diff --git a/docs/build.rst b/docs/build.rst
index adb97a647..9277fa942 100644
--- a/docs/build.rst
+++ b/docs/build.rst
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ just ``kitty``.
 Note for Linux/macOS packagers
 ----------------------------------
 
-The released |kitty| source code is available as a :file:`.tar.xz` tarball from
+The released |kitty| source code is available as a `tarball`_ from
 `the GitHub releases page <https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/releases>`_.
 
 While |kitty| does use python, it is not a traditional python package, so please
diff --git a/docs/conf.py b/docs/conf.py
index e7003c4c1..026cc805a 100644
--- a/docs/conf.py
+++ b/docs/conf.py
@@ -85,6 +85,8 @@ pygments_style = 'sphinx'
 
 rst_prolog = '''
 .. |kitty| replace:: *kitty*
+.. |version| replace:: VERSION
+.. _tarball: https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/releases/download/vVERSION/kitty-VERSION.tar.xz
 .. role:: green
 .. role:: italic
 .. role:: bold
@@ -92,7 +94,7 @@ rst_prolog = '''
 .. role:: title
 .. role:: env
 
-'''
+'''.replace('VERSION', str_version)
 
 
 # -- Options for HTML output -------------------------------------------------