diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 5e5fd00328b..9ee101caf8c 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ dask = "xarray.namedarray.daskmanager:DaskManager"
 
 [build-system]
 build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
-requires = ["setuptools>=42", "setuptools-scm>=7"]
+requires = ["setuptools>=77.0.2", "setuptools-scm>=7"]
 
 [tool.setuptools.packages.find]
 include = ["xarray*"]