diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 629693d500cb..371490bc76b4 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -337,6 +337,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "cxx-gen",
  "errno 0.2.8",
  "fast-float",
+ "git2",
  "hexponent",
  "inventory",
  "lazy_static",
@@ -357,6 +358,15 @@ dependencies = [
  "widestring-suffix",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "form_urlencoded"
+version = "1.2.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "a62bc1cf6f830c2ec14a513a9fb124d0a213a629668a4186f329db21fe045652"
+dependencies = [
+ "percent-encoding",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "getrandom"
 version = "0.2.10"
@@ -368,6 +378,19 @@ dependencies = [
  "wasi",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "git2"
+version = "0.17.2"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "7b989d6a7ca95a362cf2cfc5ad688b3a467be1f87e480b8dad07fee8c79b0044"
+dependencies = [
+ "bitflags 1.3.2",
+ "libc",
+ "libgit2-sys",
+ "log",
+ "url",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "glob"
 version = "0.3.1"
@@ -415,6 +438,16 @@ version = "2.1.0"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "9a3a5bfb195931eeb336b2a7b4d761daec841b97f947d34394601737a7bba5e4"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "idna"
+version = "0.4.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "7d20d6b07bfbc108882d88ed8e37d39636dcc260e15e30c45e6ba089610b917c"
+dependencies = [
+ "unicode-bidi",
+ "unicode-normalization",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "indexmap"
 version = "1.9.3"
@@ -489,6 +522,18 @@ version = "0.2.147"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "b4668fb0ea861c1df094127ac5f1da3409a82116a4ba74fca2e58ef927159bb3"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "libgit2-sys"
+version = "0.15.2+1.6.4"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "a80df2e11fb4a61f4ba2ab42dbe7f74468da143f1a75c74e11dee7c813f694fa"
+dependencies = [
+ "cc",
+ "libc",
+ "libz-sys",
+ "pkg-config",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "libloading"
 version = "0.7.4"
@@ -499,6 +544,18 @@ dependencies = [
  "winapi",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "libz-sys"
+version = "1.1.12"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "d97137b25e321a73eef1418d1d5d2eda4d77e12813f8e6dead84bc52c5870a7b"
+dependencies = [
+ "cc",
+ "libc",
+ "pkg-config",
+ "vcpkg",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "link-cplusplus"
 version = "1.0.9"
@@ -648,6 +705,12 @@ version = "0.1.2"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "19b17cddbe7ec3f8bc800887bab5e717348c95ea2ca0b1bf0837fb964dc67099"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "percent-encoding"
+version = "2.3.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "9b2a4787296e9989611394c33f193f676704af1686e70b8f8033ab5ba9a35a94"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "pkg-config"
 version = "0.3.27"
@@ -969,12 +1032,42 @@ dependencies = [
  "once_cell",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "tinyvec"
+version = "1.6.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "87cc5ceb3875bb20c2890005a4e226a4651264a5c75edb2421b52861a0a0cb50"
+dependencies = [
+ "tinyvec_macros",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "tinyvec_macros"
+version = "0.1.1"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "1f3ccbac311fea05f86f61904b462b55fb3df8837a366dfc601a0161d0532f20"
+
+[[package]]
+name = "unicode-bidi"
+version = "0.3.13"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "92888ba5573ff080736b3648696b70cafad7d250551175acbaa4e0385b3e1460"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "unicode-ident"
 version = "1.0.11"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "301abaae475aa91687eb82514b328ab47a211a533026cb25fc3e519b86adfc3c"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "unicode-normalization"
+version = "0.1.22"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "5c5713f0fc4b5db668a2ac63cdb7bb4469d8c9fed047b1d0292cc7b0ce2ba921"
+dependencies = [
+ "tinyvec",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "unicode-width"
 version = "0.1.10"
@@ -990,6 +1083,23 @@ dependencies = [
  "libc",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "url"
+version = "2.4.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "50bff7831e19200a85b17131d085c25d7811bc4e186efdaf54bbd132994a88cb"
+dependencies = [
+ "form_urlencoded",
+ "idna",
+ "percent-encoding",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "vcpkg"
+version = "0.2.15"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "accd4ea62f7bb7a82fe23066fb0957d48ef677f6eeb8215f372f52e48bb32426"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "version_check"
 version = "0.9.4"
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 1718f07ffbbd..06e83b3672cb 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@ autocxx-build = "0.23.1"
 cc = { git = "https://github.com/mqudsi/cc-rs", branch = "fish" }
 cxx-build = { git = "https://github.com/fish-shell/cxx", branch = "fish" }
 cxx-gen = { git = "https://github.com/fish-shell/cxx", branch = "fish" }
+git2 = { version = "0.17", default-features = false }
 rsconf = { git = "https://github.com/mqudsi/rsconf", branch = "master" }
 
 [lib]
@@ -80,4 +81,4 @@ fish-ffi-tests = ["inventory"]
 
