diff --git a/artiq/frontend/artiq_run.py b/artiq/frontend/artiq_run.py
index 193a51637..8242422db 100755
--- a/artiq/frontend/artiq_run.py
+++ b/artiq/frontend/artiq_run.py
@@ -112,9 +112,7 @@ def main():
             module = file_import(args.file)
             if args.unit is None:
                 units = [(k, v) for k, v in module.__dict__.items()
-                         if k[0] != "_"
-                            and isclass(v)
-                            and hasattr(v, "__artiq_unit__")]
+                         if isclass(v) and hasattr(v, "__artiq_unit__")]
                 l = len(units)
                 if l == 0:
                     print("No units found in module")
diff --git a/artiq/master/worker_impl.py b/artiq/master/worker_impl.py
index 018819a98..a251ec9f0 100644
--- a/artiq/master/worker_impl.py
+++ b/artiq/master/worker_impl.py
@@ -69,9 +69,7 @@ def get_unit(file, unit):
     module = file_import(file)
     if unit is None:
         units = [v for k, v in module.__dict__.items()
-                 if k[0] != "_"
-                    and isclass(v)
-                    and hasattr(v, "__artiq_unit__")]
+                 if isclass(v) and hasattr(v, "__artiq_unit__")]
         if len(units) != 1:
             raise ValueError("Found {} units in module".format(len(units)))
         return units[0]