diff --git a/app/client/ui/AppHeader.ts b/app/client/ui/AppHeader.ts
index 907bbdf0..6c2bf439 100644
--- a/app/client/ui/AppHeader.ts
+++ b/app/client/ui/AppHeader.ts
@@ -39,8 +39,12 @@ export class AppHeader extends Disposable {
     return cssAppHeader(
       cssAppHeader.cls('-widelogo', productFlavor.wideLogo || false),
       // Show version when hovering over the application icon.
+      // Include gitcommit when known. Cast version.gitcommit since, depending
+      // on how Grist is compiled, tsc may believe it to be a constant and
+      // believe that testing it is unnecessary.
       cssAppLogo(
-        {title: `Ver ${version.version} (${version.gitcommit})`},
+        {title: `Version ${version.version}` +
+          ((version.gitcommit as string) !== 'unknown' ? ` (${version.gitcommit})` : '')},
         urlState().setLinkUrl({}),
         testId('dm-logo')
       ),
diff --git a/app/common/tsconfig.json b/app/common/tsconfig.json
index 03f3b5a3..9d0949d3 100644
--- a/app/common/tsconfig.json
+++ b/app/common/tsconfig.json
@@ -2,7 +2,8 @@
   "extends": "../../buildtools/tsconfig-base.json",
   "include": [
     "**/*",
-    "../../stubs/app/common/**/*"
+    "../../stubs/app/common/**/*",
+    "../../package.json"
   ],
   "references": [
     { "path": "../plugin" }
diff --git a/app/server/companion.ts b/app/server/companion.ts
index e6589ebf..787affed 100644
--- a/app/server/companion.ts
+++ b/app/server/companion.ts
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import { version } from 'app/common/version';
 import { synchronizeProducts } from 'app/gen-server/entity/Product';
 import { HomeDBManager } from 'app/gen-server/lib/HomeDBManager';
 import { applyPatch } from 'app/gen-server/lib/TypeORMPatches';
@@ -43,6 +44,7 @@ export function getProgram(): commander.Command {
   addHistoryCommand(program, {nested: true});
   addSiteCommand(program, {nested: true});
   addSqliteCommand(program);
+  addVersionCommand(program);
   return program;
 }
 
@@ -160,6 +162,12 @@ export function addSqliteCommand(program: commander.Command) {
     .action(filename => new Gristifier(filename).degristify());
 }
 
+export function addVersionCommand(program: commander.Command) {
+  program.command('version')
+    .description('show Grist version')
+    .action(() => console.log(version));
+}
+
 // Report the status of the database. Migrations appied, migrations pending,
 // product information applied, product changes pending.
 export async function dbCheck(connection: Connection) {
diff --git a/buildtools/tsconfig-base.json b/buildtools/tsconfig-base.json
index cfde2fa2..c5bfd3f2 100644
--- a/buildtools/tsconfig-base.json
+++ b/buildtools/tsconfig-base.json
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
     "noImplicitAny": true,
     "noUnusedLocals": true,
     "moduleResolution": "node",
+    "resolveJsonModule": true,
     "allowJs": true,
     "baseUrl": "..",
     "rootDir": "..",
diff --git a/stubs/app/common/version.ts b/stubs/app/common/version.ts
index fb726540..4976befc 100644
--- a/stubs/app/common/version.ts
+++ b/stubs/app/common/version.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-// version tracking not set up in grist-core yet
-export const version = "0.1.1";
+import * as packageJson from 'package.json';
+
+export const version = packageJson.version;
 export const channel = "core";
 export const gitcommit = "unknown";