diff --git a/release.sh b/release.sh
index 1ad546c0..d68a5104 100755
--- a/release.sh
+++ b/release.sh
@@ -11,7 +11,13 @@ set -o xtrace
 
 if [ $# -ne 1 ]; then
     echo "Usage: ./release.sh version" >&2
-    exit 1;
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+# https://semver.org/#is-there-a-suggested-regular-expression-regex-to-check-a-semver-string
+if [[ ! $1 =~ ^(0|[1-9]\d*)\.(0|[1-9]\d*)\.(0|[1-9]\d*)(?:-((?:0|[1-9]\d*|\d*[a-zA-Z-][0-9a-zA-Z-]*)(?:\.(?:0|[1-9]\d*|\d*[a-zA-Z-][0-9a-zA-Z-]*))*))?(?:\+([0-9a-zA-Z-]+(?:\.[0-9a-zA-Z-]+)*))?$ ]]; then
+    echo "Invalid version number: $1" >&2
+    exit 1
 fi
 
 git checkout main