If we use github to tag it doesn't create an 'annotated' tag for a pre-release (not sure if it does for a release).
So we get:
[galak@spiff zephyr]$ git describe
v1.14.0-rc1-1540-g12bf7e6ead
Where git describe --tag does:
[galak@spiff zephyr]$ git describe --tags
v1.14.0-rc2-302-g12bf7e6ead