diff --git a/src/index.ts b/src/index.ts
index a8170b7..6d6d396 100644
--- a/src/index.ts
+++ b/src/index.ts
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ import { type EngineMode, resolveEngineMode, shouldUseSweetistics } from './lib/
 import { extractTweetId } from './lib/extract-tweet-id.js';
 import { SweetisticsClient } from './lib/sweetistics-client.js';
 import { type TweetData, TwitterClient } from './lib/twitter-client.js';
+import { getCliVersion } from './lib/version.js';
 
 const program = new Command();
 
@@ -98,7 +99,7 @@ program.addHelpText(
   () => `${colors.banner('bird CLI')} ${colors.subtitle('— fast X CLI for tweeting, replying, and reading')}`,
 );
 
-program.name('bird').description('Post tweets and replies via Twitter/X GraphQL API').version('0.1.0');
+program.name('bird').description('Post tweets and replies via Twitter/X GraphQL API').version(getCliVersion());
 
 const formatExample = (command: string, description: string) =>
   `${colors.command(`  ${command}`)}\n${colors.muted(`    ${description}`)}`;
diff --git a/src/lib/version.ts b/src/lib/version.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0b9d570
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/lib/version.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+import { readFileSync } from 'node:fs';
+import { dirname, join } from 'node:path';
+import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
+
+function readPackageVersionFromJsonFile(path: string): string | undefined {
+  try {
+    const raw = readFileSync(path, 'utf8');
+    const parsed = JSON.parse(raw) as { version?: unknown };
+    return typeof parsed.version === 'string' ? parsed.version : undefined;
+  } catch {
+    return undefined;
+  }
+}
+
+function readVersionFromTextFile(path: string): string | undefined {
+  try {
+    const raw = readFileSync(path, 'utf8').trim();
+    return raw.length > 0 ? raw : undefined;
+  } catch {
+    return undefined;
+  }
+}
+
+function tryReadVersionFromImportMeta(): string | undefined {
+  try {
+    const thisFile = fileURLToPath(import.meta.url);
+    const baseDir = join(dirname(thisFile), '..', '..');
+    return (
+      readPackageVersionFromJsonFile(join(baseDir, 'package.json')) ?? readVersionFromTextFile(join(baseDir, 'VERSION'))
+    );
+  } catch {
+    return undefined;
+  }
+}
+
+function tryReadVersionNextToExecutable(): string | undefined {
+  const execDir = dirname(process.argv[0] ?? process.execPath);
+  return (
+    readPackageVersionFromJsonFile(join(execDir, 'package.json')) ?? readVersionFromTextFile(join(execDir, 'VERSION'))
+  );
+}
+
+export function getCliVersion(): string {
+  return tryReadVersionFromImportMeta() ?? tryReadVersionNextToExecutable() ?? 'unknown';
+}
diff --git a/tests/version.test.ts b/tests/version.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fd8f2ef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/version.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+import { readFileSync } from 'node:fs';
+import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
+import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';
+import { getCliVersion } from '../src/lib/version.js';
+
+describe('getCliVersion', () => {
+  it('matches package.json version when available', () => {
+    const raw = readFileSync(fileURLToPath(new URL('../package.json', import.meta.url)), 'utf8');
+    const pkg = JSON.parse(raw) as { version?: unknown };
+    expect(getCliVersion()).toBe(pkg.version);
+  });
+});