diff --git a/app/app.go b/app/app.go
index 99a40de..48e3886 100644
--- a/app/app.go
+++ b/app/app.go
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ import (
 
 // App is the application.
 type App struct {
+	name string
 	ctx  *actx.Context
 	cli  *cli.CLI
 	args []string
@@ -35,13 +36,17 @@ type App struct {
 // the directory where application data will be stored, though this can be
 // overriden with the DISCO_DATA_DIR environment variable, and --data-dir CLI
 // flag.
-func New(dataDir string, opts ...Option) (*App, error) {
+func New(name, dataDir string, opts ...Option) (*App, error) {
+	version, err := actx.GetVersion()
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
 	defaultCtx := &actx.Context{
 		Ctx:     context.Background(),
 		Logger:  slog.Default(),
 		Version: version,
 	}
-	app := &App{ctx: defaultCtx}
+	app := &App{name: name, ctx: defaultCtx}
 
 	for _, opt := range opts {
 		opt(app)
@@ -54,7 +59,8 @@ func New(dataDir string, opts ...Option) (*App, error) {
 	}
 	app.ctx.UUIDGen = uuidgen
 
-	app.cli, err = cli.New(dataDir, app.ctx.Version)
+	ver := fmt.Sprintf("%s %s", app.name, app.ctx.Version.String())
+	app.cli, err = cli.New(dataDir, ver)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
diff --git a/app/cli/init.go b/app/cli/init.go
index bf11bc0..ee25940 100644
--- a/app/cli/init.go
+++ b/app/cli/init.go
@@ -36,12 +36,12 @@ func (c *Init) Run(appCtx *actx.Context) error {
 		return fmt.Errorf("failed generating the server TLS certificate: %w", err)
 	}
 
-	appCtx.User, err = appCtx.DB.Init(appCtx.Version, tlsCert, tlsPrivKey, rndSAN, appCtx.Logger)
+	appCtx.User, err = appCtx.DB.Init(appCtx.Version.Semantic, tlsCert, tlsPrivKey, rndSAN, appCtx.Logger)
 	if err != nil {
 		return aerrors.NewRuntimeError("failed initializing database", err, "")
 	}
 
-	if err = appCtx.Store.Init(appCtx.Version, appCtx.Logger); err != nil {
+	if err = appCtx.Store.Init(appCtx.Version.Semantic, appCtx.Logger); err != nil {
 		return aerrors.NewRuntimeError("failed initializing store", err, "")
 	}
 
diff --git a/app/context/context.go b/app/context/context.go
index 4bfb50e..20c51c6 100644
--- a/app/context/context.go
+++ b/app/context/context.go
@@ -42,8 +42,7 @@ type Context struct {
 	User  *models.User // current app user
 
 	// Metadata
-	Version     string // short semantic app version
-	VersionFull string // app version including Go runtime information
+	Version     *VersionInfo
 	VersionInit string // app version the DB was initialized with
 }
 
