Making qt --version represent the actual built version

.github/workflows/cli-release.yml

@@ -57,8 +57,40 @@ jobs:
       - uses: Swatinem/rust-cache@v2
         with:
           workspaces: cli
+      - name: Set CLI version
+        if: github.event_name == 'push' || github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch'
+        env:
+          EVENT_NAME: ${{ github.event_name }}
+          REF: ${{ github.ref }}
+          REF_NAME: ${{ github.ref_name }}
+          REF_TYPE: ${{ github.ref_type }}
+          COMMIT: ${{ github.sha }}
+        run: |
+          if [[ "$EVENT_NAME" == "workflow_dispatch" ]]; then
+            version="unversioned-${COMMIT}"
+          elif [[ "$REF_TYPE" == "tag" ]]; then
+            version="$REF_NAME"
+          elif [[ "$REF" == "refs/heads/main" ]]; then
+            version="beta-${COMMIT}"
+          else
+            echo "unable to determine CLI version" >&2
+            exit 1
+          fi
+
+          echo "QT_CLI_VERSION=$version" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
+          echo "EXPECTED_CLI_VERSION=$version" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
       - name: Build release binary
         run: cargo build --locked --release --target ${{ matrix.target }}
+      - name: Verify CLI version
+        if: github.event_name == 'push' || github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch'
+        env:
+          TARGET: ${{ matrix.target }}
+        run: |
+          actual="$("target/${TARGET}/release/qt" --version)"
+          if [[ "$actual" != "$EXPECTED_CLI_VERSION" ]]; then
+            echo "CLI version mismatch: expected '$EXPECTED_CLI_VERSION', got '$actual'" >&2
+            exit 1
+          fi
       - name: Package release artifact
         env:
           TARGET: ${{ matrix.target }}

cli/Cargo.toml

@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 [package]
 name = "qt"
+# As of this writing (2026-07-19), we are not distributing a Rust library, and this
+# will not change unless we do. The version that we care about is output by
+# `qt --version`, and that is set up in the cli-release.yml GitHub workflow definition.
 version = "0.1.0"
 edition = "2024"
 

cli/src/cli.rs

@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 use clap::{Parser, Subcommand};
 
-pub const VERSION: &str = env!("CARGO_PKG_VERSION");
+pub const VERSION: &str = match option_env!("QT_CLI_VERSION") {
+    Some(version) => version,
+    None => env!("CARGO_PKG_VERSION"),
+};
 
 #[derive(Debug, Parser)]
 #[command(

cli/tests/version.rs

@@ -2,8 +2,9 @@ use assert_cmd::Command;
 use predicates::prelude::*;
 
 #[test]
-fn version_flag_prints_cargo_package_version_without_a_prefix() {
-    let expected = predicate::eq(format!("{}\n", env!("CARGO_PKG_VERSION")));
+fn version_flag_prints_compiled_version_without_a_prefix() {
+    let version = option_env!("QT_CLI_VERSION").unwrap_or(env!("CARGO_PKG_VERSION"));
+    let expected = predicate::eq(format!("{version}\n"));
 
     Command::new(assert_cmd::cargo::cargo_bin!("qt"))
         .arg("--version")