diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8dd8203373
--- /dev/null
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# Exclude all Python bytecode files
+global-exclude *.pyc
+
+# Exclude Python cache directories
+global-exclude __pycache__