diff --git a/.github/workflows/update_api_version.yml b/.github/workflows/update_api_version.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4be66d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/update_api_version.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+name: update api version
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches: ['master', 'api-version']
+
+jobs:
+  updateapiversion:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - name: checkout repo content
+        uses: actions/checkout@v3 # checkout the repository content to github runner.
+      - name: setup python
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v4
+        with:
+          python-version: 3.8 #install the python needed
+      - name: Install dependencies
+        run: |
+          if [ -f requirements.txt ]; then pip install -r requirements.txt; fi
+      - name: execute py script
+        run: |
+          python beacon/conf/api_version.py
+          git config --global user.email "you@example.com"
+          git config --global user.name "API version update"
+          git add .
+          git commit -m "api version automatically generated"
+          git push
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/beacon/conf/api_version.py b/beacon/conf/api_version.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..61be315
--- /dev/null
+++ b/beacon/conf/api_version.py
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+import subprocess
+import yaml
+
+
+repo_url = 'https://github.com/EGA-archive/beacon2-ri-api.git'
+output_lines = subprocess.check_output(
+    [
+        "git",
+        "ls-remote",
+        repo_url,
+        "rev-parse",
+        "--short",
+        "sort=committerdate",
+        "HEAD"
+    ],
+    encoding="utf-8",
+).splitlines()
+
+line_ref = output_lines[0].rpartition("/")[-1]
+
+last_line_ref=line_ref[0:7]
+
+last_line_ref="v2.0-"+last_line_ref
+
+print(last_line_ref)
+
+with open("beacon/conf/api_version.yml") as api_version_file:
+    api_version = yaml.safe_load(api_version_file)
+
+api_version['api_version']=last_line_ref
+
+with open("beacon/conf/api_version.yml", 'w') as out:
+    yaml.dump(api_version, out)
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/beacon/conf/api_version.yml b/beacon/conf/api_version.yml
index 2b7f5c7..9e4fa9e 100644
--- a/beacon/conf/api_version.yml
+++ b/beacon/conf/api_version.yml
@@ -1 +1 @@
-api_version: v2.0.0
\ No newline at end of file
+api_version: v2.0-842c290
diff --git a/beacon/conf/conf.py b/beacon/conf/conf.py
index 40cf143..93c1e1e 100644
--- a/beacon/conf/conf.py
+++ b/beacon/conf/conf.py
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@
 
 level=logging.NOTSET
 log_file='beacon/logs/logs.log'
-api_version='2.0.0'
 beacon_id = 'org.ega-archive.beacon-ri-demo'  # ID of the Beacon
 beacon_name = 'Beacon Reference Implementation demo'  # Name of the Beacon service
 api_version = 'v2.0.0' # Version of the Beacon implementation