diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 7429ce34..37e8226f 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ classifiers = ["Development Status :: 5 - Production/Stable",
 
 requires-python=">=3.10"
 # also requires libsepol.so and libselinux.so.
-dependencies = []
+dependencies = ["setuptools"]
 
 optional-dependencies.analysis = ["networkx>=2.6",
                                   "pygraphviz"]