diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/__init__.py b/lib/spack/spack/__init__.py
index 7de392cf51e..42ce87d23c4 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__ = "1.0.0.dev0"
+__version__ = "1.0.0-alpha.4"
 spack_version = __version__