ofek/hatch-vcs

Error references setuptools_scm config where it should be hatch.version

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#109 opened on Jan 16, 2026

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Description

In a monorepo with subpackages, if one forgets to set search_parent_directories = true, the error hint says:

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

However, a repository was found in a parent directory: /path/to/root

To fix this, you have a few options:

1. Use the 'relative_to' parameter to specify the file that setuptools-scm should use as reference:
   setuptools_scm.get_version(relative_to=__file__)

2. Enable parent directory search in your configuration:
   [tool.setuptools_scm]
   search_parent_directories = true

3. Change your working directory to the repository root: /path/to/root

4. Set the root explicitly in your configuration:
   [tool.setuptools_scm]
   root = "/path/to/root"

But that is not working. The hint should say

...
2. Enable parent directory search in your configuration:
   [tool.hatch.version.raw-options]
   search_parent_directories = true
...
4. Set the root explicitly in your configuration:
   [tool.hatch.version.raw-options]
   root = "/path/to/root"

I'm not sure about the first, since I'm not using setup.py

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