diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index ebf0310..4b4d54c 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -77,6 +77,20 @@ default-groups = [
     "pre-commit-ci",
 ]
 
+[tool.maturin]
+manifest-path = "rust/aa-ffi-python/Cargo.toml"
+module-name = "agent_assembly._core"
+python-source = "."
+bindings = "pyo3"
+features = ["pyo3/extension-module"]
+# aasm sidecar binary is placed at agent_assembly/bin/aasm by the release
+# workflow before `maturin build`; runtime.py's find_aasm_binary() resolves
+# WHEEL_BUNDLED_BIN to that same path at import time.
+include = [
+    { path = "agent_assembly/bin/aasm", format = "wheel" },
+    { path = "agent_assembly/bin/aasm.exe", format = "wheel" },
+]
+
 [tool.hatch.build.targets.sdist]
 include = ["agent_assembly/"]
 packages = ["agent_assembly"]
@@ -86,3 +100,4 @@ packages = ["agent_assembly"]
 include = ["agent_assembly/"]
 packages = ["agent_assembly"]
 #artifacts = ["agent_assembly/py.typed"]
+