diff --git a/core/build.sh b/core/build.sh
index b97ce73515..291bb750b8 100755
--- a/core/build.sh
+++ b/core/build.sh
@@ -115,12 +115,10 @@ builder_describe_outputs \
   build:arch                /core/build/arch/$BUILDER_CONFIGURATION/src/libkeymancore.a \
   build:wasm                /core/build/wasm/$BUILDER_CONFIGURATION/src/libkeymancore.a
 
-# Import our standard compiler defines; this is copied from
-# /resources/build/meson/standard.meson.build by build.sh, because meson doesn't
-# allow us to reference a file outside its root
 if builder_has_action configure; then
-  mkdir -p "$THIS_SCRIPT_PATH/resources"
-  cp "$KEYMAN_ROOT/resources/build/meson/standard.meson.build" "$THIS_SCRIPT_PATH/resources/meson.build"
+  # Import our standard compiler defines
+  source "$KEYMAN_ROOT/resources/build/meson/standard_meson_build.inc.sh"
+  standard_meson_build
 fi
 
 # Iterate through all possible targets; note that targets that cannot be built
diff --git a/core/getversion.bat b/core/getversion.bat
deleted file mode 100644
index 69cf57c27b..0000000000
--- a/core/getversion.bat
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-@echo off
-REM Get the version number from VERSION.md
-more ..\VERSION.md
diff --git a/core/getversion.sh b/core/getversion.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 4d436285a3..0000000000
--- a/core/getversion.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env bash
-# Get the version number from VERSION.md
-cat ../VERSION.md
diff --git a/core/meson.build b/core/meson.build
index 8c6cbfdc61..01e016ad27 100644
--- a/core/meson.build
+++ b/core/meson.build
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 #
 
 project('keyman_core', 'cpp', 'c',
-        version: run_command(find_program('getversion.bat', 'getversion.sh'), check:true).stdout().strip(),
+        version: files('../VERSION.md'),
         license: 'MIT',
         default_options : ['buildtype=release',
                            'cpp_std=c++17',
diff --git a/developer/src/kmcmplib/build.sh b/developer/src/kmcmplib/build.sh
index aaf7184676..77036cc990 100755
--- a/developer/src/kmcmplib/build.sh
+++ b/developer/src/kmcmplib/build.sh
@@ -92,12 +92,10 @@ fi
 do_action clean
 
 # Note, we have a 'global' configure and also a per-arch configure
-if builder_start_action configure; then
-  # Import our standard compiler defines; this is copied from
-  # /resources/build/meson/standard.meson.build by build.sh, because meson doesn't
-  # allow us to reference a file outside its root
-  mkdir -p "$THIS_SCRIPT_PATH/resources"
-  cp "$KEYMAN_ROOT/resources/build/meson/standard.meson.build" "$THIS_SCRIPT_PATH/resources/meson.build"
+if builder_has_action configure; then
+  # Import our standard compiler defines
+  source "$KEYMAN_ROOT/resources/build/meson/standard_meson_build.inc.sh"
+  standard_meson_build
 
   # We have to checkout the keyboards repo in a 'configure' action because
   # otherwise meson will not get the right list of keyboard source files,
@@ -105,8 +103,6 @@ if builder_start_action configure; then
   if should_do_full_test; then
     checkout_keyboards
   fi
-
-  builder_finish_action success configure
 fi
 
 do_action configure
diff --git a/developer/src/kmcmplib/getversion.bat b/developer/src/kmcmplib/getversion.bat
deleted file mode 100644
index dcab02e4d9..0000000000
--- a/developer/src/kmcmplib/getversion.bat
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-@echo off
-REM Get the version number from VERSION.md
-more ..\..\..\VERSION.md
diff --git a/developer/src/kmcmplib/getversion.sh b/developer/src/kmcmplib/getversion.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index cd02c07929..0000000000
--- a/developer/src/kmcmplib/getversion.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,4 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-# Get the version number from VERSION.md
-VERSIONFILE=../../../VERSION.md
-cat $VERSIONFILE
diff --git a/developer/src/kmcmplib/meson.build b/developer/src/kmcmplib/meson.build
index d494e884d9..0493c504f4 100644
--- a/developer/src/kmcmplib/meson.build
+++ b/developer/src/kmcmplib/meson.build
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 #
 
