diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index df17a68..1d284cd 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -110,7 +110,23 @@ jobs:
             --title "chore(release): v${version}" \
             --body "Automated release PR generated by \`.github/workflows/release.yml\`. Bumps every version-bearing manifest to v${version}.")
           echo "Created release PR: $pr_url"
-          gh pr merge "$pr_url" --squash --delete-branch
+
+          # `gh pr create` returns synchronously but GraphQL's PR node
+          # is eventually consistent — the v1.0.4 release hit a race
+          # where `gh pr merge` fired ~500ms after create and got:
+          #   "Could not resolve to a PullRequest with the number of N"
+          # Retry up to 5 times with a 2s backoff to cover propagation.
+          for attempt in 1 2 3 4 5; do
+            if gh pr merge "$pr_url" --squash --delete-branch; then
+              break
+            fi
+            if [ "$attempt" = "5" ]; then
+              echo "::error::gh pr merge still failing after 5 attempts"
+              exit 1
+            fi
+            echo "gh pr merge attempt $attempt failed (likely GraphQL lag); retrying in 2s..."
+            sleep 2
+          done
 
       - name: Tag the merged commit on main
         run: |