diff --git a/CITATION.cff b/CITATION.cff
index 1a75a6bc31..ad407fb2ee 100644
--- a/CITATION.cff
+++ b/CITATION.cff
@@ -7,9 +7,10 @@
 # into a paper or a bill of materials instead of depending on a reader noticing
 # ``LICENSE``. It grants nothing and restricts nothing; the licence is unchanged.
 #
-# ``version`` and ``date-released`` describe the newest *published* release, so they
-# move with ``pcapkit.__version__`` in ``pcapkit/__init__.py`` and the matching entry
-# under ``docs/source/changelog/`` when a release goes out.
+# ``version`` and ``date-released`` move with ``pcapkit.__version__`` in
+# ``pcapkit/__init__.py`` and the matching entry under ``docs/source/changelog/``,
+# in the commit that bumps the version. ``date-released`` is that commit's date,
+# not the date the release is later published (#2163).
 #
 # No ``doi`` and no ``orcid``: neither exists for this project or its author,
 # and both fields are checked formats rather than free text, so an invented value
diff --git a/docs/source/contributing/releasing.rst b/docs/source/contributing/releasing.rst
index e3842a5fce..90f5203cea 100644
--- a/docs/source/contributing/releasing.rst
+++ b/docs/source/contributing/releasing.rst
@@ -25,7 +25,10 @@ counter, or a fresh ``.post1`` for a final release -- and then:
 
 * rewrites the ``__version__`` assignment in ``pcapkit/__init__.py``;
 * moves :file:`CITATION.cff`'s ``version`` and ``date-released`` fields to
-  match, line-oriented so the file's own quoting and comments survive;
+  match, line-oriented so the file's own quoting and comments survive.
+  ``date-released`` becomes the bump's own date in UTC, not the date the
+  release is later published, which is its intended meaning
+  (:issue:`2163`);
 * resets :file:`conda/build` to ``0``.
 
 Its one scheduled caller is the ``Bump Version`` step of
diff --git a/tests/project/test_bump_version.py b/tests/project/test_bump_version.py
index 0c7325e58e..86c5ecdabf 100644
--- a/tests/project/test_bump_version.py
+++ b/tests/project/test_bump_version.py
@@ -27,15 +27,18 @@
 :mod:`pcapkit`, because the question is what the file in the repository says, and
 an installed copy elsewhere on ``sys.path`` would answer a different one.
 
-What is deliberately not tested
--------------------------------
-
-:func:`~bump_version.main` is never called. It ends by writing ``conda/build``
-relative to the working directory and by resolving
-:file:`pcapkit/__init__.py` through ``pcapkit.__path__``, so calling it in-process
-would rewrite the checkout running the tests. The pieces it wires together are
-each tested directly instead, and the ordering property that matters -- that the
-one fatal outcome is reached before any file is written -- is structural:
+Calling ``main``
+----------------
+
+:func:`~bump_version.main` is called once, with the version reader and
+:func:`~bump_version.init_path` patched and the working directory moved into the
+scratch tree, because it ends by writing ``conda/build`` relative to the working
+directory and by resolving :file:`pcapkit/__init__.py` through
+``pcapkit.__path__``; unpatched, it would rewrite the checkout running the tests.
+That one call pins what a bump writes into ``date-released`` (#2163). Otherwise
+the pieces it wires together are each tested directly, and the ordering
+property that matters -- that the one fatal outcome is reached before any file is
+written -- is structural:
 :func:`~bump_version.plan_citation` takes text and returns text, so it has nothing
 to write with.
 
@@ -190,9 +193,8 @@ def test_the_release_date_moves_with_the_version(self) -> None:
         self.assertNotIn("date-released: '2026-09-20'", rewritten)
 
     def test_the_release_date_defaults_to_today_in_utc(self) -> None:
-        # Not ``date.today()``. Seven of the thirty most recent bumps were made
-        # late evening in US-Eastern, where the local date is a day behind the
-        # publish the field is describing.
+        # Not ``date.today()``. A bump made late evening in US-Eastern has a local
+        # date a day behind the UTC date of the commit the field is describing.
         opened = datetime.datetime.now(datetime.timezone.utc).date()
         rewritten = bump_version.plan_citation(FIXTURE, '1.5.0b5')
         closed = datetime.datetime.now(datetime.timezone.utc).date()
@@ -212,6 +214,42 @@ def test_the_release_date_defaults_to_today_in_utc(self) -> None:
             self.assertNotIn(f"date-released: '{local.isoformat()}'", rewritten,
                              'the local date was written where UTC was required')
 
