diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index fda8b35919fa..cd88592bd310 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ name = "jupyterlab"
 description = "JupyterLab computational environment"
 readme = "README.md"
 license = { file = "LICENSE" }
-requires-python = ">=3.8"
+requires-python = ">=3.11"
 authors = [
     { name = "Jupyter Development Team", email = "jupyter@googlegroups.com" },
 ]
@@ -54,6 +54,9 @@ dynamic = [
     "version",
 ]
 
+[tool.hatch.metadata]
+allow-direct-references = true
+
 [project.scripts]
 jlpm = "jupyterlab.jlpmapp:main"
 jupyter-lab = "jupyterlab.labapp:main"