diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 095de3b462..8c2d218ad0 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -460,13 +460,13 @@ verify-hashes:
 # ci target is for developers, it aims to cover all the CI jobs
 # verify-gendocs will call kops target
 .PHONY: ci
-ci: govet verify-gofmt verify-crds verify-gomod verify-goimports verify-boilerplate verify-bazel verify-misspelling verify-shellcheck verify-staticcheck verify-terraform nodeup examples test | verify-gendocs verify-apimachinery
+ci: govet verify-gofmt verify-crds verify-gomod verify-goimports verify-boilerplate verify-bazel verify-versions verify-misspelling verify-shellcheck verify-staticcheck verify-terraform nodeup examples test | verify-gendocs verify-apimachinery
 	echo "Done!"
 
 # we skip tasks that rely on bazel and are covered by other jobs
 # verify-gofmt: uses bazel, covered by pull-kops-verify
 .PHONY: quick-ci
-quick-ci: verify-crds verify-goimports govet verify-boilerplate verify-bazel verify-misspelling verify-shellcheck | verify-gendocs verify-apimachinery
+quick-ci: verify-crds verify-goimports govet verify-boilerplate verify-bazel verify-versions verify-misspelling verify-shellcheck | verify-gendocs verify-apimachinery
 	echo "Done!"
 
 .PHONY: pr
@@ -539,6 +539,10 @@ verify-generate: verify-crds
 verify-crds:
 	hack/verify-crds.sh
 
+.PHONY: verify-versions
+verify-versions:
+	hack/verify-versions.sh
+
 # -----------------------------------------------------
 # bazel targets
 
diff --git a/hack/verify-versions.sh b/hack/verify-versions.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..cf379f4018
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hack/verify-versions.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+# Copyright 2019 The Kubernetes Authors.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+set -o errexit
+set -o nounset
+set -o pipefail
+
+. "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/common.sh"
+
+cd "${KOPS_ROOT}"
+
+KOPS_RELEASE_VERSION=$(grep 'KOPS_RELEASE_VERSION\s*=' version.go  | awk '{print $3}' | sed -e 's_"__g')
+"$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/set-version" "${KOPS_RELEASE_VERSION}"
+
+changed_files=$(git status --porcelain --untracked-files=no || true)
+if [ -n "${changed_files}" ]; then
+   echo "Detected that version generation is needed"
+   echo "changed files:"
+   printf "%s" "${changed_files}\n"
+   echo "git diff:"
+   git --no-pager diff
+   echo "To fix: run 'hack/set-version ${KOPS_RELEASE_VERSION}'"
+   exit 1
+fi
+