diff --git a/src/bescli/bescli.py b/src/bescli/bescli.py
index 2239286..94cf87b 100644
--- a/src/bescli/bescli.py
+++ b/src/bescli/bescli.py
@@ -33,6 +33,8 @@
     # this is for the case in which we are calling bescli from besapi
     import besapi
 
+from besapi import __version__
+
 
 class BESCLInterface(Cmd):
     """BigFix command-line interface processor."""
@@ -293,6 +295,10 @@ def do_query(self, statement):
                 rel_result = self.bes_conn.session_relevance_string(rel_text)
                 self.poutput(rel_result)
 
+    def do_version(self, statement):
+        """output version of besapi"""
+        print(__version__)
+
 
 def main():
     """Run the command loop if invoked"""