diff --git a/build b/build
index 45dfa384ee0db652d07a879a09496fa63454e187..9584d0d7038742bde2f4e6ed388180422da1c71c 100755
--- a/build
+++ b/build
@@ -16,6 +16,20 @@ if [ -z "$ZIG_LOCAL_CACHE_DIR" ]; then
 fi
 
 ZIG="$ZIG_LOCAL_CACHE_DIR/zig/$ZIG_VERSION/zig"
+
+if [ "$1" == "--fmt" ]; then
+    # dprint.jsonc is configured to run this, however it runs in parallel.
+    # only one installation should happen, not one per file. since there
+    # is no concise way to acquire a filesystem lock on .zig-cache, 
+    # formatting before an install is left unsupported.
+    if [ ! -f "$ZIG" ]; then
+        printf "Zig is not installed. Please run ./build once manually\n"
+        exit 1
+    fi
+    shift
+    exec $ZIG fmt $@
+fi
+
 if [ ! -f "$ZIG" ]; then
     OS=$(uname -s | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')
     if [ "$OS" = "darwin" ]; then
@@ -28,16 +42,16 @@ if [ ! -f "$ZIG" ]; then
 
     URL="https://ziglang.org/builds/zig-$OS-$ARCH-$ZIG_VERSION.tar.xz"
 
-    echo "Installing Zig v$ZIG_VERSION via $URL"
+    printf "Installing Zig v$ZIG_VERSION via $URL\n"
 
     CURL=$(command -v curl 2>/dev/null)
     TAR=$(command -v curl 2>/dev/null)
 
     if [ -z "$CURL" ]; then
-        echo "This script requires 'curl' to be installed."
+        printf "This script requires 'curl' to be installed.\n"
     fi
     if [ -z "$TAR" ]; then
-        echo "This script requires 'tar' to be installed."
+        printf "This script requires 'tar' to be installed.\n"
     fi
 
     if [ -z "$CURL" ] || [ -z "$TAR" ]; then
@@ -48,10 +62,15 @@ if [ ! -f "$ZIG" ]; then
     curl -fsSL --retry 3 --retry-delay 3 $URL \
         | tar -xJ --strip-components=1 -C "$ZIG_LOCAL_CACHE_DIR/zig/$ZIG_VERSION"
     if [ "$($ZIG version)" != "$ZIG_VERSION" ]; then
-        echo "Zig failed to install."
+        printf "Zig failed to install.\n"
         rm -rf "$ZIG_LOCAL_CACHE_DIR/zig/$ZIG_VERSION"
         exit 1
     fi
 fi
 
+if [ "$1" == "--version" ]; then
+    printf "Zig version: "
+    exec $ZIG version
+fi
+
 exec $ZIG build $@
diff --git a/ci b/ci
index 619452c747148e93756c6c6bf71355707ced34ad..21eaf46e5c963b94e7e2946ff7a8136e5ee0d1e0 100755
--- a/ci
+++ b/ci
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ set -e
 commit=$(git rev-parse HEAD)
 commit_short=$(echo "$commit" | cut -c -9)
 
+./build --version
 typos
 dprint check
 ./build all --summary new
diff --git a/dprint.jsonc b/dprint.jsonc
index 7143e211560d5ae63385cd9b9ea1dfe20339788f..829702cde8f40c1e6bb4233b52b1d8b556a5ff25 100644
--- a/dprint.jsonc
+++ b/dprint.jsonc
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
     "cwd": "${configDir}",
     "commands": [
       {
-        "command": "zig fmt --stdin",
+        "command": "./build --fmt --stdin",
         "exts": ["zig", "zon"],
       },
     ],