diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0822eac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 LibreCode coop and contributors
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: AGPL-3.0-or-later
+
+name: Release
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches:
+      - main
+    paths:
+      - VERSION
+  workflow_dispatch:
+
+permissions:
+  contents: write
+
+concurrency:
+  group: release
+  cancel-in-progress: false
+
+jobs:
+  release:
+    name: Publish versioned release
+    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    timeout-minutes: 15
+
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout
+        uses: actions/checkout@3d3c42e5aac5ba805825da76410c181273ba90b1 # v7.0.1
+        with:
+          fetch-depth: 0
+          persist-credentials: false
+
+      - name: Read and validate version
+        id: version
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          version="$(tr -d '[:space:]' < VERSION)"
+          if ! [[ "$version" =~ ^[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+$ ]]; then
+            echo "VERSION must use MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH" >&2
+            exit 1
+          fi
+          echo "version=$version" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+          echo "tag=v$version" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+
+      - name: Run project checks
+        run: |
+          python3 -m unittest discover -s tests -p 'test_*.py'
+          python3 scripts/sync_upstream.py check upstream/sources.json
+          python3 scripts/render_upstream.py check upstream/templates.json
+          python3 scripts/check_workflow_policy.py
+
+      - name: Publish GitHub release
+        env:
+          GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
+          TAG: ${{ steps.version.outputs.tag }}
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          if gh release view "$TAG" --repo "$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+            echo "Release $TAG already exists; nothing to do."
+            exit 0
+          fi
+
+          gh release create "$TAG"             --repo "$GITHUB_REPOSITORY"             --target "$GITHUB_SHA"             --title "$TAG"             --generate-notes
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6e8bf73
--- /dev/null
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+0.1.0
diff --git a/VERSION.license b/VERSION.license
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1ce4e0c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/VERSION.license
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 LibreCode coop and contributors
+SPDX-License-Identifier: AGPL-3.0-or-later