diff --git a/maven-plugin-tools-generators/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/tools/plugin/generator/PluginDescriptorGenerator.java b/maven-plugin-tools-generators/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/tools/plugin/generator/PluginDescriptorGenerator.java
index 81fabf1..114e93f 100644
--- a/maven-plugin-tools-generators/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/tools/plugin/generator/PluginDescriptorGenerator.java
+++ b/maven-plugin-tools-generators/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/tools/plugin/generator/PluginDescriptorGenerator.java
@@ -45,6 +45,8 @@ import java.io.FileOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.OutputStreamWriter;
 import java.io.Writer;
+import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
+import java.util.Date;
 import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
 import java.util.LinkedHashSet;
 import java.util.List;
@@ -118,6 +120,13 @@ public class PluginDescriptorGenerator
         }
     }
 
+    private String getVersion()
+    {
+        Package p = this.getClass().getPackage();
+        String version = ( p == null ) ? null : p.getSpecificationVersion();
+        return ( version == null ) ? "SNAPSHOT" : version;
+    }
+
     public void writeDescriptor( File destinationFile, PluginToolsRequest request, boolean helpDescriptor )
         throws IOException, DuplicateMojoDescriptorException
     {
@@ -144,6 +153,9 @@ public class PluginDescriptorGenerator
 
             XMLWriter w = new PrettyPrintXMLWriter( writer, encoding, null );
 
+            w.writeMarkup( "\n<!-- Generated by maven-plugin-tools " + getVersion() + " on "
+                + new SimpleDateFormat( "yyyy-MM-dd" ).format( new Date() ) + " -->\n\n" );
+
             w.startElement( "plugin" );
 
             GeneratorUtils.element( w, "name", pluginDescriptor.getName() );