diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 0d3f62f..29d27b9 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
 	"name": "fid",
-	"version": "0.0.0",
+	"version": "0.0.1",
 	"description": "a network observatory for tangled — enumerate every knot, check their health, watch the federation",
 	"type": "module",
 	"bin": {
diff --git a/src/cli.ts b/src/cli.ts
index 55df2fd..61be0e5 100644
--- a/src/cli.ts
+++ b/src/cli.ts
@@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env node
+import { readFileSync } from "node:fs";
 import { parse } from "@bomb.sh/args";
 import { animateBanner } from "./banner.js";
 
 const args = parse(process.argv.slice(2), {
-	boolean: ["json", "all", "fresh", "help"],
-	alias: { h: "help" },
+	boolean: ["json", "all", "fresh", "help", "version"],
+	alias: { h: "help", v: "version" },
 });
 
 const usage = `usage:
@@ -12,8 +13,17 @@ const usage = `usage:
     --json          machine-readable output
     --all           include localhost/dev junk knots
     --fresh         skip the 5-minute cache
+  fid --version     print the version
 `;
 
+if (args.version) {
+	const pkg = JSON.parse(
+		readFileSync(new URL("../package.json", import.meta.url), "utf8"),
+	);
+	console.log(`fid ${pkg.version}`);
+	process.exit(0);
+}
+
 const [command] = args._;
 if (!args.json) await animateBanner(); // keep --json pipe-clean