diff --git a/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json b/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
index f82edd0f7..79b85ff41 100644
--- a/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
+++ b/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
@@ -42,5 +42,5 @@
     // Mount the parent as /workspaces so we can pip install peers as editable
     "workspaceMount": "source=${localWorkspaceFolder}/..,target=/workspaces,type=bind",
     // After the container is created, install the python project in editable form
-    "postCreateCommand": "pip install $([ -f dev-requirements.txt ] && echo '-c dev-requirements.txt') -e '.[dev]'"
+    "postCreateCommand": "pip install $([ -f dev-requirements.txt ] && echo '-c dev-requirements.txt') -e '.[dev]' && pre-commit install"
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/docs/how-to/make-release.md b/docs/how-to/make-release.md
index 9402cb3fa..dd7cbbfc9 100644
--- a/docs/how-to/make-release.md
+++ b/docs/how-to/make-release.md
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 To make a new release, please follow this checklist:
 
-- Ensure that you have previously followed `./pypi`
+- Ensure that you have previously followed [](./pypi)
 - Choose a new PEP440 compliant release number (see <https://peps.python.org/pep-0440/>)
 - Go to the GitHub [release] page
 - Choose `Draft New Release`
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 86ef30ed8..25ba95f2b 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 [build-system]
-requires = ["setuptools>=64", "setuptools_scm[toml]>=6.2", "wheel"]
+requires = ["setuptools>=64", "setuptools_scm[toml]>=6.2"]
 build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 
 [project]
diff --git a/template/README.md.jinja b/template/README.md.jinja
index 586f6ee8e..88d8ac040 100644
--- a/template/README.md.jinja
+++ b/template/README.md.jinja
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ how it does it, and why people should use it.
 Source          | <{{repo_url}}>
 :---:           | :---:
 PyPI            | `pip install {{pypi_name}}`
-Documentation   | <{{docs_url}}>
+{% if sphinx %}Documentation   | <{{docs_url}}>{% endif %}
 Releases        | <{{repo_url}}/releases>
 
 This is where you should put some images or code snippets that illustrate
@@ -29,7 +29,8 @@ Or if it is a commandline tool then you might put some example commands here:
 ```
 python -m {{package_name}} --version
 ```
-
+{% if sphinx %}
 <!-- README only content. Anything below this line won't be included in index.md -->
 
 See {{docs_url}} for more detailed documentation.
+{% endif %}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/template/pyproject.toml.jinja b/template/pyproject.toml.jinja
index fcb4f789d..eee62ee14 100644
--- a/template/pyproject.toml.jinja
+++ b/template/pyproject.toml.jinja
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 [build-system]
-requires = ["setuptools>=64", "setuptools_scm[toml]>=6.2", "wheel"]
+requires = ["setuptools>=64", "setuptools_scm[toml]>=6.2"]
 build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 
 [project]
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ dependencies = [
 ] # Add project dependencies here, e.g. ["click", "numpy"]
 dynamic = ["version"]
 license.file = "LICENSE"
-readme = "README.rst"
+readme = "README.md"
 requires-python = ">=3.7"
 
 [project.optional-dependencies]
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ reportMissingImports = false # Ignore missing stubs in imported modules
 [tool.pytest.ini_options]
 # Run pytest with all our checkers, and don't spam us with massive tracebacks on error
 addopts = """
-    --tb=native -vv --doctest-modules --doctest-glob="*.rst"
+    --tb=native -vv{% if sphinx %} --doctest-modules --doctest-glob="*.rst"{% endif %}
     """
 # https://iscinumpy.gitlab.io/post/bound-version-constraints/#watch-for-warnings
 filterwarnings = "error"
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ legacy_tox_ini = """
 [tox]
 skipsdist=True
 
-[testenv:{pre-commit,pyright,pytest,docs}]
+[testenv:{pre-commit,pyright,pytest{% if sphinx %},docs{% endif %}}]
 # Don't create a virtualenv for the command, requires tox-direct plugin
 direct = True
 passenv = *
@@ -89,14 +89,14 @@ allowlist_externals =
     pytest
     pre-commit
     pyright
-    sphinx-build
+{% if sphinx %}    sphinx-build
     sphinx-autobuild
-commands =
+{% endif %}commands =
     pytest: pytest --cov={{ package_name }} --cov-report term --cov-report xml:cov.xml {posargs}
     pyright: pyright src tests {posargs}
     pre-commit: pre-commit run --all-files {posargs}
-    docs: sphinx-{posargs:build -EW --keep-going} -T docs build/html
-"""
+{% if sphinx %}    docs: sphinx-{posargs:build -EW --keep-going} -T docs build/html
+{% endif %}"""
 
 [tool.ruff]
 src = ["src", "tests"]
diff --git a/tests/test_example.py b/tests/test_example.py
index e2801b5b8..0c9a8632b 100644
--- a/tests/test_example.py
+++ b/tests/test_example.py
@@ -36,14 +36,27 @@ def run_pipe(cmd: str, cwd=None):
     return output
 
 
-def test_template(tmp_path: Path):
-    project_path = tmp_path / "project"
-    venv_path = tmp_path / "venv"
-    copy_project(project_path)
+def make_venv(project_path: Path) -> callable:
+    venv_path = project_path / "venv"
+    run_pipe(f"python -m venv {venv_path}")
     run = functools.partial(run_pipe, cwd=str(project_path))
-    run(f"python -m venv {venv_path}")
-    run(f"{venv_path}/bin/python -m pip install -e .[dev]")
-    run(f"{venv_path}/bin/tox -p")
+    run("./venv/bin/pip install -e .[dev]")
+    return run
+
+
+def test_template(tmp_path: Path):
+    copy_project(tmp_path)
+    run = make_venv(tmp_path)
+    run("./venv/bin/tox -p")
+    run("./venv/bin/pip install build twine")
+    run("./venv/bin/python -m build")
+    run("./venv/bin/twine check --strict dist/*")
+
+
+def test_template_no_docs(tmp_path: Path):
+    copy_project(tmp_path, docs_type="README")
+    run = make_venv(tmp_path)
+    run("./venv/bin/tox -p")
 
 
 def test_bad_repo_name(tmp_path: Path):