diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index e207bd84d..d42c6c659 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -39,44 +39,6 @@ jobs:
       - name: Pull map2check-dev image
         run: docker pull ghcr.io/hbgit/map2check-dev:latest
 
-      # Build completo (KLEE + LibFuzzer) — mesmo padrão do job e2e-wasm do ci.yml
-      - name: Build + ninja install (release/) in container
-        run: |
-          docker run --rm \
-            -u root \
-            -v "${{ github.workspace }}:/workspace" \
-            -w /workspace \
-            -e CC=/usr/bin/clang-16 \
-            -e CXX=/usr/bin/clang++-16 \
-            ghcr.io/hbgit/map2check-dev:latest bash -c '
-              # WABT + wasi-sdk (a imagem publicada não os traz)
-              if [ ! -f /opt/wabt-1.0.41/include/wasm-rt.h ]; then
-                wget -q "https://github.com/WebAssembly/wabt/releases/download/1.0.41/wabt-1.0.41-linux-x64.tar.gz" -O /tmp/wabt.tar.gz
-                tar xzf /tmp/wabt.tar.gz -C /opt && rm /tmp/wabt.tar.gz
-                ln -sf /opt/wabt-1.0.41/bin/wasm2c /usr/local/bin/wasm2c
-              fi
-              if [ ! -d /opt/wasi-sdk-33.0-x86_64-linux ]; then
-                wget -q "https://github.com/WebAssembly/wasi-sdk/releases/download/wasi-sdk-33/wasi-sdk-33.0-x86_64-linux.tar.gz" -O /tmp/wasi-sdk.tar.gz
-                tar xzf /tmp/wasi-sdk.tar.gz -C /opt && rm /tmp/wasi-sdk.tar.gz
-              fi
-
-              rm -rf build release
-              mkdir -p build && cd build
-              cmake .. -G Ninja \
-                -DLLVM_DIR=/usr/lib/llvm-16/lib/cmake/llvm \
-                -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/workspace/release
-              ninja
-              ninja install
-
-              # KLEE runtime + clang headers ausentes das regras de install
-              # (cp -rL, não symlink: precisa sobreviver dentro do zip)
-              mkdir -p /workspace/release/lib/klee
-              cp -rL /opt/klee/lib/klee/runtime /workspace/release/lib/klee/runtime
-              [ -e /workspace/release/lib/clang ] || \
-                cp -rL /usr/lib/llvm-16/lib/clang /workspace/release/lib/clang
-            '
-          sudo chown -R "$(id -u):$(id -g)" release
-
       - name: Setup Node.js
         uses: actions/setup-node@v4
         with:
@@ -85,9 +47,12 @@ jobs:
       - name: Install semantic-release
         run: npm install --no-save semantic-release@24 @semantic-release/exec@6
 
-      # Lê os commits desde a última tag v*, calcula a versão, chama
-      # scripts/package-release.sh <versão> (via .releaserc.json), cria a
-      # tag e publica o Draft Release com o .zip anexado.
+      # Lê os commits desde a última tag v*, calcula a versão e, se houver
+      # release a fazer, roda scripts/prepare-release.sh <versão> (fase
+      # prepare, via .releaserc.json): build Docker completo com a versão
+      # injetada em -DMAP2CHECK_VERSION + empacotamento do zip. Por fim cria
+      # a tag e publica o Draft Release com o .zip anexado. Sem release
+      # necessária (só docs:/ci:/chore:), o build nem executa.
       - name: Run semantic-release
         env:
           GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
diff --git a/.releaserc.json b/.releaserc.json
index 43c756ec6..a845c11f0 100644
--- a/.releaserc.json
+++ b/.releaserc.json
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
     "@semantic-release/commit-analyzer",
     "@semantic-release/release-notes-generator",
     ["@semantic-release/exec", {
-      "prepareCmd": "bash scripts/package-release.sh ${nextRelease.version}"
+      "prepareCmd": "bash scripts/prepare-release.sh ${nextRelease.version}"
     }],
     ["@semantic-release/github", {
       "draftRelease": true,
diff --git a/modules/frontend/CMakeLists.txt b/modules/frontend/CMakeLists.txt
index 1a9c26d38..b40e4df10 100644
--- a/modules/frontend/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/modules/frontend/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -2,6 +2,18 @@
 add_subdirectory(utils)
 add_subdirectory(counter_example)
 add_subdirectory(witness)
+# Version string embedded in the binary (--version / help banner).
+# The release pipeline overrides it with -DMAP2CHECK_VERSION=<semver>;
+# regular builds fall back to the project() version.
+if(NOT MAP2CHECK_VERSION)
+  set(MAP2CHECK_VERSION ${PROJECT_VERSION})
+endif()
+execute_process(COMMAND date -u +%Y-%m-%d
+  OUTPUT_VARIABLE MAP2CHECK_BUILD_DATE
+  OUTPUT_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE)
+configure_file(map2check_version.hpp.in
+  "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/map2check_version.hpp" @ONLY)
+
 add_library(Caller OBJECT caller.cpp)
 add_library(WasmLifter OBJECT wasm_lifter.cpp)
 #set_target_properties(Caller PROPERTIES COMPILE_FLAGS ${CXX_FLAGS})
@@ -18,6 +30,8 @@ add_executable(map2check map2check.cpp
   $<TARGET_OBJECTS:Node>
   $<TARGET_OBJECTS:Witness>)
 
