diff --git a/devel/py-distlib/files/patch-pyproject.toml b/devel/py-distlib/files/patch-pyproject.toml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..73aa955b1785
--- /dev/null
+++ b/devel/py-distlib/files/patch-pyproject.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+-- Relax setuptools version requirement
+-- Upper limits on dependencies often break builds in the ports tree
+
+--- pyproject.toml.orig	2026-06-12 00:26:00 UTC
++++ pyproject.toml
+@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ requires = [
+ requires = [
+     # "setuptools >= 68,<75", # For metadata 2.1
+     # "setuptools==75.8.0", # for metadata 2.2
+-    "setuptools >= 68", # for metadata 2.4
++    "setuptools >= 63", # for metadata 2.4
+     "wheel"
+ ]
+ build-backend = 'setuptools.build_meta'