.dockerignore

@@ -4,3 +4,6 @@ tmp
 .DS_Store
 *.log
 .claude
+
+# .git is sent so the build can stamp the version, without its config.
+.git/config

Dockerfile

@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ RUN make lint
 # golang:1.25-alpine (2026-02-27)
 FROM golang:1.25-alpine@sha256:f6751d823c26342f9506c03797d2527668d095b0a15f1862cddb4d927a7a4ced AS builder
 
-RUN apk add --no-cache make
+RUN apk add --no-cache git make
 
 WORKDIR /src
 
@@ -40,8 +40,21 @@ RUN make test
 # CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -trimpath -ldflags "-s -w -X main.Version=..."
 # That script reads VERSION from the environment, so it is handed over
 # there rather than as a make variable.
-ARG VERSION=dev
+#
-RUN VERSION="${VERSION}" make build
+# The version is the VERSION build argument when one is given, otherwise
+# `git describe --tags --always` of the repo's .git: the tag on a tagged
+# commit, tag-N-gHASH on a commit after one, the short commit when no
+# tag is reachable. A version that still comes out empty, dev or unknown
+# fails the build. .git goes to /git, not /src/.git, where go build would
+# find it and record VCS details of a work tree holding only backend/.
+COPY .git /git
+ARG VERSION
+RUN version="${VERSION:-$(git --git-dir=/git describe --tags --always)}"; \
+    case "$version" in ""|dev|unknown) \
+        echo "version is '$version' although .git is present" >&2; \
+        exit 1 ;; \
+    esac; \
+    VERSION="$version" make build
 
 # Frontend stage
 # node:22-alpine as of 2026-02-22

script/cibuild

@@ -16,9 +16,8 @@ main() {
     "$SCRIPT_DIR/check"
     # Own line: a failing command substitution inside an argument does
     # not trip `set -e`, so the inline form degrades silently to an
-    # empty constant. VERSION is computed here because .dockerignore
+    # empty constant. The VERSION build argument takes precedence over
-    # excludes .git, so `git describe` in a build stage yields an empty
+    # the version a build stage derives from the .git in the context.
-    # version without failing.
     version="$(git describe --tags --always --dirty 2>/dev/null || true)"
     [ -n "$version" ] || version="unknown"
     docker build --no-cache \

script/docker

@@ -12,9 +12,8 @@ main() {
     cd "$ROOT"
     # Own line: a failing command substitution inside an argument does
     # not trip `set -e`, so the inline form degrades silently to an
-    # empty constant. VERSION is computed here because .dockerignore
+    # empty constant. The VERSION build argument takes precedence over
-    # excludes .git, so `git describe` in a build stage yields an empty
+    # the version a build stage derives from the .git in the context.
-    # version without failing.
     version="$(git describe --tags --always --dirty 2>/dev/null || true)"
     [ -n "$version" ] || version="unknown"
     docker build --no-cache \