diff --git a/ROADMAP.md b/ROADMAP.md
index d45addd..c48dc85 100644
--- a/ROADMAP.md
+++ b/ROADMAP.md
@@ -1,9 +1,12 @@
 # The Booth — roadmap
 
 Design: [`docs/design/information-architecture.md`](docs/design/information-architecture.md).
-Current version: `0.6.1` (**U1 through U7 landed — every v1 capability is in**;
-extracted from eshpfi 2026-09-21). **The 1.0 cut is now a decision, not a
-dependency**, and it is the operator's: a major bump needs his approval.
+Current version: `1.0.0b1` (**U1 through U7 landed — every v1 capability is
+in**; extracted from eshpfi 2026-09-21). **The v1 target is MET and staged as a
+beta** (operator, 2026-09-22): feature-complete, external testing, no new
+features — the remaining work is bugs. `1.0.0` final is cut when the beta
+survives; per the canonical policy an rc would be cut from the same commit,
+but a beta may still take fixes.
 
 ## v1 target
 
diff --git a/booth/__init__.py b/booth/__init__.py
index bdf0cb9..4a807f2 100644
--- a/booth/__init__.py
+++ b/booth/__init__.py
@@ -1,3 +1,42 @@
-"""The Booth — ephemeral media drop board. See booth.app for the server."""
+"""The Booth — ephemeral media drop board. See booth.app for the server.
 
-__version__ = "0.1.0"
+⚠ THIS FILE IS EFFECTIVELY STDLIB-ONLY and nothing used to say so. `scripts/booth`
+imports `booth.links` / `booth.marks` / `booth.manifest` under the SYSTEM python3
+with no venv, and importing any of them executes this module first — so a single
+third-party import here breaks `booth ask` on every fleet host exactly as one in
+those three would. `test_stdlib_only` now covers `__init__` for that reason.
+"""
+
+import tomllib
+from pathlib import Path
+
+_PYPROJECT = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent / "pyproject.toml"
+
+
+def _declared_version() -> str:
+    """The version of the code actually running, read from `pyproject.toml`.
+
+    ⚠ NOT `importlib.metadata`, and the reason is this repo's own shape: there
+    is no build step and no install step — `booth.service` runs uvicorn with
+    WorkingDirectory set to the repo, so the running code IS this tree.
+    Installed metadata describes a DIFFERENT artifact and was found saying
+    `0.3.0` (a vestigial dist-info, three releases stale, with no package
+    directory behind it) while the tree was at `1.0.0b1`. A confidently wrong
+    number that varies by environment is worse than the hardcoded `0.1.0` this
+    replaced, which at least failed the same way everywhere.
+
+    Falls back to installed metadata for the case this repo does not have but a
+    consumer might: packaged as a wheel, where pyproject does not ship.
+    """
+    try:
+        return tomllib.loads(_PYPROJECT.read_text())["project"]["version"]
+    except (OSError, KeyError, tomllib.TOMLDecodeError):
+        try:
+            from importlib.metadata import version
+
+            return version("booth")
+        except Exception:
+            return "0.0.0+unknown"
+
+
+__version__ = _declared_version()
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index b5b9763..7e950d7 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [project]
 name = "booth"
-version = "0.6.1"
+version = "1.0.0b1"
 description = "The Booth — a dead-simple standing web server that scans a data dir of drop-folders and renders each as an ephemeral media 'booth' (image/webm/audio auto-gallery, or a folder's own index.html verbatim). Also accepts browser/curl uploads for pickup under a human-readable id. 24h TTL, then the folder is wiped. Fleet tool for CC sessions to surface A/B and smoke results to the operator."
 requires-python = ">=3.11"
 dependencies = [
diff --git a/tests/test_marks.py b/tests/test_marks.py
index 0db2e62..38374e3 100644
--- a/tests/test_marks.py
+++ b/tests/test_marks.py
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ See docs/contracts/u2_marks.contract.md.
 """
 import ast
 import json
+import re
+import tomllib
 import pathlib
 import sys
 
@@ -276,7 +278,7 @@ def test_as_dict_round_trips_through_json(tmp_path):
 # ---- the stdlib-only invariant (INV-5) --------------------------------------
 
 
-@pytest.mark.parametrize("module", ["marks", "asks", "links", "manifest", "benches"])
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("module", ["marks", "asks", "links", "manifest", "benches", "__init__"])
 def test_stdlib_only(module):
     """INV-5. scripts/booth imports these under the system python3 with NO venv,
     through a `python3 -c` heredoc that no AST extractor can see — so nothing
@@ -1428,3 +1430,31 @@ def test_a_healthy_multi_answer_still_hydrates(tmp_path):
     by = {m.id: m for m in marks_for(tmp_path)}
     assert by["multi"].error is None, by["multi"].error
     assert by["single"].error is None, by["single"].error
+
+
+def test_the_package_version_carries_no_literal_of_its_own():
+    """`booth.__version__` said `0.1.0` through six releases while pyproject
+    said `0.6.1` — a second copy of one fact, drifting silently, found only
+    while cutting 1.0.
+
+    THE ASSERTION IS THE ABSENCE OF A LITERAL, not agreement with pyproject:
+    `__version__` is now READ from pyproject, so comparing the two would be
+    circular and would prove only that the read works. The defeating change is
+    hardcoding a number back into this module, and that is what this catches.
+    """
+    src = (pathlib.Path(__file__).parent.parent / "booth" / "__init__.py").read_text()
+    literals = re.findall(r'__version__\s*=\s*["\']([^"\']+)["\']', src)
+    assert not literals, f"booth/__init__.py hardcodes a version again: {literals}"
+
+
+def test_the_package_version_is_the_one_the_tree_declares():
+    """And it resolves, from the tree, to what pyproject says — NOT to whatever
+    a stale dist-info in some venv happens to record. Found saying `0.3.0` from
+    installed metadata while the tree was at `1.0.0b1`."""
+    import booth
+
+    declared = tomllib.loads(
+        (pathlib.Path(__file__).parent.parent / "pyproject.toml").read_text()
+    )["project"]["version"]
+    assert booth.__version__ == declared
+    assert booth.__version__ != "0.0.0+unknown", "the pyproject read fell through"