+    def test_a_bump_dates_the_release_by_the_bump_itself(self) -> None:
+        # #2163: ``date-released`` is the date of the commit that bumps the
+        # version, not the date the release is distributed. So the bump writes the
+        # run's own UTC date into the field, in the same write that moves
+        # ``version``, rather than leaving it for a release step to fill in.
+        citation = self.write_citation()
+        package = self.tmp_path / 'pcapkit'
+        package.mkdir()
+        init = package / '__init__.py'
+        init.write_text("__version__ = '1.5.0b4'\n", encoding='utf-8')
+        (self.tmp_path / 'conda').mkdir()
+
+        # ``main`` writes ``conda/build`` relative to the working directory and
+        # finds ``__init__.py`` through ``pcapkit``, so both are pointed at the
+        # scratch tree to keep the checkout running the tests untouched.
+        cwd = os.getcwd()
+        self.addCleanup(os.chdir, cwd)
+        os.chdir(self.tmp_path)
+
+        with mock.patch.object(bump_version, 'current_version', return_value='1.5.0b4'), \
+                mock.patch.object(bump_version, 'init_path', return_value=str(init)):
+            opened = datetime.datetime.now(datetime.timezone.utc).date()
+            self.assertEqual(bump_version.main(['--citation', str(citation)]), 0)
+            closed = datetime.datetime.now(datetime.timezone.utc).date()
+
+        written = citation.read_text(encoding='utf-8')
+        self.assertIn('\nversion: 1.5.0b5\n', written)
+        # Both bounds, so a run straddling UTC midnight does not flake.
+        wanted = {f"\ndate-released: '{day.isoformat()}'\n" for day in (opened, closed)}
+        self.assertTrue(
+            any(candidate in written for candidate in wanted),
+            f'expected the bump to date the release {sorted(wanted)}, got '
+            f'{[ln for ln in written.splitlines() if ln.startswith("date-released:")]!r}',
+        )
+        self.assertIn("__version__ = '1.5.0b5'", init.read_text(encoding='utf-8'))
+
     def test_a_file_without_a_release_date_does_not_gain_one(self) -> None:
         # The field is optional in Citation File Format 1.2.0. Inventing one would
         # assert a release date the repository never recorded.
diff --git a/util/bump_version.py b/util/bump_version.py
index 08e2e40ea2..fab7842ddb 100644
--- a/util/bump_version.py
+++ b/util/bump_version.py
@@ -31,33 +31,23 @@
 out of this script it would state the *previous* release forever, which is worse
 than having no citation file at all, because a stale one is still consumed.
 
-Both fields move together, and the reason is that they have the same standing. The
-file's own header says ``version`` and ``date-released`` both "describe the newest
-*published* release", so at the moment of a bump both are equally anticipatory --
-there is no principled line that lets one move and pins the other. Moving only
-``version`` would leave the pair asserting something plainly false and leave it
-there indefinitely: "1.5.0b5, released on the day 1.5.0b4 was".
-
-Measured over the thirty most recent releases, the bump commit's UTC calendar date
-equals the PyPI upload's UTC calendar date **thirty times out of thirty**, median
-gap three minutes. The weekly cron fires at 10:05 UTC, twelve hours clear of a
-date boundary. Hence UTC via :func:`datetime.datetime.now` with an
-explicit timezone, not :meth:`datetime.date.today`: seven of those thirty bumps
-were made late evening in US-Eastern, where a naive local date would have been a
-day behind the publish it was describing.
-
-The residual risk is stated rather than hidden. Roughly one bump in twelve
-historically never reached PyPI at all -- eight consecutive weekly bumps between
-2024-04-13 and 2024-06-15, and ``1.5.0b1`` -- and for those this script writes an
-optimistic date for a release that never happened. That is not an argument for
-leaving the field stale, since a stale date is wrong in *every* one of the other
-eleven cases; it is an argument for eventually anchoring both fields to
-:file:`.github/workflows/create-release.yml`, which runs only when a publish is
-actually going out. That would also give the right date to a release approved on
-a later day than its bump, which this script dates by the bump: ``1.5.0b9``'s
-Create Release run was approved three days after it was created (#1634). Until
-then this is the better of the two available answers, and the ``version`` half
-is guarded by a test that fails when the file drifts from
+``date-released`` is the date of the commit that bumps the version, not the date
+the release is distributed (#2163). The release goes out only once the
+``github-release`` environment is approved (#887), so the two can differ: a
+release approved days after its bump keeps the bump's date, as ``1.5.0b9``'s
+was (#1634), and a bump that never reaches PyPI (``1.5.0b1``'s did not) keeps
+its date too. That is the intended meaning rather than a gap to close, which is
+why this script writes the field and no release step does. Both fields move in
+the same commit so that they describe the same bump; moving only ``version``
+would leave the pair asserting something plainly false: "1.5.0b5, released on
+the day 1.5.0b4 was".
+
+The date is taken in UTC via :func:`datetime.datetime.now` with an explicit
+timezone, not :meth:`datetime.date.today`, so a bump run by hand late in the
+evening in US-Eastern records the commit's UTC calendar date rather than a local
+one a day behind it.
+
+The ``version`` half is guarded by a test that fails when the file drifts from
 ``pcapkit.__version__`` -- which also covers the version changes made by hand,
 which never run this script at all. Those are about a quarter of the commits
 that have moved ``__version__`` on ``main`` over the project's life, and a larger
@@ -156,8 +146,9 @@
 #: format version, which must *not* move -- does not begin with this prefix.
 VERSION_KEY = 'version:'
 
-#: Top-level ``CITATION.cff`` key naming the release date. Optional in the
-#: format, so its absence is reported rather than filled in.
+#: Top-level ``CITATION.cff`` key naming the release date, which is the date of
+#: the version bump rather than of the publish. Optional in the format, so its
+#: absence is reported rather than filled in.
 RELEASED_KEY = 'date-released:'
 
 
@@ -314,7 +305,8 @@ def plan_citation(text: str, version: str, released: Optional[str] = None) -> st
     Args:
         text: Current contents of the citation file.
         version: Version string to record.
-        released: Release date as ``YYYY-MM-DD``, defaulting to today in UTC.
+        released: Release date as ``YYYY-MM-DD``, defaulting to today in UTC,
+            which is the date of the bump this call is part of.
             Only written if the file already carries a ``date-released`` field;
             the field is optional in the format and is not invented.