diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 30bba91de..08cd94b6b 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ To develop dlisio, or to build a particular revision from source, you need:
 * [pybind11](https://github.com/pybind/pybind11) version 2.6 or greater
 * [setuptools](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/setuptools) version 28 or greater
 * [layered-file-protocols](https://github.com/equinor/layered-file-protocols)
-* python packages pytest, pytest-runner, and numpy
+* python packages pytest and numpy
 
 If you do not have pybind11 installed on your system, the easiest way to get a
 working copy is to `pip3 install pybind11` (NP! pybind11, not pybind)
diff --git a/python/CMakeLists.txt b/python/CMakeLists.txt
index e3a4aa961..5c0d9562a 100644
--- a/python/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/python/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -137,6 +137,6 @@ endif()
 # different args to setup.py, rebuilding the python lib (and wrongly so as it
 # either won't find dlisio or picked up on a system installed one)
 add_test(NAME python.unit
-    COMMAND ${python} ${setup.py} --skip-cmake test
+    COMMAND ${python} -m pytest tests
     WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}
 )
diff --git a/python/pyproject.toml b/python/pyproject.toml
index 2f6bc6795..942b38d9a 100644
--- a/python/pyproject.toml
+++ b/python/pyproject.toml
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@ requires = [
     "scikit-build",
     "wheel",
     "pybind11",
-    "pytest-runner",
 ]
 
 [tool.cibuildwheel]
diff --git a/python/requirements-dev.txt b/python/requirements-dev.txt
index e1404f5da..51fb60538 100644
--- a/python/requirements-dev.txt
+++ b/python/requirements-dev.txt
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@ numpy
 setuptools
 setuptools_scm
 pytest
-pytest-runner
 pybind11
 hypothesis
 sphinx
diff --git a/python/setup.cfg b/python/setup.cfg
index fa8d22139..6dd760052 100644
--- a/python/setup.cfg
+++ b/python/setup.cfg
@@ -1,5 +1,2 @@
 [metadata]
 version = 1.0.1
-
-[aliases]
-test = pytest
diff --git a/python/setup.py b/python/setup.py
index 413d0cb32..6da649f55 100755
--- a/python/setup.py
+++ b/python/setup.py
@@ -39,9 +39,7 @@ def get_long_description():
     setup_requires = ['setuptools >= 28',
                       'pybind11 >= 2.3',
                       'setuptools_scm',
-                      'pytest-runner',
     ],
-    tests_require = ['pytest'],
     # we're building with the pybind11 fetched from pip. Since we don't rely on
     # a cmake-installed pybind there's also no find_package(pybind11) -
     # instead, the get include dirs from the package and give directly from