diff --git a/mne_bids_pipeline/__init__.py b/mne_bids_pipeline/__init__.py
index e361ccc3f..39d9f4177 100644
--- a/mne_bids_pipeline/__init__.py
+++ b/mne_bids_pipeline/__init__.py
@@ -4,4 +4,4 @@
     __version__ = version("mne_bids_pipeline")
 except PackageNotFoundError:
     # package is not installed
-    pass
+    __version__ = "0.0.0"
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 9150e8d44..71517dbd9 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@ build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 
 [tool.setuptools_scm]
 tag_regex = "^(?P<prefix>v)?(?P<version>[0-9.]+)(?P<suffix>.*)?$"
+version_scheme = "release-branch-semver"
 
 [tool.setuptools.packages.find]
 exclude = ["false"]  # on CircleCI this folder appears during pip install -ve. for an unknown reason