diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/__init__.py b/lib/spack/spack/__init__.py
index 176835c2102..448edcd8761 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/__init__.py
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 import spack.util.git
 
 #: PEP440 canonical <major>.<minor>.<micro>.<devN> string
-__version__ = "0.24.0.dev0"
+__version__ = "1.0.0-alpha.3"
 spack_version = __version__