diff --git a/pkg/generated/openapi/BUILD b/pkg/generated/openapi/BUILD
index c9c082f1fa6..590a0b6a335 100644
--- a/pkg/generated/openapi/BUILD
+++ b/pkg/generated/openapi/BUILD
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@ openapi_library(
         "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/version",
         "k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/apis/audit/v1alpha1",
         "k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/apis/example/v1",
+        "k8s.io/client-go/pkg/version",
         "k8s.io/kube-aggregator/pkg/apis/apiregistration/v1beta1",
         "k8s.io/metrics/pkg/apis/custom_metrics/v1alpha1",
         "k8s.io/metrics/pkg/apis/metrics/v1alpha1",
diff --git a/staging/copy.sh b/staging/copy.sh
index 12ce4826d5e..fe45b94791a 100755
--- a/staging/copy.sh
+++ b/staging/copy.sh
@@ -128,13 +128,6 @@ grep -Rl "\"${MAIN_REPO_FROM_SRC}" "${CLIENT_REPO_TEMP}" | \
   grep -v "vendor/" | \
   xargs ${SED} -i "s|\"${MAIN_REPO_FROM_SRC}|\"${CLIENT_REPO_FROM_SRC}|g"
 
-# strip all generator tags from client-go
-find "${CLIENT_REPO_TEMP}" -type f -name "*.go" -print0 | xargs -0 ${SED} -i '/^\/\/ +k8s:openapi-gen=true/d'
-find "${CLIENT_REPO_TEMP}" -type f -name "*.go" -print0 | xargs -0 ${SED} -i '/^\/\/ +k8s:defaulter-gen=/d'
-find "${CLIENT_REPO_TEMP}" -type f -name "*.go" -print0 | xargs -0 ${SED} -i '/^\/\/ +k8s:deepcopy-gen=/d'
-find "${CLIENT_REPO_TEMP}" -type f -name "*.go" -print0 | xargs -0 ${SED} -i '/^\/\/ +k8s:conversion-gen=/d'
-
-
 echo "rearranging directory layout"
 # $1 and $2 are relative to ${CLIENT_REPO_TEMP}
 function mvfolder {
diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/client-go/pkg/version/doc.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/client-go/pkg/version/doc.go
index 4bf139ce8b5..30399fb0201 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/client-go/pkg/version/doc.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/client-go/pkg/version/doc.go
@@ -16,4 +16,5 @@ limitations under the License.
 
 // Package version supplies version information collected at build time to
 // kubernetes components.
+// +k8s:openapi-gen=true
 package version // import "k8s.io/client-go/pkg/version"