+target_include_directories(map2check PRIVATE "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}")
+
 #set_target_properties(map2check PROPERTIES COMPILE_FLAGS ${CPP_FLAGS})
 #-lrt -ldl -ltinfo -lpthread -lz -lm
 target_link_libraries(map2check ${Boost_LIBRARIES})
diff --git a/modules/frontend/map2check.cpp b/modules/frontend/map2check.cpp
index 984b63c60..acc3d0909 100644
--- a/modules/frontend/map2check.cpp
+++ b/modules/frontend/map2check.cpp
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
 
 namespace po = boost::program_options;
 namespace fs = std::filesystem;
-#define Map2CheckVersion "v8.0.0-Songbirds : Mon Jul  6 01:31:01 Etc 2026"
+#include "map2check_version.hpp"
 
 // TODO(hbgit): should get preprocessor flags from CMake
 
diff --git a/modules/frontend/map2check_version.hpp.in b/modules/frontend/map2check_version.hpp.in
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ded60b84d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/frontend/map2check_version.hpp.in
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+/**
+ * Template processed by CMake configure_file() — do not include this file
+ * directly; include the generated map2check_version.hpp instead.
+ * MAP2CHECK_VERSION defaults to the project() version and is overridden by
+ * the release pipeline with -DMAP2CHECK_VERSION=<semantic version>.
+ **/
+#ifndef MAP2CHECK_VERSION_HPP
+#define MAP2CHECK_VERSION_HPP
+
+#define Map2CheckVersion "v@MAP2CHECK_VERSION@-Songbirds:@MAP2CHECK_BUILD_DATE@"
+
+#endif  // MAP2CHECK_VERSION_HPP
diff --git a/scripts/prepare-release.sh b/scripts/prepare-release.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..f55e09f08
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/prepare-release.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Fase "prepare" do semantic-release: builda o Map2Check completo (KLEE 3.1 +
+# LibFuzzer) dentro da imagem map2check-dev, injetando a versão calculada no
+# binário via -DMAP2CHECK_VERSION, e empacota release/ em .zip.
+# Chamado pelo @semantic-release/exec: scripts/prepare-release.sh 8.1.0
+set -euo pipefail
+
+VERSION="${1:?usage: prepare-release.sh <version>}"
+REPO_ROOT="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")/.." && pwd)"
+cd "$REPO_ROOT"
+
+docker run --rm \
+  -u root \
+  -v "$REPO_ROOT:/workspace" \
+  -w /workspace \
+  -e CC=/usr/bin/clang-16 \
+  -e CXX=/usr/bin/clang++-16 \
+  -e MAP2CHECK_VERSION="$VERSION" \
+  ghcr.io/hbgit/map2check-dev:latest bash -c '
+    set -euo pipefail
+
+    # WABT + wasi-sdk (a imagem publicada não os traz)
+    if [ ! -f /opt/wabt-1.0.41/include/wasm-rt.h ]; then
+      wget -q "https://github.com/WebAssembly/wabt/releases/download/1.0.41/wabt-1.0.41-linux-x64.tar.gz" -O /tmp/wabt.tar.gz
+      tar xzf /tmp/wabt.tar.gz -C /opt && rm /tmp/wabt.tar.gz
+      ln -sf /opt/wabt-1.0.41/bin/wasm2c /usr/local/bin/wasm2c
+    fi
+    if [ ! -d /opt/wasi-sdk-33.0-x86_64-linux ]; then
+      wget -q "https://github.com/WebAssembly/wasi-sdk/releases/download/wasi-sdk-33/wasi-sdk-33.0-x86_64-linux.tar.gz" -O /tmp/wasi-sdk.tar.gz
+      tar xzf /tmp/wasi-sdk.tar.gz -C /opt && rm /tmp/wasi-sdk.tar.gz
+    fi
+
+    rm -rf build release
+    mkdir -p build && cd build
+    cmake .. -G Ninja \
+      -DLLVM_DIR=/usr/lib/llvm-16/lib/cmake/llvm \
+      -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/workspace/release \
+      -DMAP2CHECK_VERSION="${MAP2CHECK_VERSION}"
+    ninja
+    ninja install
+
+    # KLEE runtime + clang headers ausentes das regras de install
+    # (cp -rL, não symlink: precisa sobreviver dentro do zip)
+    mkdir -p /workspace/release/lib/klee
+    cp -rL /opt/klee/lib/klee/runtime /workspace/release/lib/klee/runtime
+    [ -e /workspace/release/lib/clang ] || \
+      cp -rL /usr/lib/llvm-16/lib/clang /workspace/release/lib/clang
+  '
+
+# O container roda como root; no CI, devolve a posse ao usuário do runner
+if [ -n "${CI:-}" ]; then
+  sudo chown -R "$(id -u):$(id -g)" build release
+fi
+
+bash scripts/package-release.sh "$VERSION"