diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index 8f2ad009..bc4b5cd4 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ jobs:
           name: Create artifact upload directory and set variables
           command: |
               mkdir /tmp/upload
-              echo 'export CIBUILD=0.1.$(git rev-list HEAD --count | xargs printf "%04d")' >> $BASH_ENV
+              echo 'export CIBUILD=$(cat VERSION).$(git rev-list HEAD --count | xargs printf "%04d")' >> $BASH_ENV
               echo 'export CIBRANCH=$(git name-rev --name-only HEAD)' >> $BASH_ENV
               echo '[ "$CIBRANCH" != "master" ] && export CIVERSION=$CIBRANCH-$CIBUILD || export CIVERSION=$CIBUILD' >> $BASH_ENV
 
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..49d59571
--- /dev/null
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+0.1
diff --git a/contrib/deb/generate.sh b/contrib/deb/generate.sh
index e2c98208..6e58e875 100644
--- a/contrib/deb/generate.sh
+++ b/contrib/deb/generate.sh
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ PKGBRANCH=$(basename `git name-rev --name-only HEAD`)
 if [ "$PKGBRANCH" = "master" ]; then PKGNAME=yggdrasil
 else PKGNAME=yggdrasil-${PKGBRANCH}; fi
 PKGARCH=${PKGARCH-amd64}
-PKGVERSION=0.$(git rev-list HEAD --count 2>/dev/null | xargs printf "%04d")
+PKGVERSION=$(cat VERSION).$(git rev-list HEAD --count 2>/dev/null | xargs printf "%04d")
 PKGFILE=$PKGNAME-$PKGVERSION-$PKGARCH.deb
 
 if [ $PKGARCH = "amd64" ]; then GOARCH=amd64 GOOS=linux ./build