 project('kmcmplib', 'cpp', 'c',
-        version: run_command(find_program('getversion.bat', 'getversion.sh'), check: true).stdout().strip(),
+        version: files('../../../VERSION.md'),
         license: 'MIT',
         default_options : ['buildtype=release',
                            'cpp_std=c++14',
diff --git a/linux/ibus-keyman/build.sh b/linux/ibus-keyman/build.sh
index 231e9039ea..d21c52c2ae 100755
--- a/linux/ibus-keyman/build.sh
+++ b/linux/ibus-keyman/build.sh
@@ -45,13 +45,10 @@ else
   MESON_COVERAGE=
 fi
 
-# Import our standard compiler defines; this is copied from
-# /resources/build/meson/standard.meson.build by build.sh, because meson doesn't
-# allow us to reference a file outside its root. ${THIS_SCRIPT_PATH}/meson.build
-# then includes `resources` as a subdir.
 if builder_has_action configure; then
-  mkdir -p "${THIS_SCRIPT_PATH}/resources"
-  cp "${KEYMAN_ROOT}/resources/build/meson/standard.meson.build" "${THIS_SCRIPT_PATH}/resources/meson.build"
+  # Import our standard compiler defines
+  source "$KEYMAN_ROOT/resources/build/meson/standard_meson_build.inc.sh"
+  standard_meson_build
 fi
 
 configure_action() {
diff --git a/linux/ibus-keyman/meson.build b/linux/ibus-keyman/meson.build
index e94c90285b..401da66004 100644
--- a/linux/ibus-keyman/meson.build
+++ b/linux/ibus-keyman/meson.build
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 project('ibus-keyman', 'c', 'cpp',
-        version: run_command('cat', '../../VERSION.md', check: true).stdout().strip(),
+        version: files('../../VERSION.md'),
         license: 'GPL-2+',
         meson_version: '>=1.0')
 
diff --git a/linux/keyman-system-service/build.sh b/linux/keyman-system-service/build.sh
index c9507726f4..cb66486f01 100755
--- a/linux/keyman-system-service/build.sh
+++ b/linux/keyman-system-service/build.sh
@@ -23,12 +23,12 @@ builder_describe \
 
 builder_parse "$@"
 
-# Import our standard compiler defines; this is copied from
-# /resources/build/meson/standard.meson.build by build.sh, because meson doesn't
-# allow us to reference a file outside its root. ${THIS_SCRIPT_PATH}/meson.build
-# then includes `resources` as a subdir.
 if builder_has_action configure; then
-  cp "${KEYMAN_ROOT}/resources/build/meson/standard.meson.build" "${THIS_SCRIPT_PATH}/resources/meson.build"
+  # Import our standard compiler defines
+  source "$KEYMAN_ROOT/resources/build/meson/standard_meson_build.inc.sh"
+  standard_meson_build
+
+  # TODO: it would be cleaner to split this from the standard.meson.build file/folder
   cat "${THIS_SCRIPT_PATH}/resources/meson.build.in" >> "${THIS_SCRIPT_PATH}/resources/meson.build"
 fi
 
diff --git a/linux/keyman-system-service/meson.build b/linux/keyman-system-service/meson.build
index c8ff6994aa..410ec80036 100644
--- a/linux/keyman-system-service/meson.build
+++ b/linux/keyman-system-service/meson.build
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 project('keyman-system-service', 'c', 'cpp',
-        version: run_command('cat', '../../VERSION.md', check: true).stdout().strip(),
+        version: files('../../VERSION.md'),
         license: 'GPL-2+',
         meson_version: '>=1.0')
 
diff --git a/linux/mcompile/keymap/meson.build b/linux/mcompile/keymap/meson.build
index c2ac9acc76..b6d489902c 100644
--- a/linux/mcompile/keymap/meson.build
+++ b/linux/mcompile/keymap/meson.build
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 project(
   'mcompile', 'c', 'cpp',
+  version: files('../../../VERSION.md'),
   license: 'MIT',
   meson_version: '>=1.0',
 )
diff --git a/mac/mcompile/meson.build b/mac/mcompile/meson.build
index 6a359f9f5c..0918028e45 100644
--- a/mac/mcompile/meson.build
+++ b/mac/mcompile/meson.build
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 project('mcompile', 'c', 'cpp',
+        version: files('../../VERSION.md'),
         license: 'MIT',
         meson_version: '>=1.0')
 
diff --git a/resources/build/meson-utils.inc.sh b/resources/build/meson-utils.inc.sh
index 24375a840a..271e017ea7 100644
--- a/resources/build/meson-utils.inc.sh
+++ b/resources/build/meson-utils.inc.sh
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 # This script contains common meson functions
 
