diff --git a/{{ cookiecutter.namespace }}/pyproject.toml b/{{ cookiecutter.namespace }}/pyproject.toml
index 7d06de1..ad9520d 100644
--- a/{{ cookiecutter.namespace }}/pyproject.toml	
+++ b/{{ cookiecutter.namespace }}/pyproject.toml	
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ packages = [
 [tool.hatch.build.targets.sdist]
 exclude = [
     ".git*",
+    "src/matnwb",
 ]
 
 [tool.pytest.ini_options]