diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index f9ccb91573..029a814dc5 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -8,10 +8,14 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 ## Unreleased
 
 ### Changed
+<<<<<<< feat/version-message
+* improve `gitui --version` message [[@hlsxx](https://github.com/hlsxx)] ([#2838](https://github.com/gitui-org/gitui/issues/2838))
+=======
 * rust msrv bumped to `1.88`
 
 ### Fixed
 * fix panic when renaming or updating remote URL with no remotes configured [[@xvchris](https://github.com/xvchris)] ([#2868](https://github.com/gitui-org/gitui/issues/2868))
+>>>>>>> master
 
 ## [0.28.0] - 2025-12-14
 
diff --git a/build.rs b/build.rs
index 382490cff4..c421e47d50 100644
--- a/build.rs
+++ b/build.rs
@@ -34,14 +34,14 @@ fn main() {
 	let build_date = now.date_naive();
 
 	let build_name = if std::env::var("GITUI_RELEASE").is_ok() {
+		env!("CARGO_PKG_VERSION").to_string()
+	} else {
 		format!(
-			"{} {} ({})",
+			"{}-nightly {} ({})",
 			env!("CARGO_PKG_VERSION"),
 			build_date,
 			get_git_hash()
 		)
-	} else {
-		format!("nightly {} ({})", build_date, get_git_hash())
 	};
 
 	println!("cargo:warning=buildname '{build_name}'");