diff --git a/src/allmydata/__init__.py b/src/allmydata/__init__.py
index 15d5fb240..3157c8c80 100644
--- a/src/allmydata/__init__.py
+++ b/src/allmydata/__init__.py
@@ -14,7 +14,9 @@ __all__ = [
 
 __version__ = "unknown"
 try:
-    from allmydata._version import __version__
+    # type ignored as it fails in CI
+    # (https://app.circleci.com/pipelines/github/tahoe-lafs/tahoe-lafs/1647/workflows/60ae95d4-abe8-492c-8a03-1ad3b9e42ed3/jobs/40972)
+    from allmydata._version import __version__  # type: ignore
 except ImportError:
     # We're running in a tree that hasn't run update_version, and didn't
     # come with a _version.py, so we don't know what our version is.
@@ -24,7 +26,9 @@ except ImportError:
 full_version = "unknown"
 branch = "unknown"
 try:
-    from allmydata._version import full_version, branch
+    # type ignored as it fails in CI
+    # (https://app.circleci.com/pipelines/github/tahoe-lafs/tahoe-lafs/1647/workflows/60ae95d4-abe8-492c-8a03-1ad3b9e42ed3/jobs/40972)
+    from allmydata._version import full_version, branch  # type: ignore
 except ImportError:
     # We're running in a tree that hasn't run update_version, and didn't
     # come with a _version.py, so we don't know what our full version or