diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 6f17283d9..af793a291 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,10 @@
+
 # renv (development version)
 
+* Fixed an issue where `renv`'s activate script failed to report version
+  conflict errors when starting up. (#1874)
+
+
 # renv 1.0.6
 
 * Fixed an issue where downloads could fail with curl >= 8.7.1. (#1869)
diff --git a/R/bootstrap.R b/R/bootstrap.R
index f6e087545..b66e4c725 100644
--- a/R/bootstrap.R
+++ b/R/bootstrap.R
@@ -32,6 +32,21 @@ header <- function(label,
 
 }
 
+heredoc <- function(text, leave = 0) {
+
+  # remove leading, trailing whitespace
+  trimmed <- gsub("^\\s*\\n|\\n\\s*$", "", text)
+
+  # split into lines
+  lines <- strsplit(trimmed, "\n", fixed = TRUE)[[1L]]
+
+  # compute common indent
+  indent <- regexpr("[^[:space:]]", lines)
+  common <- min(setdiff(indent, -1L)) - leave
+  paste(substring(lines, common), collapse = "\n")
+
+}
+
 startswith <- function(string, prefix) {
   substring(string, 1, nchar(prefix)) == prefix
 }
diff --git a/R/utils.R b/R/utils.R
index 47149738f..a3874f078 100644
--- a/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/utils.R
@@ -381,21 +381,6 @@ nth <- function(x, i) {
   x[[i]]
 }
 
-heredoc <- function(text, leave = 0) {
-
-  # remove leading, trailing whitespace
-  trimmed <- gsub("^\\s*\\n|\\n\\s*$", "", text)
-
-  # split into lines
-  lines <- strsplit(trimmed, "\n", fixed = TRUE)[[1L]]
-
-  # compute common indent
-  indent <- regexpr("[^[:space:]]", lines)
-  common <- min(setdiff(indent, -1L)) - leave
-  paste(substring(lines, common), collapse = "\n")
-
-}
-
 find <- function(x, f, ...) {
   for (i in seq_along(x))
     if (!is.null(value <- f(x[[i]], ...)))
diff --git a/inst/resources/activate.R b/inst/resources/activate.R
index 12e6fa471..309266dda 100644
--- a/inst/resources/activate.R
+++ b/inst/resources/activate.R
@@ -131,6 +131,21 @@ local({
   
   }
   
+  heredoc <- function(text, leave = 0) {
+  
+    # remove leading, trailing whitespace
+    trimmed <- gsub("^\\s*\\n|\\n\\s*$", "", text)
+  
+    # split into lines
+    lines <- strsplit(trimmed, "\n", fixed = TRUE)[[1L]]
+  
+    # compute common indent
+    indent <- regexpr("[^[:space:]]", lines)
+    common <- min(setdiff(indent, -1L)) - leave
+    paste(substring(lines, common), collapse = "\n")
+  
+  }
+  
   startswith <- function(string, prefix) {
     substring(string, 1, nchar(prefix)) == prefix
   }