 # The following features are auto-detected by the build-script and should not be enabled manually.
 asan = []
-bsd = []
\ No newline at end of file
+bsd = []
diff --git a/fish-rust/build.rs b/fish-rust/build.rs
index 3aab2bf79a1e..c734fca0279f 100644
--- a/fish-rust/build.rs
+++ b/fish-rust/build.rs
@@ -1,8 +1,12 @@
 use rsconf::{LinkType, Target};
 use std::env;
 use std::error::Error;
+use std::path::PathBuf;
 
 fn main() {
+    let version = find_version().unwrap_or("unknown".into());
+    println!("cargo:rustc-env=FISH_BUILD_VERSION={version}");
+
     for key in ["DOCDIR", "DATADIR", "SYSCONFDIR", "BINDIR"] {
         if let Ok(val) = env::var(key) {
             // Forward some CMake config
@@ -115,6 +119,25 @@ fn main() {
     rsconf::rebuild_if_paths_changed(&source_files);
 }
 
+fn find_version() -> Result<String, Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
+    let base_dir = PathBuf::from(env!("CARGO_MANIFEST_DIR"));
+    let version_file = base_dir.join("version");
+    let version = if version_file.exists() {
+        // First see if there is a version file (included in release tarballs),
+        std::fs::read_to_string(version_file)?
+    } else {
+        // then try git-describe
+        let repo = git2::Repository::open(base_dir)?;
+        let mut opts = git2::DescribeOptions::new();
+        let desc = repo.describe(opts.show_commit_oid_as_fallback(true))?;
+        desc.format(Some(
+            git2::DescribeFormatOptions::new().dirty_suffix("-dirty"),
+        ))?
+    };
+
+    Ok(version)
+}
+
 /// Dynamically enables certain features at build-time, without their having to be explicitly
 /// enabled in the `cargo build --features xxx` invocation.
 ///
diff --git a/fish-rust/src/env/environment.rs b/fish-rust/src/env/environment.rs
index ed2ebd4abf72..2198d4f3a17d 100644
--- a/fish-rust/src/env/environment.rs
+++ b/fish-rust/src/env/environment.rs
@@ -603,8 +603,7 @@ pub fn env_init(paths: Option<&ConfigPaths>, do_uvars: bool, default_paths: bool
     vars.set_one(L!("CMD_DURATION"), EnvMode::UNEXPORT, "0".into());
 
     // Set up the version variable.
-    let v = unsafe { CStr::from_ptr(ffi::get_fish_version()) };
-    let version = str2wcstring(v.to_bytes());
+    let version: WString = crate::BUILD_VERSION.into();
     vars.set_one(L!("version"), EnvMode::GLOBAL, version.clone());
     vars.set_one(L!("FISH_VERSION"), EnvMode::GLOBAL, version);
 
diff --git a/fish-rust/src/ffi.rs b/fish-rust/src/ffi.rs
index 65df48449c9c..47c7745fa001 100644
--- a/fish-rust/src/ffi.rs
+++ b/fish-rust/src/ffi.rs
@@ -77,7 +77,6 @@ include_cpp! {
     generate!("set_cloexec")
 
     generate!("init_input")
-    generate!("get_fish_version")
 
     generate_pod!("pipes_ffi_t")
     generate!("environment_t")
diff --git a/fish-rust/src/fish.rs b/fish-rust/src/fish.rs
index 46254c625e5a..05a380398829 100644
--- a/fish-rust/src/fish.rs
+++ b/fish-rust/src/fish.rs
@@ -57,8 +57,6 @@ use std::path::{Path, PathBuf};
 use std::sync::atomic::Ordering;
 use std::sync::Arc;
 
-// FIXME: generate this in `build.rs` so we can read this with `env!("FISH_BUILD_VERSION")`
-const FISH_BUILD_VERSION: &str = "3.6.1-99999-dirty";
 // FIXME: when the crate is actually called fish and not fish-rust, read this from cargo
 // See: https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/environment-variables.html#environment-variables-cargo-sets-for-crates
 // for reference
@@ -469,7 +467,7 @@ fn fish_parse_opt(args: &mut [&wstr], opts: &mut FishCmdOpts) -> usize {
             'v' => {
                 // FIXME: this was _(L"%s, version %s\n"), but rust-fwprintf! takes a literal instead of an expr
                 // and appears to not print anything
-                println!("{}, version {}", PACKAGE_NAME, FISH_BUILD_VERSION);
+                println!("{}, version {}", PACKAGE_NAME, crate::BUILD_VERSION);
 
                 std::process::exit(0);
             }
diff --git a/fish-rust/src/lib.rs b/fish-rust/src/lib.rs
index fde6f9e728e7..d83759372dbc 100644
--- a/fish-rust/src/lib.rs
+++ b/fish-rust/src/lib.rs
@@ -10,6 +10,8 @@
 #![allow(clippy::ptr_arg)]
 #![allow(clippy::field_reassign_with_default)]
 
+pub const BUILD_VERSION: &str = env!("FISH_BUILD_VERSION");
+
 #[macro_use]
 mod common;