diff --git a/.github/workflows/build.yaml b/.github/workflows/build.yaml
index 612d1fcd..218bbdb8 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build.yaml
@@ -10,7 +10,8 @@ jobs:
     - name: dependencies
       run: |
            sudo apt-get -qy update
-           sudo apt-get -qfy install --no-install-recommends libboost-dev libicu-dev cmake build-essential perl python3-dev python3-setuptools swig
+           sudo apt-get -qfy install --no-install-recommends cmake build-essential libboost-dev libicu-dev libsqlite3-dev perl pkg-config python3 python3-dev python3-pip swig
+           sudo python3 -m pip install --upgrade build pip setuptools
     - name: cmake
       run: cmake -DENABLE_PYTHON_BINDINGS=ON .
     - name: build
@@ -21,3 +22,7 @@ jobs:
       run: ./test/runall.pl
     - name: install
       run: sudo cmake --install .
+    - name: test python
+      run: |
+        python3 -c "import constraint_grammar; print(dir(constraint_grammar))"
+        python3 -c "import cg3; print(dir(cg3))"
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index badf168d..09dd64b6 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -3,8 +3,10 @@
 /CMakeCache.txt
 /CMakeFiles
 Makefile
+/src/cg-annotate
 /src/cg-comp
 /src/cg-conv
+/src/cg-merge-annotations
 /src/cg-mwesplit
 /src/cg-proc
 /src/cg-relabel
@@ -31,8 +33,11 @@ Makefile
 /test/**/*.bin
 
 __pycache__
+/python/cg3.py
 /python/constraint_grammar_wrap.cpp
+/python/constraint_grammar.i
 /python/constraint_grammar.py
+/python/dist/
 /python/setup.py
 /python/build*
 *.egg-info/
diff --git a/python/CMakeLists.txt b/python/CMakeLists.txt
index 122bb798..663e13ac 100644
--- a/python/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/python/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -19,7 +19,8 @@ configure_file(constraint_grammar.i.in constraint_grammar.i @ONLY)
 configure_file(setup.py.in setup.py)
 
 add_custom_command(OUTPUT ${CPP_WRAP_FILE} ${PYTHON_FILE}
-	COMMAND ${PYTHON_EXECUTABLE} setup.py build
+	COMMAND swig -python -c++ -I/usr/include -I.. -I../src -I../include -Wall -o constraint_grammar_wrap.cpp constraint_grammar.i
+	COMMAND ${PYTHON_EXECUTABLE} -m build
 	COMMENT "Building ${PYTHON_FILE}"
 )
 
@@ -29,8 +30,8 @@ add_custom_target(wrapper ALL
 )
 
 if(NOT PYTHON_INSTALL_PARAMS)
-	set(PYTHON_INSTALL_PARAMS "--prefix=${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX} --root=\$ENV{DESTDIR}/")
+	set(PYTHON_INSTALL_PARAMS "--no-index --find-links=dist/")  # TODO removing --prefix=${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX} --root=\$ENV{DESTDIR}/ probably has downstream effects
 endif()
 
-set(INSTALL_WRAPPER "${PYTHON_EXECUTABLE} setup.py install ${PYTHON_INSTALL_PARAMS}")
+set(INSTALL_WRAPPER "${PYTHON_EXECUTABLE} -m pip install ${PYTHON_INSTALL_PARAMS} constraint_grammar")
 install(CODE "execute_process(COMMAND ${INSTALL_WRAPPER} WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR})")
diff --git a/python/constraint_grammar.i.in b/python/constraint_grammar.i.in
index a81c5f44..9b3d43f7 100644
--- a/python/constraint_grammar.i.in
+++ b/python/constraint_grammar.i.in
@@ -54,23 +54,23 @@ private:
 	CG3::Grammar grammar;
 
 public:
-	CGProc(char *dictionary_path);
+	CGProc(char *grammar_path);
 	void cg_proc(int argc, char **argv, char *input_path, char *output_path);
 };
 
-CGProc::CGProc(char *dictionary_path)
+CGProc::CGProc(char *grammar_path)
 {
 	std::unique_ptr<CG3::IGrammarParser> parser;
-	FILE* dictionary = fopen(dictionary_path, "rb");
-	fread(&CG3::cbuffers[0][0], 1, 4, dictionary);
-	fclose(dictionary);
+	FILE* grammar_file = fopen(grammar_path, "rb");
+	fread(&CG3::cbuffers[0][0], 1, 4, grammar_file);
+	fclose(grammar_file);
 	if (CG3::cbuffers[0][0] == 'C' && CG3::cbuffers[0][1] == 'G' && CG3::cbuffers[0][2] == '3' && CG3::cbuffers[0][3] == 'B') {
 		parser.reset(new CG3::BinaryGrammar(grammar, std::cerr));
 	}
 	else {
 		parser.reset(new CG3::TextualParser(grammar, std::cerr));
 	}
-	parser->parse_grammar(dictionary_path);
+	parser->parse_grammar(grammar_path);
 }
 
 void CGProc::cg_proc(int argc, char **argv, char *input_path, char *output_path)
diff --git a/python/setup.py.in b/python/setup.py.in
index a394c3be..e34c0804 100644
--- a/python/setup.py.in
+++ b/python/setup.py.in
@@ -3,18 +3,11 @@
 """
 Setup for SWIG Python bindings for constraint_grammar
 """
-from os import path
-from distutils.core import Extension, setup
-from distutils.command.build import build
 
+from os import path
 
-class CustomBuild(build):
-    sub_commands = [
-        ('build_ext', build.has_ext_modules),
-        ('build_py', build.has_pure_modules),
-        ('build_clib', build.has_c_libraries),
-        ('build_scripts', build.has_scripts),
-    ]
+from setuptools import Extension
+from setuptools import setup
 
 
 def get_sources():
@@ -22,7 +15,7 @@ def get_sources():
     cc_sources = [
         'ApertiumApplicator.cpp', 'BinaryGrammar.cpp', 'BinaryGrammar_read.cpp', 'BinaryGrammar_read_10043.cpp',
         'BinaryGrammar_write.cpp', 'Cohort.cpp', 'CohortIterator.cpp', 'ContextualTest.cpp', 'Grammar.cpp',
-        'GrammarApplicator.cpp', 'GrammarApplicator_matchSet.cpp', 'GrammarApplicator_reflow.cpp',
+        'GrammarApplicator.cpp', 'GrammarApplicator_context.cpp', 'GrammarApplicator_matchSet.cpp', 'GrammarApplicator_reflow.cpp',
         'GrammarApplicator_runContextualTest.cpp', 'GrammarApplicator_runGrammar.cpp',
         'GrammarApplicator_runRules.cpp', 'GrammarWriter.cpp', 'MatxinApplicator.cpp',
         'Reading.cpp', 'Rule.cpp', 'Set.cpp', 'SingleWindow.cpp', 'Strings.cpp', 'Tag.cpp',
@@ -48,7 +41,6 @@ setup(
     long_description='SWIG interface to constraint_grammar for use in apertium-python',
     # TODO: author, author_email, maintainer, url
     license='GPL-3.0+',
-    cmdclass={'build': CustomBuild},
     ext_modules=[constraint_grammar_module],
     py_modules=['constraint_grammar', 'cg3'],
 )