diff --git a/awxkit/MANIFEST.in b/awxkit/MANIFEST.in
index af8c86dc4f..c6dd76a89c 100644
--- a/awxkit/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/awxkit/MANIFEST.in
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 include requirements.txt
 include setup.py
+include VERSION
 recursive-include awxkit *.py *.yml *.md
 recursive-include test *.py *.yml *.md
diff --git a/awxkit/VERSION b/awxkit/VERSION
new file mode 120000
index 0000000000..6ff19de4b8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/awxkit/VERSION
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+../VERSION
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/awxkit/setup.py b/awxkit/setup.py
index aa41ca14eb..200889424a 100644
--- a/awxkit/setup.py
+++ b/awxkit/setup.py
@@ -10,6 +10,13 @@ except ImportError:  # for pip <= 9.0.3
 requirements = [str(r.req) for r in parse_requirements('requirements.txt', session=False)]
 
 
+def get_version():
+    current_dir = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
+    version_file = os.path.join(current_dir, 'VERSION')
+    with open(version_file, 'r') as file:
+        return file.read().strip()
+
+
 class CleanCommand(Command):
     description = "Custom clean command that forcefully removes dist/build directories"
     user_options = []
@@ -50,10 +57,9 @@ class CleanCommand(Command):
                     os.remove(rm)
 
 
-version = '0.1.0'
 setup(
     name='awxkit',
-    version=version,
+    version=get_version(),
     description='awx cli client',
     packages=find_packages(exclude=['test']),
     cmdclass={