diff --git a/docs/notes/85-packaging.md b/docs/notes/85-packaging.md
index 0d55ba4..e2b8473 100644
--- a/docs/notes/85-packaging.md
+++ b/docs/notes/85-packaging.md
@@ -889,6 +889,16 @@ yesterday would resolve and install yesterday's `anvil-core` without
 complaint. `patch.sh` checks for the expected filename before installing and
 names `./bin/build-packages.sh` if it is absent.
 
+The recipes whose version is a **pin** have the opposite problem.
+`anvil-moonraker`, `anvil-klipper`, `anvil-helixscreen` and `anvil-timelapse`
+ship files of ours beside an upstream tree, and apk decides whether to upgrade
+from the version string alone: a change under `payload/` is new bytes under an
+old name, so a printer already holding that version keeps what it has.
+`PKG_RELEASE` is the field that moves — raise it when `payload/` changes, and
+back to 1 when the pin itself moves. `PKG_STAMP_EXTRA="$(pkg_payload_hash)"`
+is a different mechanism for a different reader: it makes *this build* notice
+the edit and rebuild. It does not make a printer notice it.
+
 The model is the one fact opkg cannot work out for itself: both chamber
 configs are built every time, they own the same `config/printer.chamber.cfg`,
 and they `Conflict`. opkg refuses the pair with exit 255 — measured — so
diff --git a/pkgs/helixscreen/pkg.conf b/pkgs/helixscreen/pkg.conf
index eb74733..7d5b4a9 100644
--- a/pkgs/helixscreen/pkg.conf
+++ b/pkgs/helixscreen/pkg.conf
@@ -13,7 +13,13 @@ PKG_NAME=anvil-helixscreen
 # this reads it. Both live there because both are the pin, and a bump has to
 # move them together.
 PKG_VERSION="$HELIX_PKG_VERSION"
-PKG_RELEASE=1
+# THE REVISION IS THE RELEASE DATE, because the version above is a pin and does
+# not move when our half of this package changes. apk upgrades on the version
+# string alone, so a hand-maintained number here is one somebody has to
+# remember; pkg_release_stamp is the release, and every printer on an earlier
+# one sees a higher -r. qa/static/test_recipe_layout.py holds recipes with a
+# payload/ to this.
+PKG_RELEASE="$(pkg_release_stamp)"
 
 PKG_EXCLUDE=".version"
 
diff --git a/pkgs/klipper/pkg.conf b/pkgs/klipper/pkg.conf
index 18b2623..784cab7 100644
--- a/pkgs/klipper/pkg.conf
+++ b/pkgs/klipper/pkg.conf
@@ -19,7 +19,13 @@ PKG_NAME=anvil-klipper
 # that way -- `+git` parsed fine under the old packager for a year, which is
 # why nothing noticed until the format changed.
 PKG_VERSION="0.13.0~$(printf '%.8s' "$KLIPPER_VERSION")"
-PKG_RELEASE=1
+# THE REVISION IS THE RELEASE DATE, because the version above is a pin and does
+# not move when our half of this package changes. apk upgrades on the version
+# string alone, so a hand-maintained number here is one somebody has to
+# remember; pkg_release_stamp is the release, and every printer on an earlier
+# one sees a higher -r. qa/static/test_recipe_layout.py holds recipes with a
+# payload/ to this.
+PKG_RELEASE="$(pkg_release_stamp)"
 PKG_EXCLUDE=".version"
 
 # THE INTERPRETER IS A DEPENDS: etc/s6-rc/source/klipper/run execs $FF_PYTHON
diff --git a/pkgs/lib.sh b/pkgs/lib.sh
index 45cfa17..1fef9da 100644
--- a/pkgs/lib.sh
+++ b/pkgs/lib.sh
@@ -50,6 +50,28 @@ pkg_payload_hash() {
         | sha256sum | cut -c1-16
 }
 
