diff --git a/cmd/cue/cmd/testdata/script/modinit_with_version.txtar b/cmd/cue/cmd/testdata/script/modinit_with_version.txtar
deleted file mode 100644
index 44f036dbc..000000000
--- a/cmd/cue/cmd/testdata/script/modinit_with_version.txtar
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,18 +0,0 @@
-# Check that cue mod init adds the language version.
-env CUE_VERSION_OVERRIDE=v0.1.2
-exec cue mod init foo.example
-cmp cue.mod/module.cue want-module
-
-# cue mod tidy should be a no-op after cue mod init
-exec cue mod tidy
-cmp cue.mod/module.cue want-module
-
--- want-module --
-module: "foo.example@v0"
-language: {
-	version: "v0.1.2"
-}
--- _registry/example.com_e_v0.0.1/cue.mod/module.cue --
-module: "example.com/e@v0"
--- _registry/example.com_e_v0.0.1/main.cue --
-package e
diff --git a/cmd/cue/cmd/testdata/script/modinit_without_version.txtar b/cmd/cue/cmd/testdata/script/modinit_without_version.txtar
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..36fe508e2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/cue/cmd/testdata/script/modinit_without_version.txtar
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+# Check that cue mod init skips the language version
+# when it lacks any version information at all.
+# A zero pseudo-version is one such case, as there are no semver numbers.
+env CUE_EXPERIMENT=modules
+env CUE_VERSION_OVERRIDE=v0.0.0-00010101000000-000000000000
+exec cue mod init foo.example
+cmp cue.mod/module.cue want-module
+
+# cue mod tidy should be a no-op after cue mod init
+env CUE_CACHE_DIR=$WORK/.tmp/cache
+exec cue mod tidy
+cmp cue.mod/module.cue want-module
+
+-- want-module --
+module: "foo.example@v0"