diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..96fa45a53be6ba0bae9296c97120fad98eda4799
--- /dev/null
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+1.0.0-alpha.1
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 21108ad425decdac5c20dcd959da768a19261a6d..94f46be08390556815accdc8a57b58426dc651c5 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -2,18 +2,21 @@ from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 
 with open('README.rst') as f:
     readme = f.read()
+ 
+with open('VERSION') as f:
+    _version = f.read()
+    _version = _version.strip("\n")
 
-# _get_version() # get current version from release tag
-# ......
 
 setup(name='toolbox_scs',
-      # to be replaced by _get_version()
-      version='1.0.0-a1',
-      description="A collection of code, often used at the SCS beamline",
+      version=_version,
+      description="A collection of code for the SCS beamline",
       long_description=readme,
-      author='Loic Le Guyader, Laurent Mercadier, ....',
+      author='SCS team',
+      author_email='scs@xfel.eu',
       url="https://git.xfel.eu/gitlab/SCS/ToolBox.git",
       keywords='XAS, xgm, DSSC, FCCD, PPL',
+      license="GPL",
       package_dir={'': 'src'},
       packages=find_packages('src'),
       package_data={},
diff --git a/src/toolbox_scs/util/pkg.py b/src/toolbox_scs/util/pkg.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..cefb1a65acf8e459d6c6ee2fcfa4c7c6b9053170
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/toolbox_scs/util/pkg.py
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+import os
+
+def get_version():
+    release_tag = os.popen('git describe --tags').read()
+    return release_tag.strip("\n")
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/toolbox_scs/util/pkg_info.py b/src/toolbox_scs/util/pkg_info.py
deleted file mode 100644
index e679441d3df71e7817189c448324cbcde50d331c..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
--- a/src/toolbox_scs/util/pkg_info.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-def get_version():
-    pass
\ No newline at end of file