diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index a7bd5cf..f7a440a 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -14,3 +14,4 @@ dist
 htmlcov
 **/.DS_Store
 .eggs
+cppimport/_version.py
diff --git a/cppimport/__init__.py b/cppimport/__init__.py
index 0690538..b6d3302 100644
--- a/cppimport/__init__.py
+++ b/cppimport/__init__.py
@@ -7,6 +7,13 @@
 
 from cppimport.find import _check_first_line_contains_cppimport
 
+try:
+    from ._version import version as __version__
+    from ._version import version_tuple
+except ImportError:
+    __version__ = "unknown version"
+    version_tuple = (0, 0, "unknown version")
+
 settings = dict(
     force_rebuild=False,  # `force_rebuild` with multiple processes is not supported
     file_exts=[".cpp", ".c"],
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index a7bebf5..81544a2 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -10,3 +10,4 @@ build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 
 [tool.setuptools_scm]
 version_scheme = "post-release"
+write_to = "cppimport/_version.py"