diff --git a/src/cli/run.ts b/src/cli/run.ts
index 39d4fd4de0f..1c677bdca17 100644
--- a/src/cli/run.ts
+++ b/src/cli/run.ts
@@ -37,6 +37,16 @@ export const run = async (init: d.CliInitOptions) => {
       sys.applyGlobalPatch(sys.getCurrentDirectory());
     }
 
+    if ((task && task === 'version') || flags.version) {
+      // we need to load the compiler here to get the version, but we don't
+      // want to load it in the case that we're going to just log the help
+      // message and then exit below (if there's no `task` defined) so we load
+      // it just within our `if` scope here.
+      const coreCompiler = await loadCoreCompiler(sys);
+      console.log(coreCompiler.version);
+      return;
+    }
+
     if (!task || task === 'help' || flags.help) {
       await taskHelp(createConfigFlags({ task: 'help', args }), logger, sys);
 
@@ -53,11 +63,6 @@ export const run = async (init: d.CliInitOptions) => {
 
     const coreCompiler = await loadCoreCompiler(sys);
 
-    if (task === 'version' || flags.version) {
-      console.log(coreCompiler.version);
-      return;
-    }
-
     startupLogVersion(logger, task, coreCompiler);
 
     loadedCompilerLog(sys, logger, flags, coreCompiler);