diff --git a/stateless_uptime_kuma/tree_gen.py b/stateless_uptime_kuma/tree_gen.py
index e0e573a..4897167 100644
--- a/stateless_uptime_kuma/tree_gen.py
+++ b/stateless_uptime_kuma/tree_gen.py
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 def die_tag_format_error():
     logger.error(
-        "Fatal: You must provide tags in monitors in the format [[name, value]]"
+        "Fatal: You must provide tags in monitors in the format [{name:str, value:str}] (value is optional)"
     )
     sys.exit(1)
 
@@ -27,10 +27,10 @@ def from_dict(api, tree):
     for m in monitors:
         associated_tags = []
         for tag in m.get("tags", []):
-            if not isinstance(tag, list):
+            if not isinstance(tag, dict) or "name" not in tag:
                 die_tag_format_error()
             try:
-                associated_tags.append((indexed_tags[tag[0]], tag[1]))
+                associated_tags.append((indexed_tags[tag["name"]], tag.get("value")))
             except IndexError:
                 die_tag_format_error()
         m["tags"] = associated_tags
diff --git a/tests/02_tags.json b/tests/02_tags.json
index c0616ae..1b57ef9 100644
--- a/tests/02_tags.json
+++ b/tests/02_tags.json
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
     "name":"test"
   }],
   "monitors": [{
-    "tags": [["test", "value"]],
+    "tags": [{ "name":"test", "value":"value"}],
     "notifications": [ "dgn" ],
     "old_name": "test_monitor",
     "name": "test_monitor2",