diff --git a/.git_archival.txt b/.git_archival.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7c51009
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.git_archival.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+node: $Format:%H$
+node-date: $Format:%cI$
+describe-name: $Format:%(describe:tags=true,match=*[0-9]*)$
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..00a7b00
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+.git_archival.txt  export-subst
diff --git a/.github/workflows/data-validation.yml b/.github/workflows/data-validation.yml
index d7143c0..4fad100 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/data-validation.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/data-validation.yml
@@ -16,6 +16,9 @@ jobs:
       HATCH_VERBOSE: 1
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          fetch-depth: 0 # hatch-vcs needs the tag history to derive the version
+          filter: blob:none # full history is only needed for tags; skip the heavy data blobs
       - name: Set up Python
         uses: actions/setup-python@v5
         with:
diff --git a/.github/workflows/lint.yml b/.github/workflows/lint.yml
index 1502ab7..f3fd1d8 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/lint.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/lint.yml
@@ -21,6 +21,9 @@ jobs:
       HATCH_VERBOSE: 1
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          fetch-depth: 0 # hatch-vcs needs the tag history to derive the version
+          filter: blob:none # full history is only needed for tags; skip the heavy data blobs
       - name: Set up Python
         uses: actions/setup-python@v5
         with:
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index b941928..5f15ed9 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [build-system]
 build-backend = "hatchling.build"
-requires = ["hatchling"]
+requires = ["hatchling", "hatch-vcs"]
 
 [project]
 authors = [{ name = "Bas des Tombe", email = "bas.des.tombe@pwn.nl" }]
@@ -16,13 +16,13 @@ classifiers = [
   "Topic :: Utilities",
 ]
 description = "Data part of the NHFLO modeling environment owned by HHNK, Artesia, and PWN."
+dynamic = ["version"]
 keywords = ["NHFLO"]
 license = { file = "LICENSE.txt" }
 maintainers = [{ name = "Bas des Tombe", email = "bas.des.tombe@pwn.nl" }]
 name = "nhflodata"
 readme = "README.md"
 requires-python = ">=3.14"
-version = "1.2.0"
 
 dependencies = ["pyyaml>=6.0.1"]
 
@@ -39,6 +39,9 @@ test = [
   "yamllint",
 ]
 
+[tool.hatch.version]
+source = "vcs"
+
 [tool.hatch.envs.default]
 installer = "uv"
 python = "3.14"
diff --git a/src/nhflodata/__init__.py b/src/nhflodata/__init__.py
index 0323efb..c332c4a 100644
--- a/src/nhflodata/__init__.py
+++ b/src/nhflodata/__init__.py
@@ -1,4 +1,8 @@
 """Utilities for working with NHFLO data."""
 
 # ruff: noqa: F401
+from importlib.metadata import version
+
 from nhflodata.get_paths import create_new_dataset, get_abs_data_path
+
+__version__ = version("nhflodata")