diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -5,6 +5,9 @@ include *.txt
 # package extras
 include vcsserver/VERSION
 
+# all python files inside vcsserver
+graft vcsserver
+
 # all config files
 recursive-include configs *
 
@@ -14,3 +17,7 @@ recursive-include vcsserver/hook_utils/h
 # skip any tests files
 recursive-exclude vcsserver/tests *
 
+recursive-exclude docs/_build *
+recursive-exclude * __pycache__
+recursive-exclude * *.py[co]
+recursive-exclude * .*.sw[a-z]