diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index a493f6ce..2e0c6372 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -15,4 +15,4 @@ install:
 script:
   - QIIMETEST= nosetests
   - flake8 q2cli setup.py
-  - eval "$(register-qiime-completion 2> /dev/null)"
+  - source tab-qiime
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 6e6c7982..da1e5cad 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -14,5 +14,5 @@ To get help with QIIME 2, visit http://2.qiime.org.
 To enable tab completion in Bash, run the following command or add it to your `.bashrc`/`.bash_profile`:
 
 ```bash
-eval "$(register-qiime-completion 2> /dev/null)"
+source tab-qiime
 ```
diff --git a/bin/register-qiime-completion b/bin/register-qiime-completion
deleted file mode 100644
index 36266f13..00000000
--- a/bin/register-qiime-completion
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,45 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env bash
-
-# Bash completion script that defers to a cached completion script representing
-# the state of the current QIIME 2 deployment.
-#
-# This script is intended to be evaluated on the command-line or in
-# .bashrc/.bash_profile:
-#
-#     eval "$(register-qiime-completion 2> /dev/null)"
-#
-cat << 'EOF'
-_qiime_completion()
-{
-    # Attempt to find the cached completion script. If q2cli isn't installed,
-    # or is an incompatible version, don't attempt completion.
-    local path="$(python -c "import q2cli.util; print(q2cli.util.get_completion_path())" 2> /dev/null)"
-
-    if [[ $? != 0 ]]; then
-        unset COMPREPLY
-        return 0
-    fi
-
-    # If the completion script exists, attempt completion by invoking the
-    # script in a subshell, supplying COMP_WORDS and COMP_CWORD. Capture the
-    # output as the completion reply. If the completion script failed, don't
-    # attempt completion.
-    if [[ -f "$path" ]] ; then
-      COMPREPLY=( $(COMP_WORDS="${COMP_WORDS[*]}" COMP_CWORD="${COMP_CWORD}" "$path" 2> /dev/null) )
-
-      if [[ $? != 0 ]]; then
-          unset COMPREPLY
-          return 0
-      fi
-    else
-      unset COMPREPLY
-      return 0
-    fi
-
-    return 0
-}
-
-# Enable default readline and bash completion behavior when `_qiime_complete`
-# doesn't have a reply.
-complete -F _qiime_completion -o default -o bashdefault qiime
-EOF
diff --git a/bin/tab-qiime b/bin/tab-qiime
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6e995d35
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/tab-qiime
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+# Bash completion script that defers to a cached completion script representing
+# the state of the current QIIME 2 deployment.
+#
+# This script is intended to be executed on the command-line or in
+# .bashrc/.bash_profile:
+#
+#     source tab-qiime
+#
+
+_qiime_completion()
+{
+  # Attempt to find the cached completion script. If q2cli isn't installed, or
+  # is an incompatible version, don't attempt completion.
+  local path="$(python -c "import q2cli.util; print(q2cli.util.get_completion_path())" 2> /dev/null)"
+
+  if [[ $? != 0 ]]; then
+    unset COMPREPLY
+    return 0
+  fi
+
+  # If the completion script exists, attempt completion by invoking the script
+  # in a subshell, supplying COMP_WORDS and COMP_CWORD. Capture the output as
+  # the completion reply. If the completion script failed, don't attempt
+  # completion.
+  if [[ -f "$path" ]] ; then
+    COMPREPLY=( $(COMP_WORDS="${COMP_WORDS[*]}" COMP_CWORD="${COMP_CWORD}" "$path" 2> /dev/null) )
+
+    if [[ $? != 0 ]]; then
+      unset COMPREPLY
+      return 0
+    fi
+  else
+    unset COMPREPLY
+    return 0
+  fi
+
+  return 0
+}
+
+# Enable default readline and bash completion behavior when `_qiime_completion`
+# doesn't have a reply.
+complete -F _qiime_completion -o default -o bashdefault qiime
+
+# Execute a `qiime` command (any command will do) so that tab-completion will
+# work out-of-the-box (e.g. with a fresh installation of q2cli). Running a
+# command will create or refresh the cache if necessary, which contains the
+# actual completion script.
+#
+# Ignore stdout to avoid displaying help text to users enabling tab-completion.
+# stderr displays the note about cache refreshing, as that can take a few
+# moments to complete.
+qiime > /dev/null
diff --git a/q2cli/__main__.py b/q2cli/__main__.py
index ad533290..9e20bc8f 100644
--- a/q2cli/__main__.py
+++ b/q2cli/__main__.py
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
 To enable tab completion in Bash, run the following command or add it to your \
 .bashrc/.bash_profile:
 
-    eval "$(register-qiime-completion 2> /dev/null)"
+    source tab-qiime
 
 """
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index dba69fe3..bd68e1a5 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
     packages=find_packages(),
     include_package_data=True,
     install_requires=['click', 'qiime >= 2.0.2', 'pip'],
-    scripts=['bin/register-qiime-completion'],
+    scripts=['bin/tab-qiime'],
     entry_points='''
         [console_scripts]
         qiime=q2cli.__main__:qiime