diff --git a/ci/build_wheel.sh b/ci/build_wheel.sh
index 5f6556734..6e2c9f73c 100755
--- a/ci/build_wheel.sh
+++ b/ci/build_wheel.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,11 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 # Copyright (c) 2023, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
 
+set -euo pipefail
+
+package_name="pylibwholegraph"
+package_dir="python/pylibwholegraph"
+
 source rapids-configure-sccache
 source rapids-date-string
 
@@ -10,11 +15,26 @@ version_override="$(rapids-pip-wheel-version ${RAPIDS_DATE_STRING})"
 
 RAPIDS_PY_CUDA_SUFFIX="$(rapids-wheel-ctk-name-gen ${RAPIDS_CUDA_VERSION})"
 
-ci/release/apply_wheel_modifications.sh ${version_override} "-${RAPIDS_PY_CUDA_SUFFIX}"
-echo "The package name and/or version was modified in the package source. The git diff is:"
-git diff
+# This is the version of the suffix with a preceding hyphen. It's used
+# everywhere except in the final wheel name.
+PACKAGE_CUDA_SUFFIX="-${RAPIDS_PY_CUDA_SUFFIX}"
+
+# Patch project metadata files to include the CUDA version suffix and version override.
+pyproject_file="${package_dir}/pyproject.toml"
+
+sed -i "s/^version = .*/version = \"${version_override}\"/g" ${pyproject_file}
+sed -i "s/name = \"${package_name}\"/name = \"${package_name}${PACKAGE_CUDA_SUFFIX}\"/g" ${pyproject_file}
+
+# For nightlies we want to ensure that we're pulling in alphas as well. The
+# easiest way to do so is to augment the spec with a constraint containing a
+# min alpha version that doesn't affect the version bounds but does allow usage
+# of alpha versions for that dependency without --pre
+alpha_spec=''
+if ! rapids-is-release-build; then
+    alpha_spec=',>=0.0.0a0'
+fi
 
-cd python/pylibwholegraph
+cd "${package_dir}"
 
 # Hardcode the output dir
 SKBUILD_CONFIGURE_OPTIONS="-DDETECT_CONDA_ENV=OFF -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF -DCMAKE_MESSAGE_LOG_LEVEL=VERBOSE -DCUDA_STATIC_RUNTIME=ON -DWHOLEGRAPH_BUILD_WHEELS=ON" \
@@ -23,4 +43,4 @@ SKBUILD_CONFIGURE_OPTIONS="-DDETECT_CONDA_ENV=OFF -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF -DCMAK
 mkdir -p final_dist
 python -m auditwheel repair --exclude libcuda.so.1 -w final_dist dist/*
 
-RAPIDS_PY_WHEEL_NAME="pylibwholegraph_${RAPIDS_PY_CUDA_SUFFIX}" rapids-upload-wheels-to-s3 final_dist
+RAPIDS_PY_WHEEL_NAME="${package_name}_${RAPIDS_PY_CUDA_SUFFIX}" rapids-upload-wheels-to-s3 final_dist
diff --git a/ci/release/apply_wheel_modifications.sh b/ci/release/apply_wheel_modifications.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index fd36d38f4..000000000
--- a/ci/release/apply_wheel_modifications.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,14 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-# Copyright (c) 2023, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
-#
-# Usage: bash apply_wheel_modifications.sh <new_version> <cuda_suffix>
-
-VERSION=${1}
-CUDA_SUFFIX=${2}
-
-# setup.py updates
-sed -i "s/^version = .*/version = \"${VERSION}\"/g" \
-  python/pylibwholegraph/pyproject.toml
-
-# pyproject.toml cuda suffixes
-sed -i "s/name = \"pylibwholegraph\"/name = \"pylibwholegraph${CUDA_SUFFIX}\"/g" python/pylibwholegraph/pyproject.toml