diff --git a/knowledge/Makefile b/knowledge/Makefile
index fefcc65..8879144 100644
--- a/knowledge/Makefile
+++ b/knowledge/Makefile
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ knowledge-build: $(VENV)  ## Build the knowledge JAR
 	  echo "Model $(OLLAMA_MODEL) not present locally, pulling..."; \
 	  curl -fsS $(OLLAMA_HOST)/api/pull -d '{"name":"$(OLLAMA_MODEL)","stream":false}' | tail -1; \
 	fi
-	OLLAMA_HOST=$(OLLAMA_HOST) MPE_OLLAMA_MODEL=$(OLLAMA_MODEL) $(PYTHON) knowledge/build.py
+	OLLAMA_HOST=$(OLLAMA_HOST) MPE_OLLAMA_MODEL=$(OLLAMA_MODEL) MPE_VERSION=$(VERSION) $(PYTHON) knowledge/build.py
 
 knowledge-install: knowledge-build  ## Install JAR to ~/.m2 (for local iamlite dev)
 	mvn install:install-file \
diff --git a/knowledge/build.py b/knowledge/build.py
index aa1d4cc..68d6e1a 100644
--- a/knowledge/build.py
+++ b/knowledge/build.py
@@ -553,16 +553,19 @@ def run_assemble() -> Path:
         )
         sys.exit(1)
 
-    # Determine version from git
-    try:
-        version = subprocess.check_output(
-            ["git", "describe", "--tags", "--always", "--dirty"],
-            cwd=Path(__file__).parent.parent,
-            stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL,
-            text=True,
-        ).strip()
-    except Exception:
-        version = "dev"
+    # Determine version: prefer MPE_VERSION env var (set by CI after stripping
+    # the 'v' prefix from the release tag) over git describe.
+    version = os.environ.get("MPE_VERSION") or ""
+    if not version:
+        try:
+            version = subprocess.check_output(
+                ["git", "describe", "--tags", "--always", "--dirty"],
+                cwd=Path(__file__).parent.parent,
+                stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL,
+                text=True,
+            ).strip()
+        except Exception:
+            version = "dev"
 
     # Get doc commit sha
     try: