diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index db2900f71a9..19d075c15fd 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -68,3 +68,6 @@ chef/tmp/*
 
 # .procfile
 .procfile
+
+# exclude our git version file for now 
+config/version.rb
diff --git a/config/application.rb b/config/application.rb
index 85723bf2180..99591b5147e 100644
--- a/config/application.rb
+++ b/config/application.rb
@@ -1,7 +1,9 @@
 require File.expand_path('../boot', __FILE__)
+# our version info can be missing, we will do our best to figure it out
+require File.expand_path('../version', __FILE__) rescue nil
 
 require 'rails/all'
-require "redis-store" # HACK
+require 'redis-store' # HACK
 
 # Plugin related stuff
 require './lib/discourse_plugin_registry'
@@ -50,7 +52,7 @@ module Discourse
     # config.i18n.default_locale = :de
 
     # Configure the default encoding used in templates for Ruby 1.9.
-    config.encoding = "utf-8"
+    config.encoding = 'utf-8'
 
     # Configure sensitive parameters which will be filtered from the log file.
     config.filter_parameters += [:password]
diff --git a/config/initializers/secret_token.rb b/config/initializers/secret_token.rb
index 61d320aa42b..9635256f3fd 100644
--- a/config/initializers/secret_token.rb
+++ b/config/initializers/secret_token.rb
@@ -1,3 +1,16 @@
 
 # Definitely change this when you deploy to production. Ours is replaced by jenkins.
-Discourse::Application.config.secret_token = "47f5390004bf6d25bb97083fb98e7cc133ab450ba814dd19638a78282b4ca291" 
+# This token is used to secure sessions, we don't mind shipping with one to ease test and debug,
+#  however, the stock one should never be used in production, people will be able to crack 
+#  session cookies. 
+#
+
+# Discourse::Application.config.secret_token = "SET_SECRET_HERE" 
+
+# delete all lines below in production
+if Rails.env.test? || Rails.env.development? 
+  Discourse::Application.config.secret_token = "47f5390004bf6d25bb97083fb98e7cc133ab450ba814dd19638a78282b4ca291" 
+else 
+  raise "You must set a secret token in config/initializers/secret_token.rb"
+end
+
diff --git a/lib/tasks/build.rake b/lib/tasks/build.rake
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..2ee206d4a8f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/tasks/build.rake
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+desc "stamp the current build with the git hash placed in version.rb"
+task "build:stamp" => :environment do 
+  git_version = `git rev-parse HEAD`.strip
+  File.open(Rails.root.to_s + '/config/version.rb', 'w') do |f|
+    f.write("$git_version = #{git_version.inspect}\n")
+  end
+  puts "Stamped current build with #{git_version}"
+end