diff --git a/app/context/version.go b/app/context/version.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8256616
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/context/version.go
@@ -0,0 +1,127 @@
+package context
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"regexp"
+	"runtime"
+	"runtime/debug"
+	"strconv"
+	"strings"
+)
+
+// The semantic version of the application.
+// This can be overriden by vcsVersion.
+const version = "0.0.0"
+
+var (
+	vcsVersion string // version from VCS set at build time
+	// Simplified semver regex. A more complete one can be found on https://semver.org/
+	versionRx = regexp.MustCompile(`^v?(0|[1-9]\d*)\.(0|[1-9]\d*)\.(0|[1-9]\d*).*`)
+	shaRx     = regexp.MustCompile(`^g[0-9a-f]{6,}`)
+)
+
+// VersionInfo stores app version information.
+type VersionInfo struct {
+	Commit      string
+	Semantic    string
+	TagDistance int // number of commits since latest tag
+	Dirty       bool
+	goInfo      string
+}
+
+// GetVersion returns the app version including VCS and Go runtime information.
+// It first reads the VCS version set at build time, and falls back to the VCS
+// information provided by the Go runtime.
+// The information in the Go runtime is not as extensive as the one extracted
+// from Git, and we use the Go runtime information in case the binary is built
+// without setting -ldflags (e.g. Homebrew), so we still need both.
+// See https://github.com/golang/go/issues/50603
+func GetVersion() (*VersionInfo, error) {
+	vi := &VersionInfo{}
+	vi.goInfo = fmt.Sprintf("%s, %s/%s", runtime.Version(), runtime.GOOS, runtime.GOARCH)
+
+	if vcsVersion != "" {
+		if err := vi.UnmarshalText([]byte(vcsVersion)); err != nil {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed reading VCS version '%s': %w", vcsVersion, err)
+		}
+	}
+
+	vi.extractVersionFromRuntime()
+
+	if vi.Semantic == "" {
+		vi.Semantic = version
+	}
+
+	return vi, nil
+}
+
+// String returns the full version information.
+func (vi *VersionInfo) String() string {
+	var distance string
+	if vi.TagDistance > 0 {
+		distance = fmt.Sprintf("-%d", vi.TagDistance)
+	}
+
+	var dirty string
+	if vi.Dirty {
+		dirty = "-dirty"
+	}
+
+	return fmt.Sprintf("v%s (commit/%s%s%s, %s)",
+		vi.Semantic, vi.Commit, distance, dirty, vi.goInfo)
+}
+
+// UnmarshalText parses the output of `git describe`.
+func (vi *VersionInfo) UnmarshalText(data []byte) error {
+	parts := strings.Split(string(data), "-")
+	verParts := []string{}
+
+	for _, part := range parts {
+		if shaRx.Match([]byte(part)) {
+			vi.Commit = strings.TrimPrefix(part, "g")
+			continue
+		}
+		if part == "dirty" {
+			vi.Dirty = true
+			continue
+		}
+		if distance, err := strconv.Atoi(part); err == nil {
+			vi.TagDistance = distance
+			continue
+		}
+		verParts = append(verParts, part)
+	}
+
+	ver := strings.Join(verParts, "-")
+	if versionRx.Match([]byte(ver)) {
+		vi.Semantic = strings.TrimPrefix(ver, "v")
+	} else if vi.Commit == "" {
+		vi.Commit = ver
+	}
+
+	return nil
+}
+
+func (vi *VersionInfo) extractVersionFromRuntime() {
+	buildInfo, ok := debug.ReadBuildInfo()
+	if !ok {
+		return
+	}
+
+	for _, s := range buildInfo.Settings {
+		switch s.Key {
+		case "vcs.revision":
+			commitLen := 10
+			if len(s.Value) < commitLen {
+				commitLen = len(s.Value)
+			}
+			if vi.Commit == "" {
+				vi.Commit = s.Value[:commitLen]
+			}
+		case "vcs.modified":
+			if s.Value == "true" {
+				vi.Dirty = true
+			}
+		}
+	}
+}
diff --git a/app/utils_test.go b/app/utils_test.go
index 1684e54..e70994c 100644
--- a/app/utils_test.go
+++ b/app/utils_test.go
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ func newTestApp(ctx context.Context, options ...Option) (*testApp, error) {
 		WithUser(localUser),
 	}
 	opts = append(opts, options...)
-	app, err := New("/disco", opts...)
+	app, err := New("Disco", "/disco", opts...)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
diff --git a/app/version.go b/app/version.go
deleted file mode 100644
index 4a2f82e..0000000
--- a/app/version.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,4 +0,0 @@
-package app
-
-// The app version is extracted from Git and set by the Go linker at build time.
-var version string
diff --git a/cmd/disco/main.go b/cmd/disco/main.go
index 94b483f..f3b67dc 100644
--- a/cmd/disco/main.go
+++ b/cmd/disco/main.go
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ import (
 func main() {
 	// NOTE: The order of the passed options is significant, as some options
 	// depend on the values set by previous ones.
-	a, err := app.New(filepath.Join(xdg.DataHome, "disco"),
+	a, err := app.New("Disco", filepath.Join(xdg.DataHome, "disco"),
 		app.WithFDs(
 			os.Stdin,
 			colorable.NewColorable(os.Stdout),