diff --git a/.github/workflows/qemu.yml b/.github/workflows/qemu.yml
index ab252ed..0b22d04 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/qemu.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/qemu.yml
@@ -131,18 +131,11 @@ jobs:
       - name: Expose the Actions cache to buildx
         uses: crazy-max/ghaction-github-runtime@04d248b84655b509d8c44dc1d6f990c879747487 # v4.0.0
 
-      # The pinned version comes from the Taskfile, never from a literal here: two places
+      # The pinned version comes from versions.yaml, never from a literal here: two places
       # to bump is how CI and production end up on different QEMUs.
-      #
-      # --output interleaved, and it is not optional: the Taskfile sets `output: prefixed`
-      # so that a long build says which task each line came from, and that prefix is
-      # applied to *this* task's output too. Captured, the version becomes
-      # `[qemu:version] 11.1.1`, which reached the artifact name and failed the upload:
-      #
-      #   Error: The artifact name is not valid: qemu-[qemu:version] 11.1.1-linux-amd64.
       - name: Read the pinned QEMU version
         id: qemu
-        run: echo "version=$(task --output interleaved qemu:version)" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+        run: echo "version=$(go tool versions version qemu)" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
 
       - name: Build QEMU and verify what came out
         run: |
diff --git a/qemu/Taskfile.yml b/qemu/Taskfile.yml
index a1bf8a3..0aa0274 100644
--- a/qemu/Taskfile.yml
+++ b/qemu/Taskfile.yml
@@ -112,13 +112,3 @@ tasks:
       # Which asserts the fetched tree is whole and that both binaries run here — the same
       # question asked of a built one, and worth asking of a downloaded one twice over.
       - task: verify
-
-  version:
-    desc: Print the pinned QEMU version (the single source of truth for CI tags).
-    # A caller capturing this needs `task --output interleaved qemu:version`. The root
-    # Taskfile sets `output: prefixed` so a long build says which task each line came
-    # from, and that decoration is applied here too — so the obvious `$(task qemu:version)`
-    # yields `[qemu:version] 11.1.1`, which looks right in a terminal and is wrong
-    # everywhere it is used.
-    cmds:
-      - echo "{{.QEMU_VERSION}}"