diff --git a/Earthfile b/Earthfile
index ecf6f925..12b4aeb8 100644
--- a/Earthfile
+++ b/Earthfile
@@ -66,11 +66,11 @@ go-base:
 
     LET version = $(git tag --points-at)
     IF [ "${version}" = "" ]
-        SET version = $(git describe --tags --abbrev=0)
+        SET version = $(git describe --tags --abbrev=0 || echo "dev build")
     END
     ENV VERSION="${version}"
 
-    LET source = $(git remote -v | cut -f2 | cut -d" " -f1 | head -n 1)
+    LET source = $( ( git remote -v | cut -f2 | cut -d" " -f1 | head -n 1 ) || echo "unknown source" )
     ENV SOURCE="${source}"
 
 # updates all go dependencies and runs go mod tidy, saving go.mod and go.sum locally.