<p>We revisit duality-covariant higher-derivative corrections which arise from the generalized Bergshoeff-de Roo (gBdR) identification, a prescription that gives rise to a two parameter family of <i>α</i>^<i>′</i>-corrections to the low-energy effective action of the bosonic and the heterotic string. Although it is able to reproduce all corrections at the leading and sub-leading (<i>α</i>^<i>′</i>2) order purely from symmetry considerations, a geometric interpretation, like for the two-derivative action and its gauge transformation is lacking. To address this issue and to pave the way for the future exploration of higher-derivative (=higher-loop for the <i>β</i>-functions of the underlying <i>σ</i>-model) corrections to generalized dualities, consistent truncations and integrable <i>σ</i>-models, we recover the gBdR identification’s results from the Poláček-Siegel construction that provides a natural notion of torsion and curvature in generalized geometry.</p>