diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-please.yml b/.github/workflows/release-please.yml
index 0050c15..2b6a2f0 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release-please.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release-please.yml
@@ -3,11 +3,15 @@ name: release-please
 # Maintains a standing "release PR" that accumulates Conventional Commits since the last
 # release and computes the next semver bump from them (feat: -> minor, fix: -> patch,
 # "BREAKING CHANGE:" footer -> major). Merging that PR creates and pushes a vX.Y.Z tag,
-# which is what actually triggers release.yml's build/test/pack/publish pipeline - this
-# workflow only ever decides the version number and creates the tag, nothing here touches
-# NuGet or creates a GitHub Release (skip-github-release in release-please-config.json,
-# since release.yml's own publish job already creates the Release after a successful
-# publish - having both would create two Releases for the same tag).
+# which is what actually triggers release.yml's build/test/pack/publish pipeline.
+#
+# "draft": true in release-please-config.json makes this also create a draft (not
+# publicly visible) GitHub Release alongside the tag - NOT "skip-github-release", which
+# turned out to skip the tag too (see https://github.com/googleapis/release-please-action/issues/1034),
+# silently breaking this entire chain. release.yml's own publish job un-drafts that
+# release (draft: false on its softprops/action-gh-release step) only after a successful,
+# manually-approved NuGet push - so nothing is publicly visible as "released" until it
+# actually is.
 on:
   push:
     branches: [main]
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index c894ccc..f58b036 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -83,9 +83,14 @@ jobs:
       - name: Push to NuGet.org
         run: dotnet nuget push "./artifacts/*.nupkg" --api-key "${{ steps.nuget_login.outputs.NUGET_API_KEY }}" --source https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json --skip-duplicate
 
-      - name: Create GitHub Release
+      # release-please creates this release as a draft (see release-please.yml) when its
+      # Release PR merges, so the tag exists without anything publicly visible yet. This step
+      # finds that same release by tag and un-drafts it - only after a successful, approved
+      # NuGet push - rather than creating a second one.
+      - name: Publish GitHub Release
         uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v3
         with:
           name: v${{ needs.build-test-pack.outputs.version }}
           files: ./artifacts/*.nupkg
           generate_release_notes: true
+          draft: false
diff --git a/release-please-config.json b/release-please-config.json
index 8e5d8f0..9053307 100644
--- a/release-please-config.json
+++ b/release-please-config.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/googleapis/release-please/main/schemas/config.json",
-  "skip-github-release": true,
+  "draft": true,
   "packages": {
     ".": {
       "release-type": "simple",