diff --git a/.github/workflows/python-package-conda.yml b/.github/workflows/python-package-conda.yml
index 404cbaec..5bfec32e 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/python-package-conda.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/python-package-conda.yml
@@ -10,25 +10,19 @@ jobs:
 
     steps:
     - uses: actions/checkout@v4
-    - name: Set up Python 3.10
-      uses: actions/setup-python@v3
+    
+    - name: Install Miniconda
+      uses: conda-incubator/setup-miniconda@v2
       with:
-        python-version: '3.10'
-    - name: Add conda to system path
+        auto-update-conda: true
+        python-version: 3.11
+        environment-name: test
+    
+    - name: Install dependencies
       run: |
-        # $CONDA is an environment variable pointing to the root of the miniconda directory
-        echo $CONDA/bin >> $GITHUB_PATH
-    - name: Install current library and dependencies
-      run: |
-        pip install -e .
-    # - name: Lint with flake8
-    #   run: |
-    #     conda install flake8
-    #     # stop the build if there are Python syntax errors or undefined names
-    #     flake8 . --count --select=E9,F63,F7,F82 --show-source --statistics
-    #     # exit-zero treats all errors as warnings. The GitHub editor is 127 chars wide
-    #     flake8 . --count --exit-zero --max-complexity=10 --max-line-length=127 --statistics
-    - name: Test with pytest
+        conda install -n test numpy=1.26 pytest pip
+        conda run -n test pip install -e .
+
+    - name: Run tests
       run: |
-        conda install pytest
-        pytest
+        conda run -n test pytest
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 012f7e41..a0d8edae 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 [build-system]
-requires = ["setuptools>=61.0"]
-build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
+requires = [
+  "setuptools>=61.0",    # default
+  "wheel",               # also often needed
+  "numpy>=1.19.5"        # add numpy here for build-time use
+]
+build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta" # using setuptool building engine
 
 [project]
 name = "ngclearn"