diff --git a/bash/patchman-client b/bash/patchman-client
index 7b07bba..a1f257e 100755
--- a/bash/patchman-client
+++ b/bash/patchman-client
@@ -946,7 +946,7 @@ build_json_report() {
     # Convert tags to JSON array
     local tags_json="[]"
     if [ -n "${tags}" ] && [ "${tags}" != "Default" ] ; then
-        tags_json=$(echo "${tags}" | tr ',' '\n' | jq -R . | jq -s .)
+        tags_json=$(echo "${tags}" | jq -R 'if test(",") then split(",") else [splits("\\s+")] end | map(gsub("^\\s+|\\s+$"; "")) | map(select(length > 0))')
     fi
 
     # Convert reboot to boolean
diff --git a/bash/patchman-client.conf b/bash/patchman-client.conf
index 666dd54..483d9a3 100644
--- a/bash/patchman-client.conf
+++ b/bash/patchman-client.conf
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ server=https://patchman.example.com
 # Options to curl
 curl_options="--insecure --connect-timeout 60 --max-time 300"
 
-# Space delimited tags to send
+# Comma or space delimited tags to send
 tags="Server"
 
 # Does the client output a report of the upload (e.g. for cronjob output)
diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
index 4daf79b..009dba1 100644
--- a/debian/control
+++ b/debian/control
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ Description: Patchman client - meta-package with hooks
 
 Package: patchman-client-bash
 Architecture: all
-Depends: ${misc:Depends}, bash, curl, coreutils, gawk, grep, sed
+Depends: ${misc:Depends}, bash, curl, coreutils, gawk, grep, sed, jq
 Recommends: jq
 Provides: patchman-client-impl
 Description: Patchman client - bash implementation
diff --git a/go/lib/report/report.go b/go/lib/report/report.go
index ddddc87..9805934 100644
--- a/go/lib/report/report.go
+++ b/go/lib/report/report.go
@@ -104,14 +104,16 @@ func NewReport(osInfo si.OSInfo) *Report {
 	}
 }
 
-// SetTags sets the tags from a comma-separated string
+// SetTags sets the tags from a comma or space delimited string
 func (r *Report) SetTags(tags string) {
-	if tags == "" {
-		return
+	parts := strings.Fields(tags)
+	if strings.Contains(tags, ",") {
+		parts = strings.Split(tags, ",")
 	}
-	r.Tags = strings.Split(tags, ",")
-	for i, tag := range r.Tags {
-		r.Tags[i] = strings.TrimSpace(tag)
+	for _, tag := range parts {
+		if tag = strings.TrimSpace(tag); tag != "" {
+			r.Tags = append(r.Tags, tag)
+		}
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/go/lib/report/report_test.go b/go/lib/report/report_test.go
index 70c2362..987d882 100644
--- a/go/lib/report/report_test.go
+++ b/go/lib/report/report_test.go
@@ -52,6 +52,22 @@ func TestSetTags(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestSetTagsDelimiters(t *testing.T) {
+	cases := map[string][]string{
+		"web prod":   {"web", "prod"},
+		"web, prod":  {"web", "prod"},
+		"web,,prod,": {"web", "prod"},
+		"  ":         nil,
+	}
+	for in, want := range cases {
+		rpt := NewReport(si.OSInfo{Hostname: "test"})
+		rpt.SetTags(in)
+		if strings.Join(rpt.Tags, "|") != strings.Join(want, "|") {
+			t.Errorf("SetTags(%q) = %q, want %q", in, rpt.Tags, want)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
 func TestAddRPMs(t *testing.T) {
 	osInfo := si.OSInfo{Hostname: "test"}
 	rpt := NewReport(osInfo)
diff --git a/patchman-client.spec b/patchman-client.spec
index 1f903b1..27c0441 100644
--- a/patchman-client.spec
+++ b/patchman-client.spec
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ the client implementations (bash, python, or go).
 
 %package bash
 Summary:        Patchman client - bash implementation
-Requires:       bash curl coreutils gawk grep sed
+Requires:       bash curl coreutils gawk grep sed jq
 Recommends:     jq
 Provides:       patchman-client-impl
 
diff --git a/python/patchman_client/client.py b/python/patchman_client/client.py
index cf3911a..52b8258 100755
--- a/python/patchman_client/client.py
+++ b/python/patchman_client/client.py
@@ -67,7 +67,8 @@ def __init__(
         self.server = server.rstrip('/') if server else ''
         self.api_key = api_key
         self.hostname = hostname or self._get_hostname()
-        self.tags = [t.strip() for t in tags.split(',') if t.strip()] if tags else []
+        sep = ',' if ',' in tags else None
+        self.tags = [t.strip() for t in tags.split(sep) if t.strip()] if tags else []
         self.verbose = verbose
         self.debug = debug
         self.local_updates = local_updates
diff --git a/tests/test_client_output.py b/tests/test_client_output.py
index 644f824..2eafdeb 100644
--- a/tests/test_client_output.py
+++ b/tests/test_client_output.py
@@ -1654,6 +1654,26 @@ def test_config_quoted_values(self):
         finally:
             os.unlink(conf_path)
 
+    def test_tags_comma_or_space_delimited(self):
+        """Tags split on commas if present, otherwise on whitespace."""
+        import importlib
+        spec = importlib.util.spec_from_file_location(
+            'client', os.path.join(
+                os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))),
+                'python', 'patchman_client', 'client.py',
+            ),
+        )
+        mod = importlib.util.module_from_spec(spec)
+        spec.loader.exec_module(mod)
+        for tags, expected in (
+            ('web prod', ['web', 'prod']),
+            ('web, prod', ['web', 'prod']),
+            ('my tag,web', ['my tag', 'web']),
+            ('', []),
+        ):
+            client = mod.PatchmanClient(hostname='test', tags=tags)
+            self.assertEqual(client.tags, expected)
+
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     unittest.main()