diff --git a/.codeclimate.yml b/.codeclimate.yml
deleted file mode 100644
index e658e6785..000000000
--- a/.codeclimate.yml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,15 +0,0 @@
----
-engines:
-  duplication:
-    enabled: true
-    config:
-      languages:
-      - python
-  pep8:
-    enabled: true
-  radon:
-    enabled: true
-ratings:
-  paths:
-  - "**.py"
-exclude_paths: 
diff --git a/.coveragerc b/.coveragerc
deleted file mode 100644
index e2b6256e9..000000000
--- a/.coveragerc
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,7 +0,0 @@
-[run]
-source = git
-
-; to make nosetests happy
-[report]
-include = */git/*
-omit = */git/ext/*
diff --git a/.deepsource.toml b/.deepsource.toml
deleted file mode 100644
index d55288b87..000000000
--- a/.deepsource.toml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,15 +0,0 @@
-version = 1
-
-test_patterns = [
-  'test/**/test_*.py'
-]
-
-exclude_patterns = [
-  'doc/**',
-  'etc/sublime-text'
-]
-
-[[analyzers]]
-name = 'python'
-enabled = true
-runtime_version = '3.x.x'
diff --git a/.flake8 b/.flake8
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ffa60483d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.flake8
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+[flake8]
+show-source = True
+count= True
+statistics = True
+# E265 = comment blocks like @{ section, which it can't handle
+# E266 = too many leading '#' for block comment
+# E731 = do not assign a lambda expression, use a def
+# W293 = Blank line contains whitespace
+# W504 = Line break after operator
+# E704 = multiple statements in one line  - used for @override
+# TC002 =
+# ANN = flake8-annotations
+# TC, TC2 = flake8-type-checking
+# D = flake8-docstrings
+
+# select = C,E,F,W ANN, TC, TC2  # to enable code. Disabled if not listed, including builtin codes
+enable-extensions = TC, TC2  # only needed for extensions not enabled by default
+
+ignore = E265,E266,E731,E704,
+         W293, W504,
+         ANN0 ANN1 ANN2,
+         TC0, TC1, TC2
+         # B,
+         A,
+         D,
+         RST, RST3
+max-line-length = 120
+
+exclude = .tox,.venv,build,dist,doc,git/ext/,test
+
+rst-roles =  # for flake8-RST-docstrings
+    attr,class,func,meth,mod,obj,ref,term,var  # used by sphinx
diff --git a/.github/workflows/pythonpackage.yml b/.github/workflows/pythonpackage.yml
index 115610f35..bf712b2d8 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/pythonpackage.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/pythonpackage.yml
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ jobs:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     strategy:
       matrix:
-        python-version: [3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, "3.10.0-beta.3"]
+        python-version: [3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, "3.10.0-beta.4"]
 
     steps:
     - uses: actions/checkout@v2
@@ -46,26 +46,21 @@ jobs:
     - name: Lint with flake8
       run: |
         set -x
-        pip install flake8
-        # stop the build if there are Python syntax errors or undefined names
-        flake8 --ignore=W293,E265,E266,W503,W504,E704,E731 --count  --show-source --statistics
+        flake8
 
     - name: Check types with mypy
       run: |
         set -x
-        pip install mypy
         mypy -p git
 
     - name: Test with pytest
       run: |
         set -x
-        pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
-        pytest --cov --cov-report=term
-        # pytest settings in tox.ini[pytest]
+        pytest
       continue-on-error: false
 
     - name: Documentation
       run: |
         set -x
         pip install -r doc/requirements.txt
-        make -C doc html
\ No newline at end of file
+        make -C doc html
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 0f7ac5ea4..ad7aae516 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -106,18 +106,20 @@ On *Windows*, make sure you have `git-daemon` in your PATH.  For MINGW-git, the
 exists in `Git\mingw64\libexec\git-core\`; CYGWIN has no daemon, but should get along fine
 with MINGW's.
 
