diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index e33c601..f760c6c 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 dev/
 __pycache__/
+src/pygenray/__about__.py
 .DS_Store
 docs/_build/
 dist/
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 72c9be9..dafa407 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 [build-system]
-requires = ["hatchling"]
+requires = ["hatchling", "hatch-vcs"]
 build-backend = "hatchling.build"
 
 [project]
@@ -47,7 +47,10 @@ Issues = "https://github.com/John Ragland/pygenray/issues"
 Source = "https://github.com/John Ragland/pygenray"
 
 [tool.hatch.version]
-path = "src/pygenray/__about__.py"
+source = "vcs"
+
+[tool.hatch.build.hooks.vcs]
+version-file = "src/pygenray/__about__.py"
 
 [tool.hatch.envs.types]
 extra-dependencies = [
diff --git a/src/pygenray/__about__.py b/src/pygenray/__about__.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 30c957b..0000000
--- a/src/pygenray/__about__.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,4 +0,0 @@
-# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2025-present John Ragland <john.ragland@whoi.edu>
-#
-# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
-__version__ = "0.0.2"