diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 797f1ca..e5d1651 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -183,6 +183,10 @@ COLI_MODEL=/nvme/glm52_i4 ./coli doctor   # read-only readiness check
 The engine at runtime is pure C — python is only used by the one-time converter
 and the optional API gateway.
 
+Prefer a `coli` command on your PATH? From a checkout, `pip install -e .`
+registers it (the engine itself still lives in `c/` — this is an editable
+install from the clone, not a standalone wheel).
+
 ### 3. Go deeper
 
 | topic | doc |
diff --git a/colibri/_version.py b/colibri/_version.py
index 9951ca1..174442a 100644
--- a/colibri/_version.py
+++ b/colibri/_version.py
@@ -1,3 +1,23 @@
-"""Single source of truth for the colibrì version number."""
+"""Version accessor for the pip package.
 
-__version__ = "1.0.0"
+The single source of truth is c/version.py (#394): coli --version and the
+GitHub Release workflow read it, so the pip metadata must read the SAME file
+instead of carrying a second literal that would drift on the first bump.
+
+From a checkout (the supported install: `pip install -e .`) the file is read
+directly. From an installed wheel c/ is not on disk, so fall back to the
+package metadata that setuptools baked at build time from that same file.
+"""
+from pathlib import Path
+
+try:
+    _ns = {}
+    exec((Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent / "c" / "version.py").read_text(), _ns)
+    __version__ = _ns["__version__"]
+except OSError:
+    from importlib.metadata import PackageNotFoundError, version
+
+    try:
+        __version__ = version("colibri-engine")
+    except PackageNotFoundError:
+        __version__ = "0.0.0+unknown"