diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 988c9cad5..63e424b84 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,10 +1,12 @@
 BUILD_FILES = $(shell go list -f '{{range .GoFiles}}{{$$.Dir}}/{{.}}\
 {{end}}' ./...)
 
-# export GOFLAGS := -mod=vendor $GOFLAGS
+GH_VERSION = $(shell go describe --tags 2>/dev/null || git rev-parse --short HEAD)
+LDFLAGS := -X github.com/github/gh-cli/command.Version=$(GH_VERSION) $(LDFLAGS)
+LDFLAGS := -X github.com/github/gh-cli/command.BuildDate=$(shell date +%Y-%m-%d) $(LDFLAGS)
 
 bin/gh: $(BUILD_FILES)
-	go build -o "$@"
+	@go build -ldflags "$(LDFLAGS)" -o "$@"
 
 test:
 	go test ./...
diff --git a/command/root.go b/command/root.go
index a309960e3..1e9c449b6 100644
--- a/command/root.go
+++ b/command/root.go
@@ -6,12 +6,18 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/github/gh-cli/api"
 	"github.com/github/gh-cli/context"
-	"github.com/github/gh-cli/version"
 
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
 )
 
+// Version is dynamically set at build time in the Makefile
+var Version = "DEV"
+
+// BuildDate is dynamically set at build time in the Makefile
+var BuildDate = "YYYY-MM-DD"
+
 func init() {
+	RootCmd.Version = fmt.Sprintf("%s (%s)", Version, BuildDate)
 	RootCmd.PersistentFlags().StringP("repo", "R", "", "current GitHub repository")
 	RootCmd.PersistentFlags().StringP("current-branch", "B", "", "current git branch")
 	// TODO:
@@ -65,7 +71,7 @@ var apiClientForContext = func(ctx context.Context) (*api.Client, error) {
 	}
 	opts := []api.ClientOption{
 		api.AddHeader("Authorization", fmt.Sprintf("token %s", token)),
-		api.AddHeader("User-Agent", fmt.Sprintf("GitHub CLI %s", version.Version)),
+		api.AddHeader("User-Agent", fmt.Sprintf("GitHub CLI %s", Version)),
 	}
 	if verbose := os.Getenv("DEBUG"); verbose != "" {
 		opts = append(opts, api.VerboseLog(os.Stderr))
diff --git a/version/version.go b/version/version.go
deleted file mode 100644
index 7314c51e6..000000000
--- a/version/version.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
-package version
-
-import (
-	"fmt"
-)
-
-var Version = "0.0.0"
-
-func FullVersion() (string, error) {
-	return fmt.Sprintf("gh version %s", Version), nil
-}