diff --git a/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/.gitlab-ci.yml b/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/.gitlab-ci.yml
index ead4cc5f552641f2afa4599d8f743e44e6ba2196..e7bea35a09b19b26a066e0074a35ed2ea2c8ab46 100644
--- a/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -95,21 +95,25 @@ package_files:
 
 package_docs:
   stage: package
+  allow_failure: true
   artifacts:
     expire_in: 1w
     paths:
       - docs/* # update path to match the dest dir for documentation
   script:
     - echo "build and collect docs"
+    - exit 1
 
 run_integration_tests:
   stage: integration
+  allow_failure: true
   needs:
     - package_files
   script:
     - echo "make sure to move out of source dir"
     - echo "install package from filesystem (or use the artefact)"
     - echo "run against foreign systems (e.g. databases, cwl etc.)"
+    - exit 1
 
 publish_on_gitlab:
   stage: publish
@@ -163,6 +167,7 @@ publish_on_pypi:
 
 publish_to_readthedocs:
   stage: publish
+  allow_failure: true
   environment: readthedocs
   needs:
     - package_docs
@@ -171,3 +176,4 @@ publish_to_readthedocs:
     - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG
   script:
     - echo "scp docs/* ???"
+    - exit 1
diff --git a/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/pyproject.toml b/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/pyproject.toml
index 183007c3eb92a098dc3cc38fee60fc47e5f5884e..feb27aa0b061555c7a885a0645a943868597beec 100644
--- a/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/pyproject.toml
+++ b/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [build-system]
 requires = [
-    "setuptools>=45",
+    "setuptools>=62.6",
     "setuptools_scm[toml]>=6.2",
     "wheel"
 ]
diff --git a/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/requirements.txt b/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/requirements.txt
index 56aacd774b88e370f0e2fad347abb341df445332..8f81bc285d0db9ea0945151fed0cd47eec4ee6a2 100644
--- a/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/requirements.txt
+++ b/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/requirements.txt
@@ -1 +1,2 @@
-numpy >= 1.20.0 # BSD
+importlib-metadata>=0.12, <5.0;python_version<"3.8"
+numpy
diff --git a/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/setup.cfg b/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/setup.cfg
index 1741808bc860dd1e2294dcd1ec8e0d7e6ed8fd2d..02afb4fe2b4ea9c2080fc89f44a1961b84c2ced7 100644
--- a/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/setup.cfg
+++ b/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/setup.cfg
@@ -29,9 +29,7 @@ classifiers =
 include_package_data = true
 packages = find:
 python_requires = >=3.7
-install_requires =
-    importlib-metadata>=0.12, <5.0;python_version<"3.8"
-    numpy
+install_requires = file: requirements.txt
 
 [flake8]
 max-line-length = 88