diff --git a/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Version.hs b/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Version.hs
index 645eb0d46..a0f1143b8 100644
--- a/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Version.hs
+++ b/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Version.hs
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ module Hledger.Cli.Version (
   PackageVersion,
   VersionString,
   packageversion,
+  packagemajorversion,
   progname,
   versionStringWith,
 )
@@ -18,6 +19,8 @@ import System.Info (os, arch)
 import Data.List (intercalate)
 import Data.Maybe (fromMaybe)
 
+import Hledger.Utils (splitAtElement)
+
 type ProgramName    = String
 type PackageVersion = String
 type VersionString  = String
@@ -32,6 +35,10 @@ packageversion =
   ""
 #endif
 
+-- | Just the first 1-2 components of packageversion.
+packagemajorversion :: PackageVersion
+packagemajorversion = intercalate "." $ take 2 $ splitAtElement '.' packageversion
+
 -- | The name of this package's main executable.
 progname :: ProgramName
 progname = "hledger"