diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 3d82b01..888e2dc 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 project(
   'primate', 'cpp',
-  version: run_command(['src/primate/__version__.py'], check: true).stdout().strip(),
+  version: run_command(['src' / 'primate' / '__version__.py'], check: true).stdout().strip(),
   license: 'Apache-2.0',
   meson_version: '>= 1.2.0',
   default_options : [
@@ -50,12 +50,12 @@ _cpp_args = compiler.get_supported_arguments(
   '-Wno-deprecated-anon-enum-enum-conversion' # to silence Eigen 3.4 warnings
 )
 
-## Debug only 
+## Debug build 
 _cpp_args += compiler.get_supported_arguments(
   '-O2',
   # '-fsanitize=address', 
   # '-fno-omit-frame-pointer',
-  '-DNDEBUG',
+  '-g',
   '-Wall'
 )
 
@@ -63,9 +63,9 @@ _cpp_args += compiler.get_supported_arguments(
 # _cpp_args += compiler.get_supported_arguments(
 #   # '-flto=thin',
 #   # '-flto', 
-#   '-O3', 
-#   '-DNDEBUG',
-#   '-Wl,-s',       # strip
+#   '-O3',          # full optimizations
+#   '-DNDEBUG',     # remove assertions
+#   '-Wl,-s',       # strip symbols to reduce binary size
 #   # '-march=native' # either this or lto seems to not work on multiple builds
 # )
 
@@ -89,17 +89,16 @@ incdir_numpy = run_command(py, ['-c', 'import os; os.chdir(".."); import numpy;
 # incdir_imate = run_command(py, ['-c', 'import os; os.chdir(".."); import imate; print(imate.__path__[0])'], check : true).stdout().strip()
 # incdir_nanobind = run_command(py, ['-c', 'import os; os.chdir(".."); import nanobind; print(nanobind.include_dir())'], check : true).stdout().strip()
 incdir_pybind11 = run_command(py, ['-c', 'import os; os.chdir(".."); import pybind11; print(pybind11.get_include())'], check : true).stdout().strip()
-incdir_combin = run_command(py, ['-c', 'import os; os.chdir(".."); import combin; print(combin.get_include())'], check : true).stdout().strip()
+# incdir_combin = run_command(py, ['-c', 'import os; os.chdir(".."); import combin; print(combin.get_include())'], check : true).stdout().strip()
 
 ## Header includes
 inc_numpy = include_directories(incdir_numpy)
 inc_pybind11 = include_directories(incdir_pybind11)
-inc_combin = include_directories(incdir_combin)
+# inc_combin = include_directories(incdir_combin)
 # inc_nanobind = include_directories(incdir_nanobind) # nanobind.include_dir()
 inc_eigen = include_directories('extern' / 'eigen')
 # inc_eigen = include_directories(incdir_eigen)
 # inc_imate = include_directories(incdir_imate)
-# inc_pkg = include_directories('include')
 
 ## Add dependencies, if they are available
 dependency_map = {}
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index bed2c97..89cc3a9 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [build-system]
 build-backend = 'mesonpy'
-requires = ['meson-python', 'wheel', 'ninja', 'pybind11', 'numpy'] # 'pythran-openblas'  "cmake". nanobind
+requires = ['meson-python', 'wheel', 'ninja', 'pybind11', 'numpy', 'combin'] # 'pythran-openblas'  "cmake". nanobind
 
 [project]
 name = "scikit-primate"
@@ -19,7 +19,8 @@ requires-python = ">=3.8"
 dependencies = [
   "numpy", 
   "scipy",
-	"more_itertools"
+	"more_itertools", 
+	"combin"
 ]
 license = {file = "LICENSE"}
 include = [
diff --git a/src/primate/meson.build b/src/primate/meson.build
index 7abe2cf..0f9bfac 100644
--- a/src/primate/meson.build
+++ b/src/primate/meson.build
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ foreach ext: extensions
   py.extension_module(
     ext,
     ext + '.cpp',
-    include_directories: [inc_pkg, inc_numpy, inc_eigen, inc_pybind11, inc_combin], # inc_pybind11, inc_nanobind
+    include_directories: [inc_pkg, inc_numpy, inc_eigen, inc_pybind11], # inc_pybind11, inc_nanobind
     dependencies: deps,
     install: true, 
     cpp_args: _cpp_args