diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/no-show-source-option-ee02766b26fe53be.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/no-show-source-option-ee02766b26fe53be.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7074ad3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/no-show-source-option-ee02766b26fe53be.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+---
+features:
+  - |
+    Add a ``--no-show-source`` option to the report command to skip
+    including the note reference file names and SHA information
+    in comments in the output. This restores the previous format of
+    the output for cases where it is meant to be read by people directly,
+    not just converted to HTML.
diff --git a/reno/formatter.py b/reno/formatter.py
index b6d43ec..646d68e 100644
--- a/reno/formatter.py
+++ b/reno/formatter.py
@@ -25,7 +25,8 @@ def _indent_for_list(text, prefix='  '):
     ]) + '\n'
 
 
-def format_report(loader, config, versions_to_include, title=None):
+def format_report(loader, config, versions_to_include, title=None,
+                  show_source=True):
     report = []
     if title:
         report.append('=' * len(title))
@@ -49,7 +50,8 @@ def format_report(loader, config, versions_to_include, title=None):
         notefiles = loader[version]
         for n, sha in notefiles:
             if 'prelude' in file_contents[n]:
-                report.append('.. %s @ %s\n' % (n, sha))
+                if show_source:
+                    report.append('.. %s @ %s\n' % (n, sha))
                 report.append(file_contents[n]['prelude'])
                 report.append('')
 
@@ -65,7 +67,8 @@ def format_report(loader, config, versions_to_include, title=None):
                 report.append('-' * len(section_title))
                 report.append('')
                 for n, fn, sha in notes:
-                    report.append('.. %s @ %s\n' % (fn, sha))
+                    if show_source:
+                        report.append('.. %s @ %s\n' % (fn, sha))
                     report.append('- %s' % _indent_for_list(n))
                 report.append('')
 
diff --git a/reno/main.py b/reno/main.py
index 79f8589..b8e2a8d 100644
--- a/reno/main.py
+++ b/reno/main.py
@@ -138,6 +138,13 @@ def main(argv=sys.argv[1:]):
         default=None,
         help='output filename, defaults to stdout',
     )
+    do_report.add_argument(
+        '--no-show-source',
+        dest='show_source',
+        default=True,
+        action='store_false',
+        help='do not show the source for notes',
+    )
     _build_query_arg_group(do_report)
     do_report.set_defaults(func=report.report_cmd)
 
diff --git a/reno/report.py b/reno/report.py
index 2a59410..fc2dda0 100644
--- a/reno/report.py
+++ b/reno/report.py
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ def report_cmd(args, conf):
         conf,
         versions,
         title='Release Notes',
+        show_source=args.show_source,
     )
     if args.output:
         with open(args.output, 'w') as f: