diff --git a/.github/workflows/build-swiglpk.yml b/.github/workflows/build-swiglpk.yml
index 997d0324c..962a914fb 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build-swiglpk.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build-swiglpk.yml
@@ -67,7 +67,16 @@ jobs:
           persist-credentials: false
 
       - name: Apply patches
-        run: git apply -v python-wheels/patches/swiglpk/${{ env.SWIGLPK_VERSION }}/*.patch
+        # versioneer (setup.py: version=versioneer.get_version()) has no env-var
+        # pretend-version override, unlike setuptools_scm. It renders the version
+        # from `git describe --tags --dirty`, so a patched-but-uncommitted tree
+        # comes out as e.g. "5.0.13+0.g3b4202a.dirty" instead of the clean
+        # "5.0.13". Commit the patch and re-point the local tag at it so describe
+        # reports the exact tagged version again (0 distance, clean tree).
+        run: |
+          git apply -v python-wheels/patches/swiglpk/${{ env.SWIGLPK_VERSION }}/*.patch
+          git -c user.name=ci -c user.email=ci@localhost commit -am "riscv64 patches"
+          git tag -f ${{ env.SWIGLPK_VERSION }}
 
       - name: Build wheels
         uses: pypa/cibuildwheel@1828c10ab37f080699c7b81cea34097c684a7074  # v4.2.0