diff --git a/meta/classes/setuptools_build_meta.bbclass b/meta/classes/setuptools_build_meta.bbclass
index 18ae2e6004..787fbd5f36 100644
--- a/meta/classes/setuptools_build_meta.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes/setuptools_build_meta.bbclass
@@ -2,12 +2,16 @@ inherit pip_install_wheel setuptools3-base
 
 DEPENDS += "python3-setuptools-native python3-wheel-native"
 
+# Where to execute the build process from
+PEP517_SOURCE_PATH ?= "${S}"
+
 setuptools_build_meta_do_configure () {
     :
 }
 
 # TODO: ideally this uses pypa/build
 setuptools_build_meta_do_compile () {
+    cd ${PEP517_SOURCE_PATH}
     nativepython3 -c "from setuptools import build_meta; build_meta.build_wheel('${PIP_INSTALL_DIST_PATH}')"
 }
 do_compile[cleandirs] += "${PIP_INSTALL_DIST_PATH}"