diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index b9eb9fc9..c5ecfae2 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -16,3 +16,4 @@ defusedxml>=0.7
 pyaes
 requests
 ipython>=8
+GitPython
diff --git a/src/Config.py b/src/Config.py
index fee378d0..768443e5 100644
--- a/src/Config.py
+++ b/src/Config.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import argparse
 import sys
 import os
+import platform
 import locale
 import re
 import configparser
@@ -9,9 +10,21 @@ import logging.handlers
 import stat
 import time
 
-class Config(object):
+class Config:
 
     def __init__(self, argv):
+        try:
+            from . import Build
+        except ImportError:
+            print('cannot find build')
+            from .util import Git
+            self.build_type = 'source'
+            self.branch = Git.branch() or 'unknown'
+            self.commit = Git.commit() or 'unknown'
+        else:
+            self.build_type = Build.build_type
+            self.branch = Build.branch
+            self.commit = Build.commit
         self.version = "0.7.10+"
         self.user_agent = "conservancy"
         # DEPRECATED ; replace with git-generated commit
@@ -306,7 +319,8 @@ class Config(object):
         self.parser.add_argument('--tor-hs-port', help='Hidden service port in Tor always mode', metavar='limit', type=int, default=15441)
 
         self.parser.add_argument('--repl', help='Instead of printing logs in console, drop into REPL after initialization', action='store_true')
-        self.parser.add_argument('--version', action='version', version=f'zeronet-conservancy {self.version} r{self.rev}')
+        self.parser.add_argument('--version', action='version',
+                                 version=f'zeronet-conservancy {self.version} ({self.build_type} from {self.branch}-{self.commit})')
         self.parser.add_argument('--end', help='Stop multi value argument parsing', action='store_true')
 
         return self.parser
diff --git a/src/buildinfo.py b/src/buildinfo.py
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..38de4cae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/buildinfo.py
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+
+##  Copyright (c) 2023 caryoscelus
+##
+##  zeronet-conservancy is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
+##  terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
+##  Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
+##
+##  zeronet-conservancy is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+##  WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
+##  FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
+##  details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
+## zeronet-conservancy. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+##
+
+"""A small script to generate build info"""
+
+from util import Git
+
+import sys
+
+def main(argv):
+    if len(argv) < 2:
+        print(f'Useage: {argv[0]} <build-type>')
+        print('Known build types:')
+        sys.exit(1)
+    else:
+        writeBuildInfo(argv[1])
+
+def writeBuildInfo(build_type):
+    bvars = {
+        'build_type': build_type,
+        'branch': Git.branch(),
+        'commit': Git.commit(),
+    }
+    code = '\n'.join(f'{var} = {repr(val)}' for var, val in bvars.items())
+    content = \
+        '# auto-generated by buildinfo.py\n' \
+        '# This file should not persist in git tree\n' + code + '\n'
+    with open('src/Build.py', 'w') as f:
+        f.write(content)
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    from sys import argv
+    main(argv)
diff --git a/src/util/Git.py b/src/util/Git.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..7b60d396
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/util/Git.py
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+##  Copyright (c) 2023 caryoscelus
+##
+##  zeronet-conservancy is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
+##  terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
+##  Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
+##
+##  zeronet-conservancy is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+##  WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
+##  FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
+##  details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
+## zeronet-conservancy. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+##
+
+"""Git-related operations
+
+Currently this is only to retrieve git revision for debug purposes, but later on we might
+also want to use it for updates.
+"""
+
+import os
+
+from typing import Optional
+
+global git
+
+try:
+    import git
+except ImportError:
+    git = None
+else:
+    try:
+        global _repo
+        up = os.path.dirname
+        root = up(up(up(__file__)))
+        print(root)
+        _repo = git.Repo(root)
+    except Exception as exc:
+        print("Caught exception while trying to detect git repo.")
+        traceback.print_exc()
+        git = None
+
+def _gitted(f):
+    if git:
+        return f
+    else:
+        return lambda *args, **kwargs: None
+
+@_gitted
+def commit() -> str:
+    """Returns git revision, possibly suffixed with -dirty"""
+    dirty = '-dirty' if _repo.is_dirty() else ''
+    return f'{_repo.head.commit}{dirty}'
+
+@_gitted
+def branch() -> Optional[str]:
+    """Returns current git branch if any"""
+    try:
+        return str(_repo.active_branch)
+    except TypeError:
+        return None