diff --git a/.github/releases/v1.0.0.md b/.github/releases/v1.0.0.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..68254ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/releases/v1.0.0.md
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+First tagged release: a zero-copy shared-memory IPC framework for local AI workloads. C++17 core, lock-free SPSC data path, crash-resilient, with a frozen C ABI driven from Python and Rust.
+
+## Highlights
+
+- **Bipartite buffer (BipBuffer) ring**: every payload is physically contiguous, so the zero-copy pointer handoff is always valid.
+- **Lock-free hot path**: single-writer atomic cursors published with release/acquire ordering; zero locks taken when the peer isn't parked.
+- **Parking, not polling**: blocked peers sleep at ~0.05% CPU and wake in microseconds; every wait is a bounded timedwait.
+- **Crash resilience**: heartbeat liveness on both platforms plus robust-mutex (`EOWNERDEAD`) recovery on Linux; a peer SIGKILLed mid-transfer leaves the survivor with a clean `PEER_DEAD` error, never a deadlock.
+- **Frozen C ABI v1** with Python (cffi, zero-copy `memoryview`) and Rust (compile-time borrow enforcement) bindings.
+- **New in this release**: opt-in transparent huge pages via the additive `shuttle_create_ex` + `SHUTTLE_CREATE_HUGEPAGES` (advisory `madvise` on Linux, no-op elsewhere; the frozen v1 surface is untouched).
+
+## Verification
+
+29-test suite green under AddressSanitizer and ThreadSanitizer on macOS (native Apple silicon) and Linux (glibc); the correctness suite runs in CI on ubuntu-24.04. Consolidated API reference in [docs/API.md](https://github.com/allandng/shuttle/blob/main/docs/API.md); direction triage in [docs/ROADMAP.md](https://github.com/allandng/shuttle/blob/main/docs/ROADMAP.md).
+
+## Benchmark honesty
+
+Headline figures (50 MB end-to-end in ~5 µs vs ~9 ms over Unix sockets) are development measurements on native Apple M-series hardware. The production target is Linux and the headline claim remains provisional until the harness runs on bare-metal Linux; see the README's "Benchmark honesty" section for methodology and caveats.
+
+## Scope
+
+Same-host, single-producer/single-consumer, one-way channels. Linux is the hard-guarantee platform; macOS crash recovery is best-effort by design.
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 3fa717f..5bc7651 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -1,11 +1,21 @@
-# Publish a GitHub Release when a version tag (v*) is pushed. The annotated
-# tag's message becomes the release notes (--notes-from-tag), so notes are
-# curated at tag time and live in git history, not in this file.
+# Publish a GitHub Release. Two triggers:
+#   - push of a version tag (v*): the annotated tag's message becomes the
+#     release notes (--notes-from-tag), curated at tag time.
+#   - workflow_dispatch with a tag input: creates the tag at the dispatched
+#     ref and publishes the release, taking notes from
+#     .github/releases/<tag>.md when that file exists (falling back to
+#     GitHub's generated notes). This path exists for environments that can
+#     push branches but not tags.
 name: Release
 
 on:
   push:
     tags: ["v*"]
+  workflow_dispatch:
+    inputs:
+      tag:
+        description: "Tag to release (created at the dispatched ref if it does not exist)"
+        required: true
 
 permissions:
   contents: write
@@ -15,11 +25,22 @@ jobs:
     runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
-      - name: Create GitHub release from tag annotation
+      - name: Create GitHub release
         env:
           GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
+          EVENT_NAME: ${{ github.event_name }}
+          INPUT_TAG: ${{ inputs.tag }}
         run: |
-          gh release create "$GITHUB_REF_NAME" \
-            --verify-tag \
-            --title "Shuttle $GITHUB_REF_NAME" \
-            --notes-from-tag
+          if [ "$EVENT_NAME" = "workflow_dispatch" ]; then
+            NOTES=".github/releases/${INPUT_TAG}.md"
+            if [ -f "$NOTES" ]; then
+              gh release create "$INPUT_TAG" --target "$GITHUB_SHA" \
+                --title "Shuttle $INPUT_TAG" --notes-file "$NOTES"
+            else
+              gh release create "$INPUT_TAG" --target "$GITHUB_SHA" \
+                --title "Shuttle $INPUT_TAG" --generate-notes
+            fi
+          else
+            gh release create "$GITHUB_REF_NAME" --verify-tag \
+              --title "Shuttle $GITHUB_REF_NAME" --notes-from-tag
+          fi