diff --git a/.git_archival.txt b/.git_archival.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..8fb235d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.git_archival.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+node: $Format:%H$
+node-date: $Format:%cI$
+describe-name: $Format:%(describe:tags=true,match=*[0-9]*)$
+ref-names: $Format:%D$
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
index 897b242c..965a20f2 100644
--- a/.gitattributes
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -1 +1,2 @@
 World\ population.ipynb linguist-documentation
+.git_archival.txt  export-subst