diff --git a/refex/cli.py b/refex/cli.py
index 5477df0..29087c3 100755
--- a/refex/cli.py
+++ b/refex/cli.py
@@ -36,9 +36,10 @@
 import tempfile
 import textwrap
 import traceback
-from typing import Dict, Generic, Iterable, Optional, Text, Tuple, TypeVar, Union, IO
+from typing import Callable, Dict, Generic, IO, Iterable, Optional, Text, Tuple, TypeVar, Union
 
 from absl import app
+from absl.flags import argparse_flags
 import attr
 import colorama
 import pkg_resources
@@ -334,21 +335,6 @@ def __call__(self, parser, namespace, value, option_string=None):
     old_sub[name] = pattern
 
 
-def _absl_run_separate_argv(main_func, main_argv, absl_argv):
-  """Runs main via absl.app.run(), passing different argv to main and to absl.
-
-  Args:
-    main_func: A function main(main_argv).
-    main_argv: The argv to pass to main.
-    absl_argv: The argv to pass to absl.
-  """
-
-  def absl_main(unused_argv):
-    return main_func(main_argv)
-
-  app.run(absl_main, argv=absl_argv)
-
-
 def run(runner: RefexRunner,
         files: Iterable[Union[str, Tuple[str, str]]],
         bug_report_url: Text,
@@ -378,17 +364,23 @@ def run(runner: RefexRunner,
     pass
 
 
-def run_cli(argv,
-            parser,
-            get_runner,
-            get_files,
-            bug_report_url=_BUG_REPORT_URL,
-            version='<unspecified>'):
+def run_cli(
+    argv: Iterable[str],
+    parser_factory: Callable[[], argparse.ArgumentParser],
+    get_runner: Callable[
+        [argparse.ArgumentParser, argparse.Namespace], RefexRunner
+    ],
+    get_files: Callable[
+        [RefexRunner, argparse.Namespace], Iterable[tuple[str, str]]
+    ],
+    bug_report_url: str = _BUG_REPORT_URL,
+    version: str = '<unspecified>',
+) -> None:
   """Creates a runner from command-line arguments, and executes it.
 
   Args:
     argv: argv
-    parser: An ArgumentParser.
+    parser_factory: a callable that generates an ArgumentParser.
     get_runner: called with (parser, options) returns the runner to use.
     get_files: called with (runner, options) returns the files to examine, as
       [(in_file, out_file), ...] pairs.
@@ -398,21 +390,15 @@ def run_cli(argv,
     version: The version number to use in bug report logs and --version
   """
   with _report_bug_excepthook(bug_report_url):
-    _add_rewriter_arguments(parser)
-
-    # For legacy reasons, refex uses argparse. This isn't very easily
-    # compatible with using app.run() -- what if someone defines a flag that
-    # conflicts with an argparse flag?
-    # Nonetheless, we want to use app.run to allow interop with absl-using
-    # libraries. So we process argparse flags first, and then give app.run() a
-    # fake argv of zilch.
-    #
-    # In the future, one could imagine providing a --absl-flag= option in
-    # argparse to let one override absl-flag values, but for now let's just
-    # ignore it.
-
-    def main_for_absl(argv):
+
+    def parse_flags(argv):
+      parser = parser_factory()
+      _add_rewriter_arguments(parser)
       options = _parse_options(argv[1:], parser)
+      return parser, options
+
+    def _main(args):
+      parser, options = args
 
       def _run():
         """A wrapper function for profiler.runcall."""
@@ -428,7 +414,7 @@ def _run():
         _run()
 
     try:
-      _absl_run_separate_argv(main_for_absl, argv, [argv[0]])
+      app.run(_main, argv=list(argv), flags_parser=parse_flags)
     except KeyboardInterrupt:
       pass
 
@@ -673,7 +659,6 @@ def _add_rewriter_arguments(parser):
       metavar='FILE',
       help='Profile main() and write results to disk at FILE.')
   debug_options.add_argument(
-      '-v',
       '--verbose',
       action='store_const',
       const=True,
@@ -757,9 +742,9 @@ def _parse_options(argv, parser):
   return options
 
 
-def argument_parser(version):
+def argument_parser():
   """Creates an :class:`argparse.ArgumentParser` for the refex CLI."""
-  parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
+  parser = argparse_flags.ArgumentParser(
       formatter_class=argparse.RawDescriptionHelpFormatter,
       description=textwrap.dedent("""\
           Syntactically aware search/replace."""),
@@ -782,8 +767,6 @@ def argument_parser(version):
       allow_abbrev=False,
   )
 
-  parser.add_argument('--version', action='version', version=version)
-
   match_options = parser.add_argument_group(
       'match arguments',
       'Arguments for use when performing search-replace (when passing the '
@@ -949,7 +932,7 @@ def main(argv=None, bug_report_url=_BUG_REPORT_URL, version=None):
       )
   run_cli(
       argv,
-      argument_parser(version=version),
+      argument_parser,
       runner_from_options,
       files_from_options,
       bug_report_url=bug_report_url,