diff --git a/doc/release-checklist.md b/doc/release-checklist.md
index c57a9d1e6..cac0982fa 100644
--- a/doc/release-checklist.md
+++ b/doc/release-checklist.md
@@ -9,23 +9,22 @@
 
 ## Release
 
-* Run tools/release.sh $OLDVERSION $VERSION
+* Run tools/release.sh $OLDVERSION $VERSION "quip"
+  * Cleans repo with `git clean -f -d -x`
   * Opens an editor to finalize NEWS.md
   * Bumps version numbers everywhere they need bumping
   * Commits changes, tags result with v$VERSION, pushes tag
   * Downloads new tarball and signs it
-  * Upload signature to github
-* Draft new release at https://github.com/dankamongmen/notcurses/releases
-  * Title is "v$VERSION—some quip"
-  * That's an em dash (U+2014, UTF-8 e2 80 94), get it right
-* Upload new Rust crate with `cargo publish`
-* Upload new Python pip with
-  * `python3 setup.py sdist`
-  * `twine upload dist/*`
-* Generate and upload new HTML documentation via `make html`
-  * `scp *.html ../doc/man/index.html qemfd.net:/var/www/notcurses/`
-* Generate and upload new Doxygen documentation via `doxygen ../doc/Doxyfile`
-  * `scp -r html qemfd.net:/var/www/notcurses/`
+  * Uploads signature to github
+  * Uploads new Rust crates with `cargo publish`
+  * Uploads new Python pip with
+    * `python3 setup.py sdist`
+    * `twine upload dist/*`
+  * Generates and uploads new HTML documentation via `make html`
+    * `scp *.html ../doc/man/index.html qemfd.net:/var/www/notcurses/`
+    * `scp -r html qemfd.net:/var/www/notcurses/`
+  * Publishes new release at https://github.com/dankamongmen/notcurses/releases
+    * Title is "v$VERSION—some quip"
 
 ## Packaging
 
diff --git a/tools/release.sh b/tools/release.sh
index 33c0b2917..1c5d4a9dc 100755
--- a/tools/release.sh
+++ b/tools/release.sh
@@ -2,32 +2,62 @@
 
 set -e
 
-usage() { echo "usage: `basename $0` oldversion newversion" ; }
+usage() { echo "usage: `basename $0` oldversion newversion quip" ; }
 
-[ $# -eq 2 ] || { usage >&2 ; exit 1 ; }
+[ $# -eq 3 ] || { usage >&2 ; exit 1 ; }
 
 OLDVERSION="$1"
 VERSION="$2"
+QUIP="$3"
 
 vi NEWS.md
 
 git clean -f -d -x
+
+# bump version numbers wherever they occur (wherever we enumerate them, anyway)
 BUMP="CMakeLists.txt doc/Doxyfile doc/man/man*/* doc/man/index.html python/setup.py rust/*/Cargo.toml rust/libnotcurses-sys/build.rs"
 for i in $BUMP ; do
   sed -i -e "s/$OLDVERSION/$VERSION/g" $i
 done
-echo "Checking for instances of $OLDVERSION..."
-grep -rF "$OLDVERSION" * || true
+
+# do a build with Doxygen enabled, upload docs, clean it up
+mkdir build
+cd build
+cmake -DUSE_DOXYGEN=on ..
+make -j
+make test
+scp html/* qemfd.net:/var/www/notcurses/html/
+scp *.html ../doc/man/index.html qemfd.net:/var/www/notcurses/
+cd ..
+rm -rf build
+
+# if that all worked, commit, push, and tag
 git commit -a -m v$VERSION
 git push
 git pull
 git tag -a v$VERSION -m v$VERSION -s
 git push origin --tags
 git pull
-wget https://github.com/dankamongmen/notcurses/archive/v$VERSION.tar.gz
-gpg --sign --armor --detach-sign v$VERSION.tar.gz 
+TARBALL=v$VERSION.tar.gz
+wget https://github.com/dankamongmen/notcurses/archive/$TARBALL
+gpg --sign --armor --detach-sign $TARBALL
 rm v$VERSION.tar.gz
 
-echo "Cut $VERSION, signed to v$VERSION.tar.gz.asc"
+echo "Cut $VERSION, signed to $TARBALL.asc"
 echo "Now upload the sig to https://github.com/dankamongmen/notcurses/releases"
 echo "The bastards are trying to immanentize the Eschaton"
+
+# requires token in ~/.netrc
+github-release dankamongmen/notcurses create --name "v$VERSION—$QUIP" --publish
+github-asset dankamongmen/notcurses upload v$VERSION $TARBALL.asc
+
+cd ../rust/libnotcurses-sys
+cargo clean
+cargo publish
+cd ../notcurses
+cargo clean
+cargo publish
+
+cd ../../python
+python3 setup.py sdist
+twine upload dist/*