diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..48355fca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+from setuptools import setup
+from pathlib import Path
+import subprocess
+
+
+class VrsSubmoduleFetchError(Exception):
+    """Raise for errors during submodule metadata extraction"""
+
+
+def _get_vrs_submodule_info() -> tuple[str, str, int]:
+    """Retrieve the commit hash and tag from the vrs submodule.
+
+    :return: tuple containing commit hash, latest version tag, and rev distance between them
+    """
+    try:
+        vrs_path = "submodules/vrs"
+        commit = subprocess.check_output(
+            ["git", "rev-parse", "HEAD"], cwd=vrs_path, text=True
+        ).strip()
+        tag = subprocess.check_output(
+            ["git", "describe", "--tags", "--abbrev=0"], cwd=vrs_path, text=True
+        ).strip()
+        distance =  subprocess.check_output(
+            ["git", "rev-list", f"{tag}..HEAD", "--count"],
+            cwd=vrs_path,
+            text=True,
+        ).strip()
+        return commit, tag, int(distance)
+    except Exception as e:
+        raise VrsSubmoduleFetchError from e
+
+
+def write_metadata_file():
+    """Generate a Python module with submodule metadata."""
+    commit, tag, distance = _get_vrs_submodule_info()
+    metadata_path = Path("src/ga4gh/vrs/submodule_metadata.py")
+    metadata_path.parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+    if distance == 0:
+        version = tag
+    else:
+        version = f"{tag}.dev{distance}+g{commit}"
+    metadata_path.write_text(
+        f"# Auto-generated metadata from VRS schema submodule\n"
+        f"VRS_VERSION = '{version}'\n"
+    )
+
+
+write_metadata_file()
+
+# Use setuptools for the actual build (delegates to pyproject.toml)
+setup()
diff --git a/src/ga4gh/vrs/submodule_metadata.py b/src/ga4gh/vrs/submodule_metadata.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..8dbfc37f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/ga4gh/vrs/submodule_metadata.py
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+# Auto-generated metadata from VRS schema submodule
+VRS_VERSION = '2.0.0.connect.2024-04.1.dev83+gcf968d24a37cefca5a2f363f0e2f36741cd12ad5'