diff --git a/.scripts/get-version.sh b/.scripts/get-version.sh
index 3a336f61..18fc88a0 100755
--- a/.scripts/get-version.sh
+++ b/.scripts/get-version.sh
@@ -2,5 +2,9 @@
 set -eu
 
 release_tag="${1:-}"
-version="${release_tag:-$(tr -d 'v[:space:]' < VERSION)}"
-printf '%s\n' "${version#v}"
+
+if [ -n "$release_tag" ]; then
+    printf '%s\n' "$release_tag"
+else
+    cat VERSION
+fi