diff --git a/packaging/freebsd/package.sh b/packaging/freebsd/package.sh
index d11434be0..363ef1e22 100755
--- a/packaging/freebsd/package.sh
+++ b/packaging/freebsd/package.sh
@@ -29,13 +29,25 @@ while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do
   esac
 done
 
-# FreeBSD's uname says amd64; release file names use x86_64 like the Linux and Windows ones.
-MACHINE="$(uname -m)"
-case "$MACHINE" in
-  amd64 | x86_64) ARCH=x86_64 ;;
-  arm64 | aarch64) ARCH=aarch64 ;;
-  *) echo "unsupported architecture $MACHINE" >&2; exit 2 ;;
+# Release file names use x86_64 and aarch64 like the Linux and Windows ones.
+release_arch() {
+  local arch="$1"
+  case "$arch" in
+    amd64 | x86_64) echo x86_64 ;;
+    arm64 | aarch64) echo aarch64 ;;
+    *) echo "unsupported architecture $arch" >&2; return 2 ;;
+  esac
+  return
+}
+# The release workflow cross-compiles aarch64 in an x86_64 VM with CARGO_BUILD_TARGET set to
+# aarch64-unknown-freebsd: name the archive after the target, not the host's uname -m.
+case "${CARGO_BUILD_TARGET:-}" in
+  "") ARCH="$(release_arch "$(uname -m)")" ;;
+  aarch64-unknown-freebsd | x86_64-unknown-freebsd) ARCH="$(release_arch "${CARGO_BUILD_TARGET%%-*}")" ;;
+  *) echo "CARGO_BUILD_TARGET=$CARGO_BUILD_TARGET is not a supported FreeBSD target" >&2; exit 2 ;;
 esac
+# Only binaries for this machine can run here (the --version check at the end).
+HOST_ARCH="$(release_arch "$(uname -m)" 2>/dev/null)" || HOST_ARCH=""
 if [[ "$DRY_RUN" = 0 ]] && [[ "$(uname -s)" != FreeBSD ]]; then
   echo "error: build on FreeBSD (or pass --dry-run to check the tree layout)" >&2
   exit 2
@@ -47,14 +59,15 @@ echo "==> DesignCraft $VERSION for FreeBSD $ARCH"
 # The release VM has 12 GB; full parallelism on the biggest crates runs it out of memory.
 export CARGO_BUILD_JOBS="${CARGO_BUILD_JOBS:-4}"
 if [[ "$SKIP_BUILD" = 0 ]]; then
-  (cd "$ROOT" && cargo build --release --locked -p designcraft -p designcraft-cli)
+  (cd "$ROOT" && cargo build --release --locked ${CARGO_BUILD_TARGET:+--target "$CARGO_BUILD_TARGET"} \
+    -p designcraft -p designcraft-cli)
 fi
 WORK="$CARGO_TARGET_DIR/freebsd-package"
 STAGE="$WORK/$BASENAME"
 rm -rf "$WORK"
 mkdir -p "$WORK"
 
-BIN="$CARGO_TARGET_DIR/release"
+BIN="$CARGO_TARGET_DIR/${CARGO_BUILD_TARGET:+$CARGO_BUILD_TARGET/}release"
 OUT_DIR="$DIST"
 if [[ "$DRY_RUN" = 1 ]]; then
   # Stub binaries, and the tarball stays in the work dir so dist/ only ever holds real builds.
@@ -95,7 +108,11 @@ mkdir -p "$OUT_DIR"
 tar -C "$WORK" -czf "$OUT_DIR/$BASENAME.tar.gz" "$BASENAME"
 echo "wrote $OUT_DIR/$BASENAME.tar.gz"
 
-"$STAGE/bin/designcraft-cli" --version
+if [[ "$ARCH" = "$HOST_ARCH" ]]; then
+  "$STAGE/bin/designcraft-cli" --version
+else
+  echo "skipping --version: $ARCH binaries do not run on this $HOST_ARCH host"
+fi
 if [[ "$DRY_RUN" = 1 ]]; then
   echo "==> dry run: tarball contents"
   tar -tzvf "$OUT_DIR/$BASENAME.tar.gz"