diff --git a/agent_assembly/__init__.py b/agent_assembly/__init__.py
index ce82221..7b1216e 100644
--- a/agent_assembly/__init__.py
+++ b/agent_assembly/__init__.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 import sys
 from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Any
 
-__version__ = "0.0.0"
+__version__ = "0.0.1a1"
 
 # AAASM-1696: top-level exports are resolved lazily so that lightweight
 # submodules (e.g. `agent_assembly.runtime`, which is stdlib-only) can be
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 78636fd..1dda187 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ build-backend = "hatchling.build"
 
 [project]
 name = "agent-assembly"
-version = "0.0.0"
+version = "0.0.1a1"
 description = "Python SDK for AI Agent Assembly - A governance-native runtime for AI agents"
 authors = [{ name = "Agent Assembly Team", email = "team@agent-assembly.dev" }]
 requires-python = ">=3.12,<4.0"
diff --git a/test/unit/test_runtime_import_isolation.py b/test/unit/test_runtime_import_isolation.py
index 3355559..11ee2e6 100644
--- a/test/unit/test_runtime_import_isolation.py
+++ b/test/unit/test_runtime_import_isolation.py
@@ -58,6 +58,11 @@ def test_runtime_import_does_not_pull_in_httpx() -> None:
 
 
 def test_top_level_package_import_does_not_pull_in_httpx() -> None:
+    # Import once in the test process so we know what `__version__` the
+    # subprocess should print. Avoids hard-coding the literal — pre-release
+    # bumps (e.g. AAASM-1933 → `0.0.1a1`) used to break this test by drift.
+    import agent_assembly as _aa  # noqa: PLC0415 — test-local import on purpose
+
     result = _run_python_with_blocked_imports(
         ["httpx", "pydantic"],
         "import agent_assembly\nprint(agent_assembly.__version__)\n",
@@ -66,7 +71,7 @@ def test_top_level_package_import_does_not_pull_in_httpx() -> None:
         f"`import agent_assembly` must not eagerly import httpx/pydantic.\n"
         f"stdout: {result.stdout}\nstderr: {result.stderr}"
     )
-    assert result.stdout.strip() == "0.0.0"
+    assert result.stdout.strip() == _aa.__version__
 
 
 def test_eager_attribute_access_still_resolves_through_lazy_loader() -> None:
diff --git a/uv.lock b/uv.lock
index cec0bc4..4e616ca 100644
--- a/uv.lock
+++ b/uv.lock
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ requires-python = ">=3.12, <4.0"
 
 [[package]]
 name = "agent-assembly"
-version = "0.0.0"
+version = "0.0.1a1"
 source = { editable = "." }
 dependencies = [
     { name = "grpcio" },