diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 8fb38bd8c5..3eb94d8b22 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -16,7 +16,8 @@ dependencies = [
   "crcmod",
   "tqdm",
   "pandacan@git+https://github.com/commaai/panda.git@master",
-  "setuptools",
+  "setuptools", # setuptools includes distutils which is needed by Cython and pre-commit.
+                # distutils was removed in python3.12 from the standard library.
 ]
 
 [project.optional-dependencies]