+# pkg_release_stamp -> the packaging revision for a recipe whose VERSION is an
+# upstream pin but whose contents are partly this repo's.
+#
+# apk decides whether to upgrade from the version string alone, and for those
+# recipes the string does not move when our files change: anvil-moonraker is
+# `0.11.0` whatever we ship beside upstream's tree, anvil-klipper is the
+# pinned commit whatever our klippy extras say. The revision is what moves, so
+# it is the release date rather than a number somebody has to remember to
+# raise -- a printer on any earlier release sees a higher `-r` and upgrades.
+#
+# THE TRAILING LETTER IS A SAME-DAY RE-RELEASE (20260827b, and there were four
+# that day). apk compares `-r` numerically, so the letter becomes a digit
+# after the date rather than beside it: 20260827 -> 202608270, `b` ->
+# 202608272, and the next day's 202608280 is still larger. Appending the
+# letter's index without the extra place would order 20260827b above 20260828.
+pkg_release_stamp() {
+    _d=${MOD_VER%%[a-z]}
+    _l=${MOD_VER#"$_d"}
+    printf '%s%s' "$_d" "$(awk -v l="$_l" \
+        'BEGIN { print (l == "") ? 0 : index("abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz", l) }')"
+}
+
 # pkg_signkey_hash -> a cache key for the feed's public key, or `unsigned`.
 #
 # anvil-core ships that key, and it lives OUTSIDE the repo, so
diff --git a/pkgs/moonraker/pkg.conf b/pkgs/moonraker/pkg.conf
index 57ffc73..3a891b8 100644
--- a/pkgs/moonraker/pkg.conf
+++ b/pkgs/moonraker/pkg.conf
@@ -13,7 +13,13 @@ PKG_ARCH=all
 # sqlite the releases after it wanted. It builds its own CPython now, so it
 # can. apk orders 0.11.0 after every 0.8.0 string that shipped.
 PKG_VERSION="${MOONRAKER_VERSION#v}"
-PKG_RELEASE=1
+# THE REVISION IS THE RELEASE DATE, because the version above is a pin and does
+# not move when our half of this package changes. apk upgrades on the version
+# string alone, so a hand-maintained number here is one somebody has to
+# remember; pkg_release_stamp is the release, and every printer on an earlier
+# one sees a higher -r. qa/static/test_recipe_layout.py holds recipes with a
+# payload/ to this.
+PKG_RELEASE="$(pkg_release_stamp)"
 
 PKG_EXCLUDE=".version"
 
diff --git a/qa/static/test_recipe_layout.py b/qa/static/test_recipe_layout.py
index 4bc1a39..47967ca 100644
--- a/qa/static/test_recipe_layout.py
+++ b/qa/static/test_recipe_layout.py
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ legitimately changed, which is the opposite of what a test is for.
 What is left is the two that bite:
 """
 import os
+import re
 
 import pytest
 
@@ -126,3 +127,42 @@ def test_klipper_still_depends_on_numpy():
         "lost feature -- klippy loads [stepper_resonance_tester] from "
         "FlashForge's printer.vibration.cfg and dies on the ImportError, so "
         "the printer never reaches ready.")
+
+
+def test_a_pinned_recipe_that_ships_our_files_versions_on_the_release():
+    """A recipe apk can never see a change in is a recipe printers never update.
+
+    Two kinds of recipe live under pkgs/. One versions on `$MOD_VER`, the
+    release date, so every build says something new. The other pins an
+    upstream version -- `${MOONRAKER_VERSION#v}`, the Klipper commit, the
+    HelixScreen tag -- and that string stays put however much of OUR half of
+    the package changes, because `payload/` is ours. apk compares the version
+    and nothing else: same string, no upgrade, whatever the bytes say.
+
+    `PKG_STAMP_EXTRA="$(pkg_payload_hash)"` does not help here and reads as
+    though it should. It hashes `payload/` so the BUILD rebuilds the package;
+    it says nothing to a printer.
+
+    So a pinned recipe with a `payload/` directory takes its revision from
+    `pkg_release_stamp` -- the release date, monotone, and nobody's to
+    remember. This test is what makes that the rule rather than a habit.
+    """
+    missing = []
+    for name, d in recipes():
+        if not os.path.isdir(os.path.join(d, "payload")):
+            continue                      # ships nothing of ours to go stale
+        conf = open(os.path.join(d, "pkg.conf")).read()
+        version = re.search(r"^PKG_VERSION=(.*)$", conf, re.M)
+        release = re.search(r"^PKG_RELEASE=(.*)$", conf, re.M)
+        if version and "MOD_VER" in version.group(1):
+            continue                      # the whole version is the release
+        if not release or "pkg_release_stamp" not in release.group(1):
+            missing.append("%s (PKG_VERSION=%s, PKG_RELEASE=%s)" % (
+                name,
+                version.group(1) if version else "?",
+                release.group(1) if release else "1 (default)"))
+    assert not missing, (
+        "these recipes pin an upstream version and ship a payload/ of ours, so "
+        "a change to our half leaves the version they had -- and no printer "
+        "upgrades: %s. Set PKG_RELEASE=\"$(pkg_release_stamp)\"."
+        % ", ".join(missing))