]  # https://setuptools-scm.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
+license = {text = "GPL-3.0-only"}
+maintainers = [
+  {email = "crosenth@gmail.com", name = "Chris Rosenthal"},
+  {email = "dhoogest@uw.edu", name="Dan Hoogestraat"}
+]
+name = "taxtastic"
+readme = "README.rst"
+requires-python = ">=3.8"
+
+[project.urls]
+repository = "https://github.com/fhcrc/taxtastic"
+
+[project.scripts]
+taxit = "taxtastic.scripts.taxit:main"
+
+[tool.setuptools.packages.find]
+exclude = ["testfiles", "tests"]
+
+[tool.setuptools_scm]
+# can be empty if no extra settings are needed, presence enables setuptools-scm
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 144ec45..0000000
--- a/setup.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,67 +0,0 @@
-"""
-Create unix package:    python setup.py sdist
-Upload to pypi:         python setup.py sdist upload
-"""
-
-import subprocess
-import os
-from setuptools import setup, find_packages
-# To use a consistent encoding
-from os import path
-
-subprocess.call(
-    ('mkdir -p taxtastic/data && '
-     'git describe --tags --dirty > taxtastic/data/ver.tmp'
-     '&& mv taxtastic/data/ver.tmp taxtastic/data/ver '
-     '|| rm -f taxtastic/data/ver.tmp'),
-    shell=True, stderr=open(os.devnull, 'w', encoding='utf-8'))
-
-# must import __version__ *after* running 'git describe' above
-from taxtastic import __version__
-
-# Get the long description from the README file
-here = path.abspath(path.dirname(__file__))
-with open(path.join(here, 'README.rst'), encoding='utf-8') as fi:
-    long_description = fi.read()
-
-
-params = {'name': 'taxtastic',
-          'author': 'Noah Hoffman',
-          'author_email': 'ngh2@uw.edu',
-          'maintainer': 'Chris Rosenthal',
-          'maintainer_email': 'crosenth@uw.edu',
-          'description': 'Tools for taxonomic naming and annotation',
-          'long_description': long_description,
-          'packages': find_packages(exclude=['testfiles', 'tests']),
-          'package_dir': {'taxtastic': 'taxtastic'},
-          'python_requires': '>=3.8',
-          'url': 'https://github.com/fhcrc/taxtastic',
-          'version': __version__,
-          'license': 'GPL',
-          'classifiers': [
-              'License :: OSI Approved :: GNU General Public License (GPL)',
-              'Development Status :: 3 - Alpha',
-              'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8',
-              'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9',
-              'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10',
-              'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11',
-              'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12',
-              'Topic :: Scientific/Engineering :: Bio-Informatics'],
-          'download_url': 'https://github.com/fhcrc/taxtastic',
-          'include_package_data': True,
-          'entry_points': {
-              'console_scripts': ['taxit = taxtastic.scripts.taxit:main']},
-          'test_suite': 'tests',
-          'install_requires': [
-              'decorator',
-              'DendroPy',
-              'fastalite',
-              'jinja2',
-              'psycopg-binary',
-              'psycopg2-binary',
-              'PyYAML',
-              'sqlalchemy>=2',
-              'sqlparse',
-          ]}
-
-setup(**params)
diff --git a/taxtastic/__init__.py b/taxtastic/__init__.py
index e99e930..65ea81d 100644
--- a/taxtastic/__init__.py
+++ b/taxtastic/__init__.py
@@ -1,11 +1,8 @@
-import os
+from importlib.metadata import version, PackageNotFoundError
 
-ver = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'data', 'ver')
-if 'TAXTASTIC_VERSION' in os.environ:
-    __version__ = os.environ['TAXTASTIC_VERSION']
-elif os.path.isfile(ver):
-    with open(ver) as f:
-        __version__ = f.read().strip().replace('-', '+', 1).replace('-', '.')
-        __version__ = __version__.lstrip('v')
-else:
-    __version__ = ''
+# https://setuptools-scm.readthedocs.io/en/latest/usage/#at-runtime
+try:
+    __version__ = version("taxtastic")
+except PackageNotFoundError:
+    # package is not installed
+    pass