diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests.yml b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
index 3e1a4fe92..88172fdd5 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/tests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
@@ -89,8 +89,8 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Run tests
         run: |
-          pytest -n8 --dist loadfile --ignore=tests/e2e/ --ignore=tests/patched/ tests/
-          pytest tests/patched/
+          pytest -v -n8 --dist loadfile --ignore=tests/e2e/ --ignore=tests/patched/ tests/
+          pytest -v tests/patched/
 
       - name: cleanup pip cache
         run: |
@@ -141,8 +141,8 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Run tests
         run: |
-          pytest -n8 --dist loadfile --ignore=tests/e2e/ --ignore=tests/patched/ tests/
-          pytest tests/patched/
+          pytest -v -n8 --dist loadfile --ignore=tests/e2e/ --ignore=tests/patched/ tests/
+          pytest -v tests/patched/
 
       - name: cleanup pip cache
         run: |
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 8d7173f28..848acab33 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,7 +1,10 @@
 """setup.py for axolotl"""
+import ast
+import os
 import platform
 import re
 from importlib.metadata import PackageNotFoundError, version
+from pathlib import Path
 
 from setuptools import find_packages, setup
 
@@ -90,9 +93,24 @@ def parse_requirements():
     return _install_requires, _dependency_links
 
 
+def get_package_version():
+    with open(
+        Path(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
+        / "src"
+        / "axolotl"
+        / "__init__.py",
+        "r",
+        encoding="utf-8",
+    ) as fin:
+        version_match = re.search(r"^__version__\s*=\s*(.*)$", fin.read(), re.MULTILINE)
+    version_ = ast.literal_eval(version_match.group(1))
+    return version_
+
+
 install_requires, dependency_links = parse_requirements()
 
 setup(
+    version=get_package_version(),
     package_dir={"": "src"},
     packages=find_packages("src"),
     install_requires=install_requires,
diff --git a/src/axolotl/__init__.py b/src/axolotl/__init__.py
index e555ece48..b4f1d06f7 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/__init__.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/__init__.py
@@ -1,8 +1,3 @@
 """Axolotl - Train and fine-tune large language models"""
 
-try:
-    from importlib.metadata import version
-
-    __version__ = version("axolotl")
-except ImportError:
-    __version__ = "unknown"
+__version__ = "0.5.3.dev0"
diff --git a/tests/cli/test_cli_version.py b/tests/cli/test_cli_version.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..819780e94
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/cli/test_cli_version.py
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+"""pytest tests for axolotl CLI --version"""
+from axolotl.cli.main import cli
+
+
+def test_print_version(cli_runner):
+    """Test that version is printed when --version is used."""
+
+    result = cli_runner.invoke(cli, ["--version"])
+    assert result.exit_code == 0
+    assert "axolotl, version " in result.output