-The easiest way to run tests is by using [tox](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/tox)
-a wrapper around virtualenv. It will take care of setting up environments with the proper
-dependencies installed and execute test commands. To install it simply:
+Ensure testing libraries are installed. In the root directory, run: `pip install test-requirements.txt` 
+Then,
 
-    pip install tox
+To lint, run `flake8`
+To typecheck, run `mypy -p git` 
+To test, `pytest`
 
-Then run:
+Configuration for flake8 is in root/.flake8 file.
+Configuration for mypy, pytest, coverage is in root/pyproject.toml.
 
-    tox
+The same linting and testing will also be performed against different supported python versions 
+upon submitting a pull request (or on each push if you have a fork with a "main" branch).
 
 
-For more fine-grained control, you can use `unittest`.
 
 ### Contributions
 
diff --git a/doc/requirements.txt b/doc/requirements.txt
index 98e5c06a0..20598a39c 100644
--- a/doc/requirements.txt
+++ b/doc/requirements.txt
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
-sphinx<2.0
+sphinx==4.1.1
 sphinx_rtd_theme
+sphinx-autodoc-typehints
diff --git a/doc/source/conf.py b/doc/source/conf.py
index 0ec64179e..286058fdc 100644
--- a/doc/source/conf.py
+++ b/doc/source/conf.py
@@ -14,7 +14,8 @@
 # All configuration values have a default; values that are commented out
 # serve to show the default.
 
-import sys, os
+import sys
+import os
 
 # If your extensions are in another directory, add it here. If the directory
 # is relative to the documentation root, use os.path.abspath to make it
@@ -50,7 +51,7 @@
 # built documents.
 #
 # The short X.Y version.
-with open(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__),"..", "..", 'VERSION')) as fd:
+with open(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "..", "..", 'VERSION')) as fd:
     VERSION = fd.readline().strip()
 version = VERSION
 # The full version, including alpha/beta/rc tags.
@@ -170,8 +171,8 @@
 # Grouping the document tree into LaTeX files. List of tuples
 # (source start file, target name, title, author, document class [howto/manual]).
 latex_documents = [
-  ('index', 'GitPython.tex', ur'GitPython Documentation',
-   ur'Michael Trier', 'manual'),
+    ('index', 'GitPython.tex', r'GitPython Documentation',
+     r'Michael Trier', 'manual'),
 ]
 
 # The name of an image file (relative to this directory) to place at the top of
diff --git a/mypy.ini b/mypy.ini
deleted file mode 100644
index 67397d40f..000000000
--- a/mypy.ini
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,14 +0,0 @@
-
-[mypy]
-
-# TODO: enable when we've fully annotated everything
-# disallow_untyped_defs = True
-no_implicit_optional = True
-warn_redundant_casts = True
-# warn_unused_ignores = True
-# warn_unreachable = True
-pretty = True
-
-# TODO: remove when 'gitdb' is fully annotated
-[mypy-gitdb.*]
-ignore_missing_imports = True
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..79e628404
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+[tool.pytest.ini_options]
+python_files = 'test_*.py'
+testpaths = 'test'  # space seperated list of paths from root e.g test tests doc/testing
+addopts = '--cov=git --cov-report=term --maxfail=10 --force-sugar --disable-warnings'
+filterwarnings = 'ignore::DeprecationWarning'
+# --cov   coverage
+# --cov-report term  # send report to terminal term-missing -> terminal with line numbers  html  xml
+# --cov-report term-missing # to terminal with line numbers
+# --cov-report html:path  # html file at path
+# --maxfail  # number of errors before giving up
+# -disable-warnings  # Disable pytest warnings (not codebase warnings)
+# -rf   # increased reporting of failures
+# -rE   # increased reporting of errors
+# --ignore-glob=**/gitdb/*  # ignore glob paths
+# filterwarnings ignore::WarningType  # ignores those warnings
+
+[tool.mypy]
+# disallow_untyped_defs = True
+no_implicit_optional = true
+warn_redundant_casts = true
+# warn_unused_ignores = True
+# warn_unreachable = True
+show_error_codes = true
+
+# TODO: remove when 'gitdb' is fully annotated
+[[tool.mypy.overrides]]
+module = "gitdb.*"
+ignore_missing_imports = true
+
+[tool.coverage.run]
+source = ["git"]
+
+[tool.coverage.report]
+include = ["*/git/*"]
+omit = ["*/git/ext/*"]
diff --git a/requirements-dev.txt b/requirements-dev.txt
index 6644bacde..0ece0a659 100644
--- a/requirements-dev.txt
+++ b/requirements-dev.txt
@@ -1,7 +1,17 @@
 -r requirements.txt
 -r test-requirements.txt
 
