diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/__init__.py b/lib/spack/spack/__init__.py
index 176835c210279310c0c592c9840dfa076eb51f94..448edcd87610bae34650fa2a336e16e19d6f1015 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__