diff --git a/.readthedocs.yml b/.readthedocs.yml
index e08dac99..bee0cd7a 100644
--- a/.readthedocs.yml
+++ b/.readthedocs.yml
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ build:
   jobs:
     pre_build:
       # Generate the Sphinx configuration for this Jupyter Book so it builds.
+      - pip install versioneer[toml]==0.29
+      - pip install . --no-deps --no-build-isolation
       - "cp README.md docs"
       - "cp notebooks/*.ipynb docs"
       - "jupyter-book config sphinx docs/"
@@ -26,11 +28,3 @@ formats: []
 # Install pyiron from conda
 conda:
   environment: .ci_support/environment-docs.yml
-
-# Optionally set the version of Python and requirements required to build your docs
-python:
-  install:
-    - method: pip
-      path: .
-      extra_requirements:
-        - sphinx