-pytest
-pytest-cov
+# libraries for additional local testing/linting - to be added to test-requirements.txt when all pass
+
+flake8-bugbear
+flake8-comprehensions
+flake8-type-checking;python_version>="3.8"      # checks for TYPE_CHECKING only imports
+# flake8-annotations                          # checks for presence of type annotations
+# flake8-rst-docstrings                       # checks docstrings are valid RST
+# flake8-builtins                             # warns about shadowing builtin names
+# flake8-pytest-style
+
+# pytest-flake8
 pytest-sugar
 pytest-icdiff
+# pytest-profiling
diff --git a/test-requirements.txt b/test-requirements.txt
index c5be39a2d..7397c3732 100644
--- a/test-requirements.txt
+++ b/test-requirements.txt
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 ddt>=1.1.1
-coverage
+mypy
 flake8
 virtualenv
 pytest
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
deleted file mode 100644
index 7231f0459..000000000
--- a/tox.ini
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,61 +0,0 @@
-[tox]
-envlist = py36,py37,py38,py39,flake8
-
-[testenv]
-commands = python -m unittest --buffer {posargs}
-deps = -r{toxinidir}/requirements.txt
-       -r{toxinidir}/test-requirements.txt
-passenv = HOME
-
-[testenv:cover]
-commands = coverage run --omit="git/test/*" -m unittest --buffer {posargs}
-           coverage report
-
-[testenv:flake8]
-commands = flake8 --ignore=W293,E265,E266,W503,W504,E704,E731 {posargs}
-
-[testenv:type]
-description = type check ourselves
-deps =
-    {[testenv]deps}
-    mypy
-commands =
-    mypy -p git
-
-[testenv:venv]
-commands = {posargs}
-
-[flake8]
-#show-source = True
-# E265 = comment blocks like @{ section, which it can't handle
-# E266 = too many leading '#' for block comment
-# E731 = do not assign a lambda expression, use a def
-# W293 = Blank line contains whitespace
-# W504 = Line break after operator
-# E707 = multiple statements in one line  - used for @overloads
-ignore = E265,W293,E266,E731,E704, W504
-max-line-length = 120
-exclude = .tox,.venv,build,dist,doc,git/ext/
-
-[pytest]
-python_files =
-    test_*.py
-
-# space seperated list of paths from root e.g test tests doc/testing
-testpaths = test
-
-# --cov   coverage
-# --cov-report term  # send report to terminal term-missing -> terminal with line numbers  html  xml
-# --cov-report term-missing # to terminal with line numbers
-# --cov-report html:path  # html file at path
-# --maxfail  # number of errors before giving up
-# -disable-warnings  # Disable pytest warnings (not codebase warnings)
-#-rf   # increased reporting of failures
-# -rE   # increased reporting of errors
-# --ignore-glob=**/gitdb/*  # ignore glob paths
-addopts = --cov=git --cov-report=term --maxfail=50 -rf --verbosity=0 --disable-warnings
-
-# ignore::WarningType  # ignores those warnings
-# error   # turn any unignored warning into errors
-filterwarnings =
-    ignore::DeprecationWarning