diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index a566f03c3b398d585b5faae79b713365577c7ec6..3e5fb4ab5963cda60d68712df13f9213afe59db8 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-include LICENSE README.rst bootstrap.py buildout.cfg requirements.txt
+include LICENSE README.rst bootstrap.py buildout.cfg requirements.txt version.txt
 recursive-include doc conf.py *.rst
 recursive-include bob *.h *.cpp
 recursive-include bob/ap/data *.wav
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 109391874108fac7f8e563004295663acc3b0796..5a7530379d142f8ba5448cfc3b8fe4e2a0ba636c 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ from bob.blitz.extension import Extension, Library, build_ext
 from bob.extension.utils import load_requirements
 build_requires = load_requirements()
 
-version = '2.0.0a0'
+version = open('version.txt').read().rstrip()
 
 setup(
 
diff --git a/version.txt b/version.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..82d45615df23a942b7d374ee020d3b4fbdf53939
--- /dev/null
+++ b/version.txt
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+2.0.0a3