diff --git a/.github/workflows/cibuildwheel.yml b/.github/workflows/cibuildwheel.yml
index 93f34b56..18780073 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/cibuildwheel.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/cibuildwheel.yml
@@ -46,9 +46,6 @@ jobs:
           python -c "import cftime; print(f'cftime v{cftime.__version__}')" &&
           python -m pip install -r {package}/requirements-dev.txt &&
           python -m pytest -vv {package}/test
-        # below only for building against unstable numpy
-        CIBW_BUILD_FRONTEND: "build; args: --no-isolation"
-        CIBW_BEFORE_BUILD: "pip install --pre --extra-index-url https://pypi.anaconda.org/scientific-python-nightly-wheels/simple numpy cython setuptools versioneer"
 
     - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
       with:
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 270c5d4f..c5535bc5 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 [build-system]
-requires = ["setuptools>=41.2", "cython>=0.29.20", "wheel", "numpy>=1.26.0b1"]
+requires = ["setuptools>=41.2", "cython>=0.29.20", "wheel", "numpy>=2.0.0rc1,<3"]
 build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"