diff --git a/meta-forgefirm/recipes-forgefirm/images/forgefirm-image-dev.bb b/meta-forgefirm/recipes-forgefirm/images/forgefirm-image-dev.bb
index 4064a74..364bee1 100644
--- a/meta-forgefirm/recipes-forgefirm/images/forgefirm-image-dev.bb
+++ b/meta-forgefirm/recipes-forgefirm/images/forgefirm-image-dev.bb
@@ -11,3 +11,7 @@ IMAGE_INSTALL += " \
 IMAGE_FEATURES += " \
   tools-debug \
 "
+
+# Dev builds identify by build timestamp (matches the artifact name),
+# tagged so a bench machine is never mistaken for a release.
+FORGEFIRM_VERSION_STRING = "${DATETIME} (dev)"
diff --git a/meta-forgefirm/recipes-forgefirm/images/forgefirm-image.bb b/meta-forgefirm/recipes-forgefirm/images/forgefirm-image.bb
index 0e54073..7e67070 100644
--- a/meta-forgefirm/recipes-forgefirm/images/forgefirm-image.bb
+++ b/meta-forgefirm/recipes-forgefirm/images/forgefirm-image.bb
@@ -17,3 +17,20 @@ IMAGE_INSTALL:remove = "gfui-client"
 # v4l-utils provides media-ctl / v4l2-ctl for the imx-media pipeline (also a
 # forgectrl runtime dependency, kept explicit here for bring-up use).
 IMAGE_INSTALL:append = " grblhal-glowforge forgectrl gfhome v4l-utils"
+
+# Version stamp: /etc/forgefirm-version (machine-readable), echoed on the
+# serial-console login prompt (/etc/issue) and at SSH login (motd).
+# Release images carry the release version; the dev image overrides the
+# string with the build timestamp (the same DATETIME as the artifact
+# name) plus a dev tag.
+FORGEFIRM_RELEASE ?= "0.1.0"
+FORGEFIRM_VERSION_STRING ?= "v${FORGEFIRM_RELEASE}"
+
+write_forgefirm_version() {
+    echo "${FORGEFIRM_VERSION_STRING}" > ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}${sysconfdir}/forgefirm-version
+    echo "ForgeFIRM ${FORGEFIRM_VERSION_STRING}" >> ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}${sysconfdir}/issue
+    echo "" >> ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}${sysconfdir}/issue
+    echo "ForgeFIRM ${FORGEFIRM_VERSION_STRING}" > ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}${sysconfdir}/motd
+}
+write_forgefirm_version[vardepsexclude] += "DATETIME"
+ROOTFS_POSTPROCESS_COMMAND += "write_forgefirm_version;"