diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index af24779b2cf..4a2583979a1 100755
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -19,3 +19,6 @@
 # Mercurial files
 **/.hg
 **/.hg*
+
+# Version file we automatically make
+/pkg/version/autogenerated.go
diff --git a/hack/build-go.sh b/hack/build-go.sh
index e2869a3bacd..4b41ec128a9 100755
--- a/hack/build-go.sh
+++ b/hack/build-go.sh
@@ -18,6 +18,9 @@
 
 set -e
 
+# Update the version.
+$(dirname $0)/version-gen.sh
+
 source $(dirname $0)/config-go.sh
 
 cd "${KUBE_TARGET}"
diff --git a/hack/version-gen.sh b/hack/version-gen.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..5b14f869cb6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hack/version-gen.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# Copyright 2014 Google Inc. All rights reserved.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+# TODO: when we start making tags, switch to git describe?
+desc=$(git rev-list --abbrev-commit --max-count=1 HEAD)
+tab=$'\t'
+script="22s/.*/${tab}commitFromGit = \`${desc}\`/"
+infile="$(dirname $0)/../pkg/version/template.go"
+outfile="$(dirname $0)/../pkg/version/autogenerated.go"
+sed "${script}" "${infile}" > "${outfile}"
diff --git a/pkg/version/doc.go b/pkg/version/doc.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..0993bcf86cb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/version/doc.go
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2014 Google Inc. All rights reserved.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
+// Package version supplies version information collected at build time to
+// kubernetes components.
+package version
diff --git a/pkg/version/template.go b/pkg/version/template.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..f7d0e5c17f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/version/template.go
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2014 Google Inc. All rights reserved.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
+package version
+
+// This file is the template for the machine-edited autogenerated.go.
+// Do not modify this file without also modifying hack/version-gen.sh.
+var (
+	placeholder interface{}
+)
diff --git a/pkg/version/version.go b/pkg/version/version.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..ea5e4db15eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/version/version.go
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2014 Google Inc. All rights reserved.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
+package version
+
+func Get() (major, minor, gitCommit string) {
+	return "v1beta", "1", commitFromGit
+}