diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..741c65a6a6c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+# Exclude entire directories
+prune .github/
+prune dev_scripts/
+prune docs/
+prune examples/
+prune tests/
+
+# Exclude individual files
+exclude .* \
+    ADMIN.md  CONTRIBUTING.md SECURITY.md \
+    CITATION.cff pdm.lock tasks.py
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index ae8791a86ce..d345588fae5 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ requires = [
     # https://numpy.org/devdocs/dev/depending_on_numpy.html#build-time-dependency
     "numpy>=2.1.0",
     "setuptools>=65.0.0",
+    "setuptools-scm>=8",  # include all Git tracked files as package data file
 ]
 build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 
@@ -130,9 +131,6 @@ feff_plot_cross_section = "pymatgen.cli.feff_plot_cross_section:main"
 feff_plot_dos = "pymatgen.cli.feff_plot_dos:main"
 get_environment = "pymatgen.cli.get_environment:main"
 
-[tool.setuptools.package-data]
- "*" = ["*", ]  # include everything under src/ dir as data files
-
 [tool.setuptools.packages.find]
 where = ["src"]
 include = ["pymatgen", "pymatgen.*"]