+source "$KEYMAN_ROOT/resources/build/meson/standard_meson_build.inc.sh"
 
 # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # clean
@@ -17,11 +18,8 @@ do_meson_clean() {
 # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 do_meson_configure() {
-  # Import our standard compiler defines; this is copied from
-  # /resources/build/meson/standard.meson.build by build.sh, because meson doesn't
-  # allow us to reference a file outside its root
-  mkdir -p "$THIS_SCRIPT_PATH/resources"
-  cp "$KEYMAN_ROOT/resources/build/meson/standard.meson.build" "$THIS_SCRIPT_PATH/resources/meson.build"
+  # Import our standard compiler defines
+  standard_meson_build
 
   pushd "$THIS_SCRIPT_PATH" > /dev/null
   # Additional arguments are used by Linux build, e.g. -Dprefix=${INSTALLDIR}
diff --git a/resources/build/meson/standard.meson.build b/resources/build/meson/standard.meson.build
index a08eb7a6ad..0bf48f9e9c 100644
--- a/resources/build/meson/standard.meson.build
+++ b/resources/build/meson/standard.meson.build
@@ -4,6 +4,11 @@
 # This file has the master location /resources/build/meson/standard.meson.build,
 # and is copied into each project's <project>/resources/meson.build in the
 # configure step, so that it can be referenced by meson directly.
+#
+# Use standard_meson_build.inc.sh to make the file copy
+#
+
+
 #
 # Where possible, we want to use these flags everywhere
 #
@@ -26,6 +31,17 @@ message('meson.project_version(): ' + meson.project_version())
 message('host_machine.system(): ' + host_machine.system())
 message('compiler.get_id(): ' + cpp_compiler.get_id())
 
+#
+# Import `VERSION_WITH_TAG` which we can use where appropriate instead of
+# meson.project_version() which is only major.minor.patch.
+#
+
+fs = import('fs')
+if fs.exists('VERSION_WITH_TAG.md')
+  VERSION_WITH_TAG = fs.read('VERSION_WITH_TAG.md').strip()
+  message('VERSION_WITH_TAG: ' + VERSION_WITH_TAG)
+endif
+
 #
 # Standard compiler flags for all platforms
 #
diff --git a/resources/build/meson/standard_meson_build.inc.sh b/resources/build/meson/standard_meson_build.inc.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..39fd49de05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/resources/build/meson/standard_meson_build.inc.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+#
+# Keyman is copyright (C) SIL Global. MIT License.
+#
+# Created by mcdurdin on 2025-04-30
+#
+# This import script helps us setup a consistent meson environment across all
+# our build scripts. It will generate two files in the calling scripts
+# resources/ folder (which should be git-ignored):
+#
+#   * resources/meson.build - a copy of standard.meson.build from this folder
+#   * resources/VERSION_WITH_TAG.md - the value of the env var $VERSION_WITH_TAG
+#
+# We do this because meson doesn't allow us to:
+#
+#   * reference a file outside the project root, or
+#   * read environment variables
+#
+# Sample of normal usage:
+#
+#     if builder_has_action configure; then
+#       # Import our standard compiler defines
+#       source "$KEYMAN_ROOT/resources/build/meson/standard_meson_build.inc.sh"
+#       standard_meson_build
+#     fi
+#
+# ${THIS_SCRIPT_PATH}/meson.build then includes `resources` as a subdir:
+#
+#     subdir('resources')
+#
+
+standard_meson_build() {
+  mkdir -p "$THIS_SCRIPT_PATH/resources"
+  cp "$KEYMAN_ROOT/resources/build/meson/standard.meson.build" "$THIS_SCRIPT_PATH/resources/meson.build"
+  echo "$VERSION_WITH_TAG" > "$THIS_SCRIPT_PATH/resources/VERSION_WITH_TAG.md"
+}