diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 8ae2b229..4b30a1d3 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -5,5 +5,4 @@ laconic-so
 laconic_stack_orchestrator.egg-info
 __pycache__
 *~
-package
-app/data/build_tag.txt
+build
diff --git a/app/setup_repositories.py b/app/setup_repositories.py
index 6f148b87..e8c08916 100644
--- a/app/setup_repositories.py
+++ b/app/setup_repositories.py
@@ -175,4 +175,8 @@ def command(ctx, include, exclude, git_ssh, check_only, pull, branches_file):
                         git_repo.git.checkout(branch_to_checkout)
 
     for repo in repos:
-        process_repo(repo)
+        try:
+            process_repo(repo)
+        except git.exc.GitCommandError as error:
+            print(f"\n******* git command returned error exit status:\n{error}")
+            sys.exit(1)
diff --git a/scripts/build_shiv_package.sh b/scripts/build_shiv_package.sh
index c1841415..3d0c12ff 100755
--- a/scripts/build_shiv_package.sh
+++ b/scripts/build_shiv_package.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 # Builds the shiv "package" for distribution
 mkdir -p ./package
-version_string=$( ./scripts/create_build_tag_file.sh )
+version_string=$( ./app/data/version.txt )
 shiv -c laconic-so -o package/laconic-so-${version_string} .
diff --git a/scripts/developer-mode-setup.sh b/scripts/developer-mode-setup.sh
index bd60a770..997c6173 100755
--- a/scripts/developer-mode-setup.sh
+++ b/scripts/developer-mode-setup.sh
@@ -7,6 +7,5 @@ if [[ -n "$CERC_SCRIPT_DEBUG" ]]; then
 fi
 python3 -m venv venv
 source ./venv/bin/activate
-python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
-pip install shiv
 pip install --editable .
+pip install shiv