diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/prepare-release.yml b/.gitea/workflows/prepare-release.yml
index a9631fcd..599dc31a 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/prepare-release.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/prepare-release.yml
@@ -39,7 +39,13 @@ jobs:
 
           # Auto-generate version if not provided
           if [ -z "$VERSION_INPUT" ]; then
-            TODAY=$(TZ=UTC date +%Y%m%d)
+            # This project operates on Korea Standard Time (production
+            # server logs, ops schedule, and the team are all KST) --
+            # using UTC here silently rolled the date back by up to 9
+            # hours (e.g. 2026-07-12 01:xx KST is still 2026-07-11 16:xx
+            # UTC), so a release cut right after midnight KST would tag
+            # itself with yesterday's date.
+            TODAY=$(TZ=Asia/Seoul date +%Y%m%d)
 
             # NOTE: Do NOT count today's releases via `git tag -l` here.
             # actions/checkout@v4 defaults to a shallow, single-branch