diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index 0c5bfd552..24b4cfc9b 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ include HOWTORELEASE.rst
 include tox.ini
 include setup.py
 
+recursive-include scripts *.py
+
 include .coveragerc
 
 recursive-include bench *.py
diff --git a/scripts/check-manifest.py b/scripts/check-manifest.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5911a84fe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/check-manifest.py
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+"""
+Script used by tox.ini to check the manifest file if we are under version control, or skip the
+check altogether if not.
+
+"check-manifest" will needs a vcs to work, which is not available when testing the package
+instead of the source code (with ``devpi test`` for example).
+"""
+
+from __future__ import print_function
+
+import os
+import subprocess
+import sys
+
+
+if os.path.isdir('.git'):
+    sys.exit(subprocess.call('check-manifest', shell=True))
+else:
+    print('No .git directory found, skipping checking the manifest file')
+    sys.exit(0)
+
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 17fe0e3e4..efa3ad2f1 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ deps =
     restructuredtext_lint
     check-manifest
 commands =
-    check-manifest
+    {envpython} scripts/check-manifest.py
     flake8 pytest.py _pytest testing
     rst-lint CHANGELOG.rst HOWTORELEASE.rst README.rst