diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 75fac5e..62956f5 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 
 [project]
 name = "rubin.citsci"
-version = "0.2.0"
+version = "0.2.1"
 readme = "README.md"
 dependencies = [
     "panoptes_client",
diff --git a/src/rubin/citsci/pipeline.py b/src/rubin/citsci/pipeline.py
index 20a3c7f..282b595 100644
--- a/src/rubin/citsci/pipeline.py
+++ b/src/rubin/citsci/pipeline.py
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ def __init__(self):
         self.email = ""
         self.project = None
         self.client = None
-        if os.getenv("CITSCI_PIPELINE_DEV_MODE") is "1" or os.getenv("CITSCI_PIPELINE_DEV_MODE").lower() is "true" :
+        if os.getenv("CITSCI_PIPELINE_DEV_MODE") == "1" or (os.getenv("CITSCI_PIPELINE_DEV_MODE") is not None and os.getenv("CITSCI_PIPELINE_DEV_MODE").lower() == "true") :
             self.dev_mode_url = "-dev"
             print("Development mode enabled.")
         else: