[AtharvRG]

Summary

Building the package from a source tree without git metadata (e.g. GitHub tarball archives or a git checkout without the .git folder) currently fails:

LookupError: Error getting the version from source `vcs`: setuptools-scm was unable to detect version ...

This adds a fallback-version = "0.0.0" to [tool.hatch.version] in pyproject.toml, so such builds default to a placeholder version instead of hard-failing. The issue was originally reported against setup.py, which asserted when RELEASE_VERSION was missing; setup.py has since been replaced by pyproject.toml + hatch-vcs, and this is the equivalent fix in the current build system.

Verification

• Without git metadata (cloned tree with .git removed): python -m build now succeeds, producing alchemy_config-0.0.0.tar.gz / alchemy_config-0.0.0-py3-none-any.whl.
• With git metadata (normal repo checkout): build still derives the correct VCS version, e.g. alchemy_config-1.2.1.dev35+ga760720ad — no regression.

Fixes #9

Changes

• pyproject.toml: added fallback-version = "0.0.0" under [tool.hatch.version]

[AtharvRG]

Hi! I worked on this issue for Hacktoberfest. Some notes on the approach:

Context: Since the issue was filed, the build system changed — setup.py was replaced by pyproject.toml using hatchling + hatch-vcs (commit adfd21d). So instead of defaulting RELEASE_VERSION in setup.py, the equivalent fix today is giving hatch-vcs a fallback for when version discovery fails.

What fails today: any source tree without git metadata can't be built. Reproduced with a git clone minus the .git folder:

LookupError: Error getting the version from source `vcs`:
setuptools-scm was unable to detect version for ...

The fix: fallback-version = "0.0.0" under [tool.hatch.version] — a one-line change, mirroring the version = "0.0.0" default the issue originally suggested.

Tested:

• Without git metadata → builds alchemy_config-0.0.0 (was a hard error before)
• With git metadata → still builds the proper VCS-derived version, no regression

Happy to adjust if you'd prefer a different fallback strategy or a different default version!