diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 9c6a58518..3dad77779 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "name": "@jupyter-ai/monorepo",
-  "version": "2.7.1",
-  "description": "The top-level monorepo package. Should only be locally installed by developers.",
+  "version": "0.0.0",
+  "description": "The top-level monorepo JS package. Never released or installed.",
   "private": true,
   "keywords": [
     "jupyter",
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index f8bf71bd3..f0ffd827a 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -10,14 +10,12 @@ build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 
 [project]
 name = "jupyter_ai_monorepo"
-description = "The top-level monorepo package. Should only be locally installed by developers."
+description = "The top-level monorepo PY package. Never released, but is installed by developers."
 requires-python = ">=3.8"
 dependencies = []
 
-# The version declared in `package.json` is used by Jupyter Releaser to build
-# the changelogs. That version (not this) is bumped by `scripts/bump-version.sh`
-# every release.
-version = "0.0.0"
+# Automatically bumped by `scripts/bump-version.sh`.
+version = "2.7.1"
 
 [project.optional-dependencies]
 # dev dependencies shared by all packages. should be installed by developers
diff --git a/scripts/bump-version.sh b/scripts/bump-version.sh
index 900211be9..a7737e10e 100755
--- a/scripts/bump-version.sh
+++ b/scripts/bump-version.sh
@@ -1,15 +1,22 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
 # script that bumps version for all projects regardless of whether they were
-# changed since last release. needed because `lerna version` only bumps versions for projects
-# listed by `lerna changed` by default.
+# changed since last release.
+
+set -euxo pipefail
+target_version="$1"
+
+# bump version in pyproject.toml
+# TODO
+
+# we specify `--force-publish` because otherwise, `lerna version` only bumps
+# versions for projects listed by `lerna changed`.
 #
 # see: https://github.com/lerna/lerna/issues/2369
-
 (npx -p lerna@6.4.1 -y lerna version \
     --no-git-tag-version \
     --no-push \
     --force-publish \
     -y \
-    $1 \
+    "$target_version" \
 ) || exit 1