diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 608e9e26f..6a0cc95be 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -89,6 +89,9 @@ endif()
 ## install header files, generate and install cmake config files for find_package()
 ##
 include(CMakePackageConfigHelpers)
+# use a custom package version config file instead of
+# write_basic_package_version_file to ensure that it's architecture-independent
+# https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/1697
 configure_file(
     "cmake/nlohmann_jsonConfigVersion.cmake.in"
     ${NLOHMANN_JSON_CMAKE_VERSION_CONFIG_FILE}
diff --git a/cmake/nlohmann_jsonConfigVersion.cmake.in b/cmake/nlohmann_jsonConfigVersion.cmake.in
index 8202f8c5e..109108597 100644
--- a/cmake/nlohmann_jsonConfigVersion.cmake.in
+++ b/cmake/nlohmann_jsonConfigVersion.cmake.in
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+# This is essentially cmake's BasicConfigVersion-SameMajorVersion.cmake.in but
+# without the 32/64-bit check.  Since json is a header-only library, it doesn't
+# matter if it was built on a different platform than what it is used on (see
+# https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/1697).
 set(PACKAGE_VERSION "@PROJECT_VERSION@")
 
 if(PACKAGE_VERSION VERSION_LESS PACKAGE_FIND_VERSION)