diff --git a/tools/cache-zulip-git-version b/tools/cache-zulip-git-version
index 40bfbef314..82113f586a 100755
--- a/tools/cache-zulip-git-version
+++ b/tools/cache-zulip-git-version
@@ -2,4 +2,4 @@
 set -e
 
 cd "$(dirname "$0")/.."
-git describe --tags > zulip-git-version || true
+git describe --tags --match='[0-9]*' > zulip-git-version || true
diff --git a/zerver/logging_handlers.py b/zerver/logging_handlers.py
index 7ab7144313..d1d522949f 100644
--- a/zerver/logging_handlers.py
+++ b/zerver/logging_handlers.py
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ from version import ZULIP_VERSION
 def try_git_describe() -> Optional[str]:
     try:  # nocoverage
         return subprocess.check_output(
-            ['git', 'describe', '--tags', '--always', '--dirty', '--long'],
+            ['git', 'describe', '--tags', '--match=[0-9]*', '--always', '--dirty', '--long'],
             stderr=subprocess.PIPE,
             cwd=os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), '..'),
         ).strip().decode('utf-8')