diff --git a/spring-cloud-launcher/spring-cloud-launcher-deployer/pom.xml b/spring-cloud-launcher/spring-cloud-launcher-deployer/pom.xml
index 81f1bf2..2036806 100644
--- a/spring-cloud-launcher/spring-cloud-launcher-deployer/pom.xml
+++ b/spring-cloud-launcher/spring-cloud-launcher-deployer/pom.xml
@@ -87,6 +87,12 @@
 	</dependencies>
 
 	<build>
+		<resources>
+			<resource>
+				<directory>src/main/resources</directory>
+				<filtering>true</filtering>
+			</resource>
+		</resources>
 		<plugins>
 			<plugin>
 				<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
diff --git a/spring-cloud-launcher/spring-cloud-launcher-deployer/src/main/java/org/springframework/cloud/launcher/deployer/DeployerApplication.java b/spring-cloud-launcher/spring-cloud-launcher-deployer/src/main/java/org/springframework/cloud/launcher/deployer/DeployerApplication.java
index c6ec793..2c776f1 100644
--- a/spring-cloud-launcher/spring-cloud-launcher-deployer/src/main/java/org/springframework/cloud/launcher/deployer/DeployerApplication.java
+++ b/spring-cloud-launcher/spring-cloud-launcher-deployer/src/main/java/org/springframework/cloud/launcher/deployer/DeployerApplication.java
@@ -16,6 +16,9 @@
 
 package org.springframework.cloud.launcher.deployer;
 
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.Collection;
@@ -31,7 +34,10 @@ import org.springframework.boot.builder.SpringApplicationBuilder;
 import org.springframework.boot.logging.LogLevel;
 import org.springframework.boot.logging.logback.LogbackLoggingSystem;
 import org.springframework.context.ConfigurableApplicationContext;
+import org.springframework.core.io.ClassPathResource;
 import org.springframework.util.ClassUtils;
+import org.springframework.util.ReflectionUtils;
+import org.springframework.util.StreamUtils;
 import org.springframework.util.StringUtils;
 
 /**
@@ -42,8 +48,6 @@ public class DeployerApplication {
 	private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory
 			.getLogger(DeployerApplication.class);
 
-	private static final String DEFAULT_VERSION = "2.2.0.RELEASE";
-
 	private String[] args;
 
 	public DeployerApplication(String... args) {
@@ -103,8 +107,19 @@ public class DeployerApplication {
 
 	String getVersion() {
 		Package pkg = DeployerApplication.class.getPackage();
-		return (pkg != null ? pkg.getImplementationVersion() == null ? DEFAULT_VERSION
-				: pkg.getImplementationVersion() : DEFAULT_VERSION);
+		return (pkg != null ? pkg.getImplementationVersion() == null ? getDefaultVersion()
+				: pkg.getImplementationVersion() : getDefaultVersion());
+	}
+
+	String getDefaultVersion() {
+		try (InputStream in = new ClassPathResource("META-INF/cli-version.txt").getInputStream()) {
+			return StreamUtils.copyToString(in, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+		}
+		catch (IOException e) {
+			ReflectionUtils.rethrowRuntimeException(e);
+		}
+		// not reachable since exception rethrown at runtime
+		return null;
 	}
 
 	private void launch() {
diff --git a/spring-cloud-launcher/spring-cloud-launcher-deployer/src/main/resources/META-INF/cli-version.txt b/spring-cloud-launcher/spring-cloud-launcher-deployer/src/main/resources/META-INF/cli-version.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..73f30eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spring-cloud-launcher/spring-cloud-launcher-deployer/src/main/resources/META-INF/cli-version.txt
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+@project.version@
diff --git a/spring-cloud-launcher/spring-cloud-launcher-deployer/src/test/java/org/springframework/cloud/launcher/deployer/DeployerApplicationTests.java b/spring-cloud-launcher/spring-cloud-launcher-deployer/src/test/java/org/springframework/cloud/launcher/deployer/DeployerApplicationTests.java
index 76928ec..f3a350e 100644
--- a/spring-cloud-launcher/spring-cloud-launcher-deployer/src/test/java/org/springframework/cloud/launcher/deployer/DeployerApplicationTests.java
+++ b/spring-cloud-launcher/spring-cloud-launcher-deployer/src/test/java/org/springframework/cloud/launcher/deployer/DeployerApplicationTests.java
@@ -20,8 +20,7 @@ import org.junit.Ignore;
 import org.junit.Rule;
 import org.junit.Test;
 
-import static org.hamcrest.CoreMatchers.containsString;
-import static org.junit.Assert.assertThat;
+import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
 
 /**
  * @author Spencer Gibb
@@ -36,28 +35,35 @@ public class DeployerApplicationTests {
 	public void testDefaultLibrary() throws Exception {
 		DeployerApplication wrapper = new DeployerApplication();
 		if (System.getProperty("project.version") != null) {
-			assertThat(wrapper.getVersion(),
-					containsString(System.getProperty("project.version")));
+			assertThat(wrapper.getVersion())
+					.contains(System.getProperty("project.version"));
 		}
 	}
 
 	@Test
 	public void testCreateClassLoaderAndListDeployables() throws Exception {
 		new DeployerApplication("--launcher.list=true").run();
-		assertThat(output.toString(), containsString("configserver"));
+		assertThat(output.toString()).contains("configserver");
 	}
 
 	@Test
 	public void testNonOptionArgsPassedDown() throws Exception {
 		new DeployerApplication("--launcher.list=true", "--spring.profiles.active=test")
 				.run();
-		assertThat(output.toString(), containsString("foo"));
+		assertThat(output.toString()).contains("foo");
 	}
 
 	@Test
 	public void testInvalidDeployableFails() throws Exception {
 		new DeployerApplication("--launcher.deploy=foo,bar").run();
-		assertThat(output.toString(),
-				containsString("The following are not valid: 'foo,bar'"));
+		assertThat(output.toString())
+				.contains("The following are not valid: 'foo,bar'");
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void defaultVersionReadFromFile() {
+		String defaultVersion = new DeployerApplication("--launcher.deploy=foo,bar").getDefaultVersion();
+		// starts with one or more digits then a .
+		assertThat(defaultVersion).isNotBlank().containsPattern("^\\d+\\..*");
 	}
 }