diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index d7d513fcb403..dcec0f67d049 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -36,6 +36,27 @@ AC_SUBST([AX_MAJOR_VERSION])
 AC_SUBST([AX_MINOR_VERSION])
 AC_SUBST([AX_POINT_VERSION])
 
+AC_MSG_CHECKING([whether version number is sane])
+AS_IF([printf "%d.%d.%d" ${AX_MAJOR_VERSION} ${AX_MINOR_VERSION} ${AX_POINT_VERSION} >/dev/null 2>&1], [
+    AC_MSG_RESULT([yes])
+],[
+    AC_MSG_RESULT([no])
+    version_err_msg="
+    VERSION ${VERSION} is invalid.
+    Try the following to remedy this:
+    
+      1. Set the variable manually, with FLUX_VERSION=<version>
+         in your environment.
+      2. If you are running in a CI environment, run \`git fetch tags\`
+         before building. Versions in flux-core are derived from
+         \`git describe\` which uses the most recent tag.
+      3. If you are running CI in a fork of the main repository, try
+         \`git push --tags\` to make sure tags are synchronized in
+         your fork.
+    "
+    AC_MSG_ERROR(["${version_err_msg}"])
+])
+
 ##
 # Initialize pkg-config for PKG_CHECK_MODULES to avoid conditional issues
 ##