diff --git a/intake_esgf/__init__.py b/intake_esgf/__init__.py
index df05071..4a8f980 100644
--- a/intake_esgf/__init__.py
+++ b/intake_esgf/__init__.py
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@
 import warnings
 
 import xarray as xr
-from pkg_resources import DistributionNotFound, get_distribution
 
 warnings.simplefilter("ignore", category=xr.SerializationWarning)
 
@@ -26,10 +25,6 @@ def in_notebook() -> bool:
 
 from intake_esgf.catalog import ESGFCatalog  # noqa
 from intake_esgf.config import conf  # noqa
+from intake_esgf._version import __version__  # noqa
 
 __all__ = ["ESGFCatalog", "conf", "IN_NOTEBOOK"]
-
-try:
-    __version__ = get_distribution(__name__).version
-except DistributionNotFound:  # pragma: no cover
-    __version__ = "0.0.0"  # pragma: no cover
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 6d78ec3..ae40701 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -6,6 +6,10 @@ build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 
 [tool.setuptools_scm]
 version_scheme = "no-guess-dev"
+local_scheme = "node-and-date"
+fallback_version = "0.0.0"
+write_to = "intake_esgf/_version.py"
+write_to_template = '__version__ = "{version}"'
 
 [tool.pytest.ini_options]
 console_output_style = "count"