diff --git a/scripts/build-pre.js b/scripts/build-pre.js
index 8b2e29d8f3..4b34f6d414 100644
--- a/scripts/build-pre.js
+++ b/scripts/build-pre.js
@@ -7,20 +7,35 @@ const fs = require('fs');
 const packageJsonPath = __dirname + '/../package.json'
 const { execFileSync } = require('node:child_process');
 
-function build() {
-	let gitVersion;
-	try {
-		gitVersion = execFileSync('git', ['describe', '--tags'], {
-			encoding: 'utf-8',
-		});
-		gitVersion = gitVersion.trim();
-	} catch (e) {
-		console.warn("couldn't get git commit details, ignoring",e);
+function callGit(args) {
+	return execFileSync('git', args, {
+		encoding: 'utf-8',
+	}).trim();
+}
+
+function getGitVersion(versionFromPackageJson) {
+	const thisTag = callGit(['tag', '--points-at', 'HEAD']);
+	if (thisTag) {
+		// we're building from a tag, we don't care about extra details
+		return null;
 	}
 
+	const commitId = callGit(['rev-parse', '--short', 'HEAD']);
+	return `${versionFromPackageJson}+g${commitId}`;
+}
+
+function build() {
 	try {
 		const json = fs.readFileSync(packageJsonPath, 'utf-8')
 		const meta = JSON.parse(json);
+
+		let gitVersion;
+		try {
+			gitVersion = getGitVersion(meta.version);
+		} catch (e) {
+			console.warn("couldn't get git commit details, ignoring",e);
+		}
+
 		fs.mkdirSync(__dirname + '/../built', { recursive: true });
 		fs.writeFileSync(__dirname + '/../built/meta.json', JSON.stringify({ version: meta.version, gitVersion }), 'utf-8');
 	} catch (e) {