diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 493213d84..737f50346 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -2,11 +2,14 @@
 requires = [
   # sync with setup.py until we discard non-pep-517/518
   "setuptools>=40.0",
-  "setuptools-scm",
+  "setuptools-scm>=3.4",
   "wheel",
 ]
 build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 
+[tool.setuptools_scm]
+write_to = "src/_pytest/_version.py"
+
 [tool.pytest.ini_options]
 minversion = "2.0"
 addopts = "-rfEX -p pytester --strict-markers"
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 4475e30a7..7f1a1763c 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,9 +1,4 @@
 from setuptools import setup
 
-
-def main():
-    setup(use_scm_version={"write_to": "src/_pytest/_version.py"})
-
-
 if __name__ == "__main__":
-    main()
+    setup()