diff --git a/.github/workflows/build_packages.yml b/.github/workflows/build_packages.yml
index 75f12b7fe..f9e902059 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build_packages.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build_packages.yml
@@ -21,25 +21,31 @@ jobs:
     outputs:
       shark_package_version: ${{ steps.version.outputs.shark_package_version }}
     steps:
-      # For now the version is just a calendar date + an automatically
-      # incrementing value. We may want different versions for nightly/dev
-      # builds and stable releases published to official places like pypi.
-      - name: Compute version
-        id: version
+      - name: Checkout repository
+        uses: actions/checkout@11bd71901bbe5b1630ceea73d27597364c9af683 # v4.2.2
+        with:
+          submodules: false
+      - name: Setup Python
+        uses: actions/setup-python@0b93645e9fea7318ecaed2b359559ac225c90a2b # v5.3.3
+        with:
+          python-version: 3.12
+          cache: "pip"
+      - name: Install Python packages
+        run: |
+          pip install packaging
+          pip freeze
+      - name: Generate release candidate versions
+        id: version_rc
         run: |
-          shark_package_version="$(printf '%(%Y%m%d)T.${{ github.run_number }}')"
-          echo "shark_package_version=${shark_package_version}" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
-          cat << EOF > ./version_info.json
-          {
-            "package-version": "${shark_package_version}"
-          }
-          EOF
-          cat ./version_info.json
-      - name: Upload version_info.json
+          sharktank_package_version=$(python3 build_tools/gen_version_info_rc.py sharktank)
+          shortfin_package_version=$(python3 build_tools/gen_version_info_rc.py shortfin)
+      - name: Upload version_info_rc.json
         uses: actions/upload-artifact@50769540e7f4bd5e21e526ee35c689e35e0d6874 # v4.4.0
         with:
-          name: version_info
-          path: version_info.json
+          name: version_info_rc
+          path: |
+            sharktank/version_info_rc.json
+            shortfin/version_info_rc.json
 
   build_packages:
     name: "${{ matrix.package }} :: ${{ matrix.platform }} :: ${{ matrix.python-version }}"
@@ -74,11 +80,11 @@ jobs:
         path: "c" # Windows can hit path length limits, so use a short path.
         submodules: false
 
-    - name: Download version_info.json
+    - name: Download version_info_rc.json
       uses: actions/download-artifact@fa0a91b85d4f404e444e00e005971372dc801d16 # v4.1.8
       with:
-        name: version_info
-        path: ./c/shortfin/
+        name: version_info_rc
+        path: ./c/
         merge-multiple: true
 
     - name: Build shortfin (Linux x86_64, ${{ matrix.python-version }})
diff --git a/build_tools/gen_version_info_rc.py b/build_tools/gen_version_info_rc.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9399053b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build_tools/gen_version_info_rc.py
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+# Copyright 2024 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License v2.0 with LLVM Exceptions.
+# See https://llvm.org/LICENSE.txt for license information.
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 WITH LLVM-exception
+
+# This scripts grabs the X.Y.Z[.dev]` version identifier from a
+# `version_info.json` and writes the corresponding
+# `X.Y.ZrcYYYYMMDD` version identifier to `version_rc_info.json`.
+
+import argparse
+from pathlib import Path
+import json
+from datetime import datetime
+
+from packaging.version import Version
+
+
+parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
+parser.add_argument("path", type=Path)
+args = parser.parse_args()
+
+VERSION_INFO_FILE = args.path / "version_info.json"
+VERSION_INFO_RC_FILE = args.path / "version_info_rc.json"
+
+
+def load_version_info():
+    with open(VERSION_INFO_FILE, "rt") as f:
+        return json.load(f)
+
+
+def write_version_info():
+    with open(VERSION_INFO_RC_FILE, "w") as f:
+        json.dump(version_info_rc, f, indent=2)
+        f.write("\n")
+
+
+version_info = load_version_info()
+
+PACKAGE_VERSION = version_info.get("package-version")
+PACKAGE_BASE_VERSION = Version(PACKAGE_VERSION).base_version
+PACKAGE_RC_VERSION = PACKAGE_BASE_VERSION + "rc" + datetime.today().strftime("%Y%m%d")
+
+version_info_rc = {"package-version": PACKAGE_RC_VERSION}
+
+write_version_info()
+
+print(PACKAGE_RC_VERSION)
diff --git a/sharktank/.gitignore b/sharktank/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..000e575d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sharktank/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+# Local-only config options
+version_info_rc.json
diff --git a/sharktank/setup.py b/sharktank/setup.py
index 186e172ff..aca5c63d0 100644
--- a/sharktank/setup.py
+++ b/sharktank/setup.py
@@ -14,15 +14,22 @@
 
