Version flag outputs version string

Automation scripts, CI pipelines, and package managers all query --version to verify which release is installed before running. Without a working version flag, a script cannot confirm it's using the correct build, which leads to silent version mismatches in production. A hardcoded version string that drifts from package.json (or pyproject.toml / Cargo.toml) compounds the problem: tools report a version they are not. ISO 25010:2011 usability.learnability directly penalizes discoverable interfaces that omit this basic contract.

Wire the version flag directly to your package manifest so it can never drift. In commander, read from package.json at startup:

import { readFileSync } from 'fs'
const pkg = JSON.parse(readFileSync(new URL('../package.json', import.meta.url), 'utf8'))
program.version(pkg.version, '-v, --version')

In click, pull from importlib.metadata:

from importlib.metadata import version
@click.group()
@click.version_option(version=version('my-tool'))
def cli(): pass

In cobra, set the version at build time via ldflags so it never needs a runtime read:

var rootCmd = &cobra.Command{Version: version}