diff --git a/.release-please-manifest.json b/.release-please-manifest.json
deleted file mode 100644
index 8d35a90..0000000
--- a/.release-please-manifest.json
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-{
-  ".": "1.2.4"
-}
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index eb09ee6..15ee44b 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -156,6 +156,12 @@ Running Codex, Cursor, Aider, Continue, Amp, Jules, or Roo? Two files are writte
 | `elnora-admin` | Manage API keys, audit logs, and administrative operations |
 | `elnora-agent` | Run scientific tools and literature lookups (PubMed, ArXiv, web search) via the cloud agent |
 
+## Versioning & releasing
+
+This plugin is a distribution of the [`@elnora-ai/cli`](https://github.com/Elnora-AI/elnora-cli) skills, so **its version tracks the CLI**. On each CLI release, the CLI's `sync-skills` job copies the current skills here and stamps the CLI version into `plugin.json` and `marketplace.json`. There is no independent plugin version — the `version` you see is the CLI version. (The `CHANGELOG.md` in this repo is frozen history from before this change; the changelog that matters is the [CLI's](https://github.com/Elnora-AI/elnora-cli/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md).)
+
+**Releasing a change to this repo:** the marketplace is served from the **default branch** — Claude Code clones the repo and `git pull`s `main` on `claude plugin marketplace update`. So a plugin-only change (README, CI, docs) "releases" simply by **merging to `main`**; there's no tag or publish step. Only bump `plugin.json` `version` by hand if you make a change that affects the *installed* runtime (e.g. the MCP server URL) and it must reach already-installed users before the next CLI release; otherwise let the next CLI sync carry the version forward.
+
 ## Links
 
 - **Website**: [elnora.ai](https://elnora.ai)
diff --git a/release-please-config.json b/release-please-config.json
deleted file mode 100644
index 53e356c..0000000
--- a/release-please-config.json
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,10 +0,0 @@
-{
-  "packages": {
-    ".": {
-      "release-type": "simple",
-      "package-name": "elnora-plugins",
-      "changelog-path": "CHANGELOG.md",
-      "bump-minor-pre-major": true
-    }
-  }
-}