diff --git a/.github/workflows/smoke_tests.yaml b/.github/workflows/smoke_tests.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f096dfa9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/smoke_tests.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+name: Smoke Tests
+
+on: [push, pull_request]
+
+jobs:
+  git-url:
+    # see the following for valid dependency specifiers
+    # https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/specifications/dependency-specifiers/#dependency-specifiers
+    # we construct from the GitHub Actions context
+    name: Install and import from git url
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v7
+        with:
+          ignore-empty-workdir: "true"  # resolve warning about "Empty workdir detected. This may cause unexpected behavior. You can enable ignore-empty-workdir to mute this warning."
+          cache-dependency-glob: ""  # resolve warning about "No file matched to ... The cache will never get invalidated. Make sure you have checked out the target repository and configured the cache-dependency-glob input correctly."
+      - run: uv init --bare --name smoke-test
+      - run: uv add "espei @ git+https://github.com/${{ github.repository }}.git@${{ github.sha }}"
+      - run: uv run python -c "import espei; print(espei.__version__)"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/espei/__init__.py b/espei/__init__.py
index 8501ee90..7957b535 100644
--- a/espei/__init__.py
+++ b/espei/__init__.py
@@ -9,8 +9,10 @@
     # source control management system at the project root.
     __version__ = get_version(root='..', relative_to=__file__)
     del get_version
-except ImportError:
+except (ImportError, LookupError):
     # Fall back on the metadata of the installed package
+    # ImportError occurs if there's no ._dev
+    # LookupError occurs if get_version fails
     from importlib.metadata import version
     __version__ = version("espei")
     del version