diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index 0fe0cbd..662cf49 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 include *.txt
 include *.md
+include mapshader/.version
 
 graft mapshader
 
diff --git a/mapshader/__init__.py b/mapshader/__init__.py
index 5546248..378f407 100644
--- a/mapshader/__init__.py
+++ b/mapshader/__init__.py
@@ -1,9 +1,13 @@
 import sys
 
-try:
-    from ._version import __version__
-except ImportError:
-    __version__ = "Unknown"
+import param
+__version__ = str(
+    param.version.Version(
+        fpath=__file__,
+        archive_commit='$Format:%h$',
+        reponame='mapshader',
+    )
+)
 
 
 def test():
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index a207dee..b255363 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 [build-system]
 requires = [
+    'param >=1.6.1',
     'pyct',
     'setuptools',
     'wheel',
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 245c8cd..5ef236c 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -3,16 +3,17 @@
 import shutil
 import sys
 
+import param
 import pyct.build
 
 
 setup_args = dict(
     name='mapshader',
-    use_scm_version={
-        'write_to': 'mapshader/_version.py',
-        'write_to_template': '__version__ = "{version}"',
-        'tag_regex': r'^(?P<prefix>v)?(?P<version>[^\+]+)(?P<suffix>.*)?$',
-    },
+    version=param.version.get_setup_version(
+        __file__,
+        'mapshader',
+        archive_commit='$Format:%h$',
+    ),
     description='Simple Python GIS Web Services',
     url='https://github.com/makepath/mapshader',
     packages=[
@@ -34,6 +35,7 @@
         'descartes',
         'flask',
         'flask-cors>=3.0.10',
+        'param >=1.6.1',
         'rasterio',
         'jupyter',
         'pyarrow',