diff --git a/build/build-jasp.sh b/build/build-jasp.sh
index 1221525..97a3fea 100755
--- a/build/build-jasp.sh
+++ b/build/build-jasp.sh
@@ -491,6 +491,30 @@ install -d "$STAGE_DIR$PREFIX/Modules"
 # on-demand downloads; shipping them alongside the installed form sends the
 # same content twice and took the tarball from 1.86 GB to 4.3 GB.
 
+# jaspModuleTools is installed from GitHub HEAD, which writes the manifest
+# version as an array ([[0,96,5]]). JASP's InstalledModules::parseModuleInfo
+# calls isMember() on it, which jsoncpp refuses for arrays; the exception is
+# caught per manifest and logged only to the (off by default) log file, so
+# every bundled module is silently dropped and JASP starts with none at all.
+# A plain version string is the first form that parser accepts.
+log "normalising module manifest versions"
+python3 - "$STAGE_DIR$PREFIX/Modules/manifests" <<'PY'
+import json, pathlib, sys
+manifests = sorted(pathlib.Path(sys.argv[1]).glob("*_manifest.json"))
+if not manifests:
+    sys.exit("error: no module manifests were staged")
+for p in manifests:
+    d = json.loads(p.read_text())
+    v = d.get("version")
+    if isinstance(v, list):
+        parts = v[0] if v and isinstance(v[0], list) else v
+        d["version"] = ".".join(str(x) for x in parts)
+        p.write_text(json.dumps(d, indent=1) + "\n")
+    if not isinstance(d.get("version"), (str, dict)):
+        sys.exit(f"error: {p.name} has a version JASP cannot parse: {d.get('version')!r}")
+print(f"  {len(manifests)} manifests carry a version JASP can parse")
+PY
+
 
 install -Dm644 /work/packaging/org.jaspstats.JASP.desktop \
   "$STAGE_DIR/usr/share/applications/org.jaspstats.JASP.desktop"