diff --git a/src/frontend/gg-describe.cc b/src/frontend/gg-describe.cc
index 0ed8b0cf..4528abd2 100644
--- a/src/frontend/gg-describe.cc
+++ b/src/frontend/gg-describe.cc
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 #include <unistd.h>
 #include <cstring>
 #include <iostream>
+#include <fstream>
 #include <getopt.h>
 #include <glob.h>
 
@@ -67,7 +68,10 @@ int main( int argc, char * argv[] )
       return EXIT_FAILURE;
     }
 
-    roost::path thunk_path { argv[ optind ] };
+    std::string query = argv[ optind ];
+
+    roost::path thunk_path { query };
+    cerr << thunk_path.string() << endl;
 
     if ( not roost::exists( thunk_path ) ) {
       thunk_path = gg::paths::blob( argv[ optind ] );
@@ -93,18 +97,23 @@ int main( int argc, char * argv[] )
       }
     }
 
-    Thunk thunk = ThunkReader::read( thunk_path );
+    if ( query[0] == 'V' ) {
+      ifstream value( thunk_path.string() );
+      cout << value.rdbuf();
+    } else {
+      Thunk thunk = ThunkReader::read( thunk_path );
 
-    if ( print_executable_hash ) {
-      cout << thunk.executable_hash() << endl;
-    }
+      if ( print_executable_hash ) {
+        cout << thunk.executable_hash() << endl;
+      }
 
-    if ( print_command ) {
-      cout << command_str( thunk.function().args(), thunk.function().envars() ) << endl;
-    }
+      if ( print_command ) {
+        cout << command_str( thunk.function().args(), thunk.function().envars() ) << endl;
+      }
 
-    if ( not print_executable_hash and not print_command ) {
-      cout << protoutil::to_json( thunk.to_protobuf(), true ) << endl;
+      if ( not print_executable_hash and not print_command ) {
+        cout << protoutil::to_json( thunk.to_protobuf(), true ) << endl;
+      }
     }
   }
   catch ( const exception &  e ) {
diff --git a/tests/Makefile.am b/tests/Makefile.am
index 57c264ce..5f3898f6 100644
--- a/tests/Makefile.am
+++ b/tests/Makefile.am
@@ -30,7 +30,8 @@ dist_check_SCRIPTS = fetch-vectors.test \
                      model-ar.test model-ranlib.test model-strip.test \
                      model-ld.test gnu-hello.test mosh.test \
                      mosh-fewer-thunks.test fibonacci.test \
-                     sdk.test cleanup.test
+                     sdk.test cleanup.test \
+                     describe-value.test
 
 thunk_roundtrip_SOURCES = thunk-roundtrip.cc
 sandbox_test_SOURCES = sandbox-test.cc
diff --git a/tests/describe-value.test b/tests/describe-value.test
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..ee3ae9bd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/describe-value.test
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+#!/bin/bash -xe
+
+cd ${TEST_TMPDIR}
+
+export PATH=${abs_builddir}/../src/models:${abs_builddir}/../src/frontend:$PATH
+
+gg-init
+
+echo Hi > a.txt
+
+gg-collect a.txt
+
+hash=$(gg-hash a.txt)
+
+for i in $(seq 1 "${#hash}"); do
+
+    diff a.txt <(gg-describe $(echo $hash | cut "-c1-${i}"))
+
+done
+