diff --git a/.github/workflows/publish-package.yml b/.github/workflows/publish-package.yml
index f9fdc7efac..e291de6ab1 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/publish-package.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/publish-package.yml
@@ -63,6 +63,8 @@ jobs:
         echo "python-build named built distribution: ${wheel_name}"
     - name: Verify the distribution
       run: twine check dist/*
+    - name: List contents of sdist
+      run: tar --list --file dist/pyhf-*.tar.gz
     - name: Publish distribution 📦 to Test PyPI
       # every PR will trigger a push event on master, so check the push event is actually coming from master
       if: github.event_name == 'push' && github.ref == 'refs/heads/master' && github.repository == 'scikit-hep/pyhf'
diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index 1c9b062ec4..18353aadb6 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -1,6 +1,12 @@
-prune *
+prune **
 graft src
+
+include setup.py
+include setup.cfg
 include LICENSE
-exclude lower-bound-requirements.txt
+include README.rst
+include pyproject.toml
+include MANIFEST.in
+include AUTHORS
 
-global-exclude __pycache__ *.py[cod] .*
+global-exclude __pycache__ *.py[cod]