CLI UX: 'axon version' should display meaningful version information
Nobody has claimed this yet.
- Dominant language
- Go
- Stars
- 331
- Forks
- 40
- Avg merge
- 1d 21h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 70
Description
Problem
As a new user trying out Axon, running axon version only displays "latest", which is not helpful for:
- Troubleshooting - Users can't tell maintainers what version they're running
- Upgrade decisions - Can't determine if they need to upgrade
- Verification - Can't verify their installation worked correctly
Current output:
$ axon version
latest
Expected Behavior
The version command should display meaningful information such as:
axon version v0.1.0
Git commit: f4b2c1d
Built: 2026-02-09T12:00:00Z
Go version: go1.23.4
Or at minimum:
axon v0.1.0 (f4b2c1d)
Context
Most CLI tools (kubectl, gh, docker, etc.) provide detailed version information including:
- Semantic version or release tag
- Git commit hash
- Build date
- Platform/architecture
- Go version (for Go tools)
This is especially important for open-source projects where users may be building from source or using different distribution channels.
Suggested Implementation
Use build-time flags to inject version information:
go build -ldflags "-X main.version=${VERSION} -X main.commit=${GIT_COMMIT} -X main.date=${BUILD_DATE}"
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start with the implementation of the axon version command and the Go build invocation that can receive -ldflags. Confirm how the current latest output is produced, then make the command report available version metadata such as the release version and commit; done means axon version no longer shows only latest.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- go
- Domain
- build-system, cli
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 3/5
- Estimated time
- 1-2 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100