diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index edcbba4d5..eb6be73dd 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@ Pipfile.lock
 *.egg
 .eggs
 MANIFEST
+spacy/git_info.py
 
 # Temporary files
 *.~*
diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index 1947b9140..9819c7b70 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -6,3 +6,4 @@ include bin/spacy
 include pyproject.toml
 recursive-exclude spacy/lang *.json
 recursive-include spacy/lang *.json.gz
+recursive-include licenses *
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 62a09aa73..01e372e91 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -118,6 +118,55 @@ def is_source_release(path):
     return os.path.exists(os.path.join(path, "PKG-INFO"))
 
 
+# Include the git version in the build (adapted from NumPy)
+# Copyright (c) 2005-2020, NumPy Developers.
+# BSD 3-Clause license, see licenses/3rd_party_licenses.txt
+def write_git_info_py(filename="spacy/git_info.py"):
+    def _minimal_ext_cmd(cmd):
+        # construct minimal environment
+        env = {}
+        for k in ["SYSTEMROOT", "PATH", "HOME"]:
+            v = os.environ.get(k)
+            if v is not None:
+                env[k] = v
+        # LANGUAGE is used on win32
+        env["LANGUAGE"] = "C"
+        env["LANG"] = "C"
+        env["LC_ALL"] = "C"
+        out = subprocess.check_output(cmd, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT, env=env)
+        return out
+
+    git_version = "Unknown"
+    if os.path.exists(".git"):
+        try:
+            out = _minimal_ext_cmd(["git", "rev-parse", "--short", "HEAD"])
+            git_version = out.strip().decode("ascii")
+        except:
+            pass
+    elif os.path.exists(filename):
+        # must be a source distribution, use existing version file
+        try:
+            a = open(filename, "r")
+            lines = a.readlines()
+            git_version = lines[-1].split('"')[1]
+        except:
+            pass
+        finally:
+            a.close()
+
+    text = """# THIS FILE IS GENERATED FROM SPACY SETUP.PY
+#
+GIT_VERSION = "%(git_version)s"
+"""
+    a = open(filename, "w")
+    try:
+        a.write(
+            text % {"git_version": git_version,}
+        )
+    finally:
+        a.close()
+
+
 def clean(path):
     for name in MOD_NAMES:
         name = name.replace(".", "/")
@@ -140,6 +189,8 @@ def chdir(new_dir):
 
 
 def setup_package():
+    write_git_info_py()
+
     root = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
 
     if len(sys.argv) > 1 and sys.argv[1] == "clean":
diff --git a/spacy/language.py b/spacy/language.py
index faa0447a4..e9d195453 100644
--- a/spacy/language.py
+++ b/spacy/language.py
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ from .lang.tag_map import TAG_MAP
 from .tokens import Doc
 from .lang.lex_attrs import LEX_ATTRS, is_stop
 from .errors import Errors, Warnings
+from .git_info import GIT_VERSION
 from . import util
 from . import about
 
@@ -206,6 +207,7 @@ class Language(object):
         self._meta.setdefault("email", "")
         self._meta.setdefault("url", "")
         self._meta.setdefault("license", "")
+        self._meta.setdefault("spacy_git_version", GIT_VERSION)
         self._meta["vectors"] = {
             "width": self.vocab.vectors_length,
             "vectors": len(self.vocab.vectors),