diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..0612c6ac7f1
--- /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 629856ee598..60befbb04b5 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"
 
@@ -121,37 +122,10 @@ 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]
-include-package-data = false
-
 [tool.setuptools.packages.find]
 where = ["src"]
 include = ["pymatgen", "pymatgen.*"]
 
-[tool.setuptools.package-data]
-"pymatgen.analysis" = ["*.csv", "*.json", "*.yaml"]
-"pymatgen.analysis.chemenv" = [
-    "coordination_environments/coordination_geometries_files/*.json",
-    "coordination_environments/coordination_geometries_files/*.txt",
-    "coordination_environments/strategy_files/ImprovedConfidenceCutoffDefaultParameters.json",
-]
-"pymatgen.analysis.structure_prediction" = ["*.yaml", "data/*.json"]
-"pymatgen.analysis.diffraction" = ["*.json"]
-"pymatgen.analysis.magnetism" = ["default_magmoms.yaml"]
-"pymatgen.analysis.solar" = ["am1.5G.dat"]
-"pymatgen.entries" = ["*.json.gz", "*.yaml", "data/*.json"]
-"pymatgen.core" = ["*.json"]
-"pymatgen" = ["py.typed"]
-"pymatgen.io.vasp" = ["*.json", "*.json.bz2", "*.json.gz", "*.yaml"]
-"pymatgen.io.feff" = ["*.yaml"]
-"pymatgen.io.cp2k" = ["*.yaml"]
-"pymatgen.io.lobster" = ["lobster_basis/*.yaml"]
-"pymatgen.command_line" = ["*"]
-"pymatgen.util" = ["*.json", "structures/*.json"]
-"pymatgen.vis" = ["*.yaml"]
-"pymatgen.io.lammps" = ["CoeffsDataType.yaml", "templates/*.template"]
-"pymatgen.symmetry" = ["*.json", "*.sqlite", "*.yaml"]
-
 [tool.pdm.dev-dependencies]
 lint = ["mypy>=1.10.0", "pre-commit>=3.7.1", "ruff>=0.4.9"]
 test = ["pytest-cov>=5.0.0", "pytest-split>=0.9.0", "pytest>=8.2.2"]