diff --git a/meta/classes/setuptools_build_meta.bbclass b/meta/classes/setuptools_build_meta.bbclass
index 8f5479e922..0651cca0a0 100644
--- a/meta/classes/setuptools_build_meta.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes/setuptools_build_meta.bbclass
@@ -3,16 +3,13 @@ inherit pip_install_wheel setuptools3-base
 DEPENDS += "python3-setuptools-native python3-wheel-native"
 
 setuptools_build_meta_do_configure () {
-    mkdir -p ${S}/dist
-    cat > ${S}/build-it.py << EOF
-from setuptools import build_meta
-wheel = build_meta.build_wheel('./dist')
-print(wheel)
-EOF
+    :
 }
 
+# TODO: ideally this uses pypa/build
 setuptools_build_meta_do_compile () {
-    nativepython3 ${S}/build-it.py
+    mkdir -p ${S}/dist
+    nativepython3 -c "from setuptools import build_meta; build_meta.build_wheel('./dist')"
 }
 
 EXPORT_FUNCTIONS do_configure do_compile