 # Setup and get version information.
 VERSION_INFO_FILE = os.path.join(SETUPPY_DIR, "version_info.json")
+VERSION_INFO_RC_FILE = os.path.join(SETUPPY_DIR, "version_info_rc.json")
 
 
-def load_version_info():
-    with open(VERSION_INFO_FILE, "rt") as f:
+def load_version_info(version_file):
+    with open(version_file, "rt") as f:
         return json.load(f)
 
 
-version_info = load_version_info()
-PACKAGE_VERSION = version_info["package-version"]
+try:
+    version_info = load_version_info(VERSION_INFO_RC_FILE)
+except FileNotFoundError:
+    print("version_info_rc.json not found. Default to dev build")
+    version_info = load_version_info(VERSION_INFO_FILE)
+
+PACKAGE_VERSION = version_info.get("package-version")
+print(f"Using PACKAGE_VERSION: '{PACKAGE_VERSION}'")
 
 setup(
     version=f"{PACKAGE_VERSION}",
diff --git a/sharktank/version_info.json b/sharktank/version_info.json
index 2d8f19afb..85afb41ed 100644
--- a/sharktank/version_info.json
+++ b/sharktank/version_info.json
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 {
-  "package-version": "0.1.dev3"
+  "package-version": "3.0.0.dev"
 }
diff --git a/shortfin/.gitignore b/shortfin/.gitignore
index 5469650d5..000e575d5 100644
--- a/shortfin/.gitignore
+++ b/shortfin/.gitignore
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 # Local-only config options
-version_info.json
+version_info_rc.json
diff --git a/shortfin/setup.py b/shortfin/setup.py
index 9ba5b6140..62ef77d58 100644
--- a/shortfin/setup.py
+++ b/shortfin/setup.py
@@ -141,36 +141,22 @@ def copy_extensions_to_source(self, *args, **kwargs):
 
 
 # Setup and get version information.
-VERSION_INFO_FILE = os.path.join(SOURCE_DIR, "version_info.json")
+VERSION_INFO_FILE = os.path.join(REL_SOURCE_DIR, "version_info.json")
+VERSION_INFO_RC_FILE = os.path.join(REL_SOURCE_DIR, "version_info_rc.json")
 
 
-def load_version_info():
-    with open(VERSION_INFO_FILE, "rt") as f:
+def load_version_info(version_file):
+    with open(version_file, "rt") as f:
         return json.load(f)
 
 
-def find_git_version():
-    try:
-        return (
-            subprocess.check_output(["git", "rev-parse", "HEAD"], cwd=SOURCE_DIR)
-            .decode("utf-8")
-            .strip()
-        )
-    except subprocess.SubprocessError as e:
-        print(f"ERROR: Could not get git revision: {e}", file=sys.stderr)
-    return None
-
-
 try:
-    version_info = load_version_info()
+    version_info = load_version_info(VERSION_INFO_RC_FILE)
 except FileNotFoundError:
-    print("version_info.json not found. Using defaults", file=sys.stderr)
-    version_info = {}
-git_version = find_git_version()
+    print("version_info_rc.json not found. Default to dev build")
+    version_info = load_version_info(VERSION_INFO_FILE)
 
 PACKAGE_VERSION = version_info.get("package-version")
-if not PACKAGE_VERSION:
-    PACKAGE_VERSION = f"0.dev0+{git_version or '0'}"
 print(f"Using PACKAGE_VERSION: '{PACKAGE_VERSION}'")
 
 
diff --git a/shortfin/version_info.json b/shortfin/version_info.json
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..85afb41ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/shortfin/version_info.json
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+{
+  "package-version": "3.0.0.dev"
+}