diff --git a/scripts/lib/zulip_tools.py b/scripts/lib/zulip_tools.py
index 70e1a234e6..b2d879ab5b 100755
--- a/scripts/lib/zulip_tools.py
+++ b/scripts/lib/zulip_tools.py
@@ -108,6 +108,23 @@ def get_deploy_root() -> str:
 
 
 def parse_version_from(deploy_path: str, merge_base: bool = False) -> str:
+    if not os.path.exists(os.path.join(deploy_path, "zulip-git-version")):
+        try:
+            # Pull this tool from _our_ deploy root, since it may not
+            # exist historically, but run it the cwd of the old
+            # deploy, so we set up its remote.
+            subprocess.check_call(
+                [os.path.join(get_deploy_root(), "scripts", "lib", "update-git-upstream")],
+                cwd=deploy_path,
+                preexec_fn=su_to_zulip,
+            )
+            subprocess.check_call(
+                [os.path.join(deploy_path, "tools", "cache-zulip-git-version")],
+                cwd=deploy_path,
+                preexec_fn=su_to_zulip,
+            )
+        except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
+            pass
     try:
         varname = "ZULIP_MERGE_BASE" if merge_base else "ZULIP_VERSION"
         return subprocess.check_output(