diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 0b134764..9d57967f 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -264,7 +264,12 @@ jobs:
           . .venv-smoke/bin/activate
           python -m pip install --upgrade pip
           python -m pip install dist/*.tar.gz
-          python -c "import clarion_plugin_python; assert clarion_plugin_python.__version__ == '1.0.0'"
+          # Version-agnostic: assert the module constant matches the installed
+          # distribution metadata (the sdist's packaged version) rather than a
+          # hardcoded literal, so a release version bump can't silently break
+          # this smoke gate (clarion-12667da9f5: a hardcoded '1.0.0' here blocked
+          # the v1.0.1 publish after the binaries built fine).
+          python -c "import clarion_plugin_python, importlib.metadata as m; v = clarion_plugin_python.__version__; d = m.version('clarion-plugin-python'); assert v == d, f'module {v!r} != dist {d!r}'"
           command -v clarion-plugin-python
 
       - name: checksum