diff --git a/.agents/skills/publish-cover/scripts/build-cover-dist.sh b/.agents/skills/publish-cover/scripts/build-cover-dist.sh
index b2130d4..4a9d5dd 100755
--- a/.agents/skills/publish-cover/scripts/build-cover-dist.sh
+++ b/.agents/skills/publish-cover/scripts/build-cover-dist.sh
@@ -205,6 +205,13 @@ dist, src, out = (pathlib.Path(a) for a in sys.argv[1:4])
 html = (dist / "index.html").read_text()
 rel = os.path.relpath(src.resolve(), out.parent.resolve())
 
+# Drop the build stamp. The snapshot is committed, so it must be byte-stable
+# for a given source + version — the stamp carries a commit hash and a
+# timestamp that change on every run, which would dirty the working tree on
+# every build and permanently trip this skill's own clean-tree gate. The
+# published dist keeps its stamp; only the committed copy sheds it.
+html = re.sub(r'\A<!-- repo:[^\n]*-->\n', '', html, count=1)
+
 SKIP = re.compile(r'^(?:[a-z][a-z0-9+.-]*:|//|#|\.\.?/)', re.I)
 
 def repoint(m):
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 1cf9c63..97ac0bf 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -6,6 +6,20 @@ This project follows a Keep a Changelog-style format and uses version tags for r
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+## [1.9.6] - 2026-08-12
+
+### Fixed
+
+- **The committed cover snapshot is now byte-deterministic.** As shipped in
+  1.9.5 it carried the build stamp, whose commit hash and timestamp change on
+  every run — so every `build-cover-dist.sh` invocation dirtied
+  `docs/cover.html` even when nothing about the page had changed, and would
+  have permanently tripped this skill's own "clean working tree" gate before
+  deploy. The stamp is now stripped from the committed copy only; the published
+  dist still carries it. Two consecutive builds from an unchanged source now
+  produce identical bytes, so the snapshot changes only when the page or the
+  version does.
+
 ## [1.9.5] - 2026-08-12
 
 ### Changed
diff --git a/docs/cover.html b/docs/cover.html
index 3413ce5..ad33a62 100644
--- a/docs/cover.html
+++ b/docs/cover.html
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-<!-- repo:0153e21 built:2026-08-13T03:48:06Z -->
 <!DOCTYPE html>
 <html lang="en">
 <head>
@@ -166,7 +165,7 @@
 
 <section class="hero">
   <div class="wrap">
-    <span class="badge">v1.9.5</span>
+    <span class="badge">v1.9.6</span>
     <h1>actop<span>.</span></h1>
     <p class="tagline">
       Watch your Apple Silicon Mac the way it actually works — <strong>sudoless</strong>,
@@ -275,7 +274,7 @@ <h2>actop — Apple <span style="color: var(--accent);">C</span>hip top</h2>
 
 <footer>
   <div class="wrap">
-    <p>actop v1.9.5 · an independent project inspired by <a href="https://github.com/tlkh/asitop">asitop</a> · MIT licensed</p>
+    <p>actop v1.9.6 · an independent project inspired by <a href="https://github.com/tlkh/asitop">asitop</a> · MIT licensed</p>
   </div>
 </footer>
 
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 0adc9fc..ddf0a3f 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 
 [project]
 name = "actop"
-version = "1.9.5"
+version = "1.9.6"
 description = "Apple Silicon (M1–M4) power, GPU, ANE & memory-bandwidth monitor — sudoless TUI + Python API for profiling local LLM / MLX / CoreML inference"
 readme = "README.md"
 license = { text = "MIT" }
diff --git a/uv.lock b/uv.lock
index 06227bb..1ef3ddd 100644
--- a/uv.lock
+++ b/uv.lock
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ resolution-markers = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "actop"
-version = "1.9.5"
+version = "1.9.6"
 source = { editable = "." }
 dependencies = [
     { name = "rich" },