Use pkg_resources to resolve the version. Requires that the necessary package metadata have been built before building docs.

docs/conf.py

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python3
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 
-import setuptools_scm
+import pkg_resources
 
 extensions = [
     'sphinx.ext.autodoc',
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ project = 'skeleton'
 copyright = '2016 Jason R. Coombs'
 
 # The short X.Y version.
-version = setuptools_scm.get_version(root='..', relative_to=__file__)
+version = pkg_resources.require(project)[0].version
 # The full version, including alpha/beta/rc tags.
 release = version