diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index f7815a15..28ae121a 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 = ["setuptools"]
+dependencies = []
 
 optional-dependencies.analysis = ["networkx>=2.6",
                                   "pygraphviz"]
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 8fa6954f..b2a21d6b 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -56,5 +56,6 @@ deps            = networkx>=2.6
                   pygraphviz
                   pytest-qt
                   pytest-xvfb
+                  setuptools;python_version>="3.12"
 commands_pre    = {envpython} setup.py build_ext -i
 commands        = {envpython} -m pytest tests