diff --git a/encoding/jsonschema/decode_test.go b/encoding/jsonschema/decode_test.go
index 977cad6c7fd..160ffe20471 100644
--- a/encoding/jsonschema/decode_test.go
+++ b/encoding/jsonschema/decode_test.go
@@ -75,6 +75,10 @@ func TestDecode(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 
 		if versStr, ok := t.Value("version"); ok {
+			// TODO most schemas have neither an explicit $schema or a #version
+			// tag, so when we update the default version, they could break.
+			// We should probably change most of the tests to use an explicit $schema
+			// field apart from when we're explicitly testing the default version logic.
 			if versStr == "openapi" {
 				// OpenAPI doesn't have a JSON Schema URI so it gets a special case.
 				cfg.DefaultVersion = jsonschema.VersionOpenAPI
diff --git a/encoding/jsonschema/jsonschema.go b/encoding/jsonschema/jsonschema.go
index 653bb1b96f4..f5b3e21e044 100644
--- a/encoding/jsonschema/jsonschema.go
+++ b/encoding/jsonschema/jsonschema.go
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ func Extract(data cue.InstanceOrValue, cfg *Config) (f *ast.File, err error) {
 		cfg.MapURL = DefaultMapURL
 	}
 	if cfg.DefaultVersion == VersionUnknown {
-		cfg.DefaultVersion = VersionDraft7
+		cfg.DefaultVersion = DefaultVersion
 	}
 	if cfg.Strict {
 		cfg.StrictKeywords = true
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ func Extract(data cue.InstanceOrValue, cfg *Config) (f *ast.File, err error) {
 
 // DefaultVersion defines the default schema version used when
 // there is no $schema field and no explicit [Config.DefaultVersion].
-const DefaultVersion = VersionDraft7
+const DefaultVersion = VersionDraft2020_12
 
 // A Config configures a JSON Schema encoding or decoding.
 type Config struct {
diff --git a/encoding/jsonschema/testdata/txtar/list.txtar b/encoding/jsonschema/testdata/txtar/list.txtar
index 07e7947851a..2af7668f91b 100644
--- a/encoding/jsonschema/testdata/txtar/list.txtar
+++ b/encoding/jsonschema/testdata/txtar/list.txtar
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 -- schema.yaml --
+$schema: http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#
 type: object
 
 properties:
@@ -43,6 +44,7 @@ additionalProperties: false
 -- out/decode/extract --
 import "list"
 
+@jsonschema(schema="http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#")
 foo?: [...string]
 tuple?: [string, int, 2]
 has?: list.MatchN(>=1, 3)
@@ -51,8 +53,8 @@ size?: list.UniqueItems() & list.MaxItems(9) & [_, _, _, ...]
 additional?: [int, int, ...string]
 -- out/decode/testerr/err-foo-not-string --
 foo.0: conflicting values true and string (mismatched types bool and string):
-    generated.cue:3:8
-    generated.cue:3:11
+    generated.cue:4:8
+    generated.cue:4:11
     test/err-foo-not-string.json:2:10
 -- test/empty.json --
 {}