diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
deleted file mode 100644
index 33785e63..00000000
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-[submodule "example"]
-	path = example
-	url = https://github.com/DiamondLightSource/python-copier-template-example.git
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 38092471..8dd09a45 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -1,4 +1,12 @@
+# This file is for use as a devcontainer
+#
+# The devcontainer should use the developer target and run as root with podman
+# or docker with user namespaces.
 ARG PYTHON_VERSION=3.11
 FROM python:${PYTHON_VERSION} as developer
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y && \
+    apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+    graphviz \
+    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 RUN python -m venv /venv
-ENV PATH=/venv/bin:$PATH
\ No newline at end of file
+ENV PATH=/venv/bin:$PATH
diff --git a/copier.yml b/copier.yml
index 9671b5f1..66a47c65 100644
--- a/copier.yml
+++ b/copier.yml
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ repo_name:
     help: Name of the repository
     default: "{{ package_name | replace('_', '-') }}"
     validator: >-
-        {% if not (repo_name | regex_search('^[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z_\-0-9]+$')) %}
+        {% if not (repo_name | regex_search('^[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z_\\-0-9]+$')) %}
         {{ repo_name }} is not a valid repo name
         {% endif %}
 
@@ -88,4 +88,4 @@ docs_url:
     when: false
 
 _tasks:
-    - "git init --initial-branch=main"
\ No newline at end of file
+    - "git init --initial-branch=main"
diff --git a/dev-requirements.txt b/dev-requirements.txt
index 406de27e..d1d9b9cb 100644
--- a/dev-requirements.txt
+++ b/dev-requirements.txt
@@ -72,8 +72,6 @@ sphinxcontrib-serializinghtml==1.1.10
 tornado==6.4
 tox==3.28.0
 tox-direct==0.4
-treecomp==1.0.0
-typer==0.9.0
 typing-extensions==4.9.0
 urllib3==2.1.0
 virtualenv==20.25.0
diff --git a/example b/example
deleted file mode 160000
index 24c2b73b..00000000
--- a/example
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Subproject commit 24c2b73bfd3899c337eeb27749a4485613638c6f
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 31b6a5a6..88bfaa0f 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
+[build-system]
+requires = ["setuptools>=64", "setuptools_scm[toml]>=6.2", "wheel"]
+build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
+
 [project]
 name = "python-copier-template"
-version = "0.0"
+dynamic = ["version"]
 
 [project.optional-dependencies]
 dev = [
@@ -15,7 +19,6 @@ dev = [
     "sphinx-copybutton",
     "sphinx-design",
     "tox-direct",
-    "treecomp",
 ]
 
 [tool.pytest.ini_options]
diff --git a/template/README.rst.jinja b/template/README.rst.jinja
index 966b0650..91c56595 100644
--- a/template/README.rst.jinja
+++ b/template/README.rst.jinja
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 {{package_name}}
-===========================
+=============================================================================
 
 |code_ci| |docs_ci| |coverage| |pypi_version| |license|
 
diff --git a/tests/test_example.py b/tests/test_example.py
index 7170a29b..f5b8170a 100644
--- a/tests/test_example.py
+++ b/tests/test_example.py
@@ -1,26 +1,61 @@
-import shutil
+import shlex
+import subprocess
 from pathlib import Path
 
-import treecomp
-import yaml
+import pytest
 from copier import run_copy
+from prompt_toolkit.validation import ValidationError
 
 TOP = Path(__file__).absolute().parent.parent
-INPUT = TOP / "example"
-OUTPUT = TOP / "build" / "example"
 
 
-def test_template():
-    shutil.rmtree(OUTPUT, ignore_errors=True)
-    answers = yaml.safe_load((INPUT / ".copier-answers.yml").read_text())
+def copy_project(
+    project_path: Path,
+    author_email="tom.cobb@diamond.ac.uk",
+    author_name="Tom Cobb",
+    component_owner="group:default/sscc",
+    description="An expanded python-copier-template with all the options",
+    distribution_name="dls-python-copier-template-example",
+    docker=True,
+    docs_type="sphinx",
+    git_platform="github.com",
+    github_org="DiamondLightSource",
+    package_name="python_copier_template_example",
+    repo_name="python-copier-template-example",
+):
+    answers = locals()
+    answers.pop("project_path")
     run_copy(
         src_path=str(TOP),
-        dst_path=OUTPUT,
+        dst_path=project_path,
         data=answers,
         vcs_ref="HEAD",
         unsafe=True,
     )
-    #
-    comparison = treecomp.diff_file_trees(INPUT, OUTPUT, ignore=[".copier-answers.yml"])
-    if comparison.diffs:
-        raise AssertionError(str(comparison))
+
+
+def test_template(tmp_path: Path):
+    project = tmp_path / "project"
+    venv = tmp_path / "venv"
+    copy_project(project)
+
+    def run(cmd: str):
+        sp = subprocess.run(
+            shlex.split(cmd),
+            stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
+            stderr=subprocess.STDOUT,
+            cwd=str(project),
+        )
+        assert sp.returncode == 0, sp.stdout.decode()
+
+    run(f"python -m venv {venv}")
+    run(f"{venv}/bin/python -m pip install -e .[dev]")
+    run(f"{venv}/bin/tox -p")
+
+
+def test_bad_repo_name(tmp_path: Path):
+    with pytest.raises(ValidationError, match="bad:thing is not a valid repo name"):
+        copy_project(tmp_path, repo_name="bad:thing")
+
+
+# TODO: check that copier update python-copier-template-example matches generated