diff --git a/esptool/__init__.py b/esptool/__init__.py
index 809ccc983..7f1393086 100644
--- a/esptool/__init__.py
+++ b/esptool/__init__.py
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@
     "write_mem",
 ]
 
-__version__ = "4.4"
+__version__ = "4.5-dev"
 
 import argparse
 import inspect