diff --git a/scripts/constants.py b/scripts/constants.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..68ccee59b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/constants.py
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+# Copyright 2016 The Kubernetes Authors.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+# Kubernetes branch to get the OpenAPI spec from.
+KUBERNETES_BRANCH = "release-1.5"
+
+# Spec version will be set in downloaded spec and all
+# generated code will refer to it.
+SPEC_VERSION = "v1.5.0-beta.3"
+
+# client version for packaging and releasing. It can
+# be different than SPEC_VERSION.
+CLIENT_VERSION = "1.0.0-alpha.2"
+
+# Name of the release package
+PACKAGE_NAME = "kubernetes"
diff --git a/scripts/preprocess_spec.py b/scripts/preprocess_spec.py
index bf8d9509d..d36cb484f 100644
--- a/scripts/preprocess_spec.py
+++ b/scripts/preprocess_spec.py
@@ -18,6 +18,9 @@ import os.path
 import sys
 from collections import OrderedDict
 
+import urllib3
+from constants import KUBERNETES_BRANCH, SPEC_VERSION
+
 # these four constants are shown as part of this example in []:
 # "[watch]Pod[List]" is the deprecated version of "[list]Pod?[watch]=True"
 WATCH_OP_PREFIX = "watch"
@@ -25,6 +28,10 @@ WATCH_OP_SUFFIX = "List"
 LIST_OP_PREFIX = "list"
 WATCH_QUERY_PARAM_NAME = "watch"
 
+SPEC_URL = 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/' \
+           '%s/api/openapi-spec/swagger.json' % KUBERNETES_BRANCH
+
+OUTPUT_PATH = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'swagger.json')
 
 _ops = ['get', 'put', 'post', 'delete', 'options', 'head', 'patch']
 
@@ -94,37 +101,38 @@ def strip_tags_from_operation_id(operation, _):
     operation['operationId'] = operation_id
 
 
-def process_swagger(infile, outfile):
-    with open(infile, 'r') as f:
-        spec = json.load(f, object_pairs_hook=OrderedDict)
+def process_swagger(spec):
+    apply_func_to_spec_operations(spec, strip_tags_from_operation_id)
 
-        apply_func_to_spec_operations(spec, strip_tags_from_operation_id)
+    operation_ids = {}
+    apply_func_to_spec_operations(spec, lambda op, _: operator.setitem(
+        operation_ids, op['operationId'], op))
 
-        operation_ids = {}
-        apply_func_to_spec_operations(spec, lambda op, _: operator.setitem(
-            operation_ids, op['operationId'], op))
+    try:
+        apply_func_to_spec_operations(
+            spec, remove_watch_operations, operation_ids)
+    except PreprocessingException as e:
+        print(e.message)
 
-        try:
-            apply_func_to_spec_operations(
-                spec, remove_watch_operations, operation_ids)
-        except PreprocessingException as e:
-            print(e.message)
+    # TODO: Kubernetes does not set a version for OpenAPI spec yet,
+    # remove this when that is fixed.
+    spec['info']['version'] = SPEC_VERSION
 
-        # TODO: Kubernetes does not set a version for OpenAPI spec yet,
-        # remove this when that is fixed.
-        spec['info']['version'] = "v1.5.0-beta.1"
-
-        with open(outfile, 'w') as out:
-            json.dump(spec, out, sort_keys=False, indent=2,
-                      separators=(',', ': '), ensure_ascii=True)
+    return spec
 
 
 def main():
-    if len(sys.argv) < 3:
-        print "Usage:\n\tpython %s infile outfile.\n" % sys.argv[0]
-        sys.exit(0)
-    if not os.path.isfile(sys.argv[1]):
-        print "Input file %s does not exist." % sys.argv[1]
-    process_swagger(sys.argv[1], sys.argv[2])
+    pool = urllib3.PoolManager()
+    with pool.request('GET', SPEC_URL, preload_content=False) as response:
+        if response.status != 200:
+            print "Error downloading spec file. Reason: %s" % response.reason
+            return 1
+        in_spec = json.load(response, object_pairs_hook=OrderedDict)
+        out_spec = process_swagger(in_spec)
+        with open(OUTPUT_PATH, 'w') as out:
+            json.dump(out_spec, out, sort_keys=False, indent=2,
+                      separators=(',', ': '), ensure_ascii=True)
+    return 0
 
-main()
+
+sys.exit(main())
diff --git a/scripts/generate.sh b/scripts/update-client.sh
similarity index 84%
rename from scripts/generate.sh
rename to scripts/update-client.sh
index 89f797a41..c991ed3b3 100755
--- a/scripts/generate.sh
+++ b/scripts/update-client.sh
@@ -39,16 +39,8 @@ popd > /dev/null
 
 PACKAGE_NAME=${PACKAGE_NAME:-client}
 
-if [[ ! -n ${SWAGGER_FILE-} ]]; then
-  if [[ ! -n ${KUBE_ROOT-} ]]; then
-    echo "\${KUBE_ROOT} variable is not set"
-    exit
-  fi
-  SWAGGER_FILE="${KUBE_ROOT}/api/openapi-spec/swagger.json"
-fi
-
-echo "--- Preprocessing OpenAPI spec to script directory"
-python "${SCRIPT_ROOT}/preprocess_spec.py" "$SWAGGER_FILE" "${SCRIPT_ROOT}/swagger.json"
+echo "--- Downloading and processing OpenAPI spec"
+python "${SCRIPT_ROOT}/preprocess_spec.py"
 
 echo "--- Cleaning up previously generated folders"
 rm -rf "${CLIENT_ROOT}/${PACKAGE_NAME}"
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 88802fce0..688ff7c5c 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -12,12 +12,9 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 
-import sys
-
 from setuptools import find_packages, setup
 
-NAME = "kubernetes"
-VERSION = "1.0.0-alpha.2"
+from scripts.constants import CLIENT_VERSION, PACKAGE_NAME
 
 # To install the library, run the following
 #
@@ -36,8 +33,8 @@ REQUIRES = [
     "ipaddress"]
 
 setup(
-    name=NAME,
-    version=VERSION,
+    name=PACKAGE_NAME,
+    version=CLIENT_VERSION,
     description="Kubernetes python client",
     author_email="",
     author="Kubernetes",