diff --git a/jjb/shell/pypi-publish.sh b/jjb/shell/pypi-publish.sh
index b7f3526..3118df7 100755
--- a/jjb/shell/pypi-publish.sh
+++ b/jjb/shell/pypi-publish.sh
@@ -26,7 +26,8 @@
 # check that we're on a semver released version
 GIT_VERSION=$(git tag -l --points-at HEAD)
 
-if [[ "$GIT_VERSION" =~ ^([0-9]+)\.([0-9]+)\.([0-9]+)$ ]]
+# match bare versions or v-prefixed golang style version
+if [[ "$GIT_VERSION" =~ ^v?([0-9]+)\.([0-9]+)\.([0-9]+)$ ]]
 then
   echo "git has a SemVer released version tag: '$GIT_VERSION', publishing to PyPI"
 else