diff --git a/.github/workflows/build_wheel.yml b/.github/workflows/build_wheel.yml
index 2f6d2c4ab2..392ce7ac5b 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build_wheel.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build_wheel.yml
@@ -68,6 +68,17 @@ jobs:
       - uses: docker/setup-qemu-action@v3
         name: Setup QEMU
         if: matrix.platform_id == 'manylinux_aarch64' && matrix.os == 'ubuntu-latest'
+      # detect version in advance. See #3168
+      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
+        name: Install Python
+        with:
+          python-version: '3.11'
+          cache: 'pip'
+        if: matrix.dp_pkg_name == 'deepmd-kit-cu11'
+      - run: |
+          python -m pip install setuptools_scm
+          python -c "from setuptools_scm import get_version;print('SETUPTOOLS_SCM_PRETEND_VERSION_FOR_DEEPMD-KIT-CU11='+get_version())" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+        if: matrix.dp_pkg_name == 'deepmd-kit-cu11'
       - name: Build wheels
         uses: pypa/cibuildwheel@v2.16
         env:
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index b837d3be44..9b9d24dbef 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -153,6 +153,7 @@ environment-pass = [
     "DP_VARIANT",
     "CUDA_VERSION",
     "DP_PKG_NAME",
+    "SETUPTOOLS_SCM_PRETEND_VERSION_FOR_DEEPMD-KIT-CU11",
 ]
 environment = { PIP_PREFER_BINARY="1", DP_LAMMPS_VERSION="stable_2Aug2023_update2", DP_ENABLE_IPI="1", MPI_HOME="/usr/lib64/mpich", PATH="/usr/lib64/mpich/bin:$PATH" }
 before-all = [