diff --git a/include/wlr/version.h.in b/include/wlr/version.h.in
index dcfcb751d..10ff73469 100644
--- a/include/wlr/version.h.in
+++ b/include/wlr/version.h.in
@@ -9,4 +9,9 @@
 
 #define WLR_VERSION_NUM ((WLR_VERSION_MAJOR << 16) | (WLR_VERSION_MINOR << 8) | WLR_VERSION_MICRO)
 
+/* For runtime version detection */
+int wlr_version_get_major(void);
+int wlr_version_get_minor(void);
+int wlr_version_get_micro(void);
+
 #endif
diff --git a/util/meson.build b/util/meson.build
index d67911e52..6aad13386 100644
--- a/util/meson.build
+++ b/util/meson.build
@@ -15,4 +15,5 @@ wlr_files += files(
 	'token.c',
 	'transform.c',
 	'utf8.c',
+	'version.c',
 )
diff --git a/util/version.c b/util/version.c
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..081146bd5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/util/version.c
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+#include "wlr/version.h"
+
+int wlr_version_get_major(void) {
+	return WLR_VERSION_MAJOR;
+}
+
+int wlr_version_get_minor(void) {
+	return WLR_VERSION_MINOR;
+}
+
+int wlr_version_get_micro(void) {
+	return WLR_VERSION_MICRO;
+}