diff --git a/.github/workflows/publish.yaml b/.github/workflows/publish.yaml
index 27de564..84b0133 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/publish.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/publish.yaml
@@ -31,6 +31,26 @@ jobs:
           config-file: release-please-config.json
           manifest-file: .release-please-manifest.json
 
+      # Merging the release PR here, from a push-triggered job, is what makes a
+      # release land without a human. A pull_request-triggered workflow cannot
+      # do it: GitHub holds runs on bot-authored PRs as action_required, and it
+      # never starts CI on a PR the GITHUB_TOKEN opened, so waiting on checks
+      # would wait forever.
+      - name: Merge the release PR
+        env:
+          GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+        run: |
+          PR=$(gh pr list --repo "$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" --state open --label 'autorelease: pending' \
+            --json number,author --jq '[.[] | select(.author.is_bot)] | .[0].number // empty')
+
+          if [ -z "$PR" ]; then
+            echo "No pending release PR to merge."
+            exit 0
+          fi
+
+          echo "Merging release PR #$PR"
+          gh pr merge "$PR" --squash --repo "$GITHUB_REPOSITORY"
+
   publish:
     needs: release-please
     if: ${{ needs.release-please.outputs.release_created }}
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-auto-merge.yaml b/.github/workflows/release-auto-merge.yaml
deleted file mode 100644
index 8bece1a..0000000
--- a/.github/workflows/release-auto-merge.yaml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,40 +0,0 @@
-name: Release Auto-Merge
-
-# Makes the release itself zero-touch: once a merged api-sync (or any other)
-# PR lands a conventional-commit change on main, release-please-action (in
-# publish.yaml) opens/updates its own "chore(main): release X.Y.Z" PR. That PR
-# still has to be merged by a human today. This workflow enables GitHub's
-# native auto-merge on it instead, so it merges itself as soon as the
-# existing required checks (lint, typecheck, tests, contract-check,
-# api-sync-check, snyk) pass -- nothing here bypasses those checks.
-#
-# Gating is intentionally strict and narrow: only a PR opened by the
-# release-please bot itself (github-actions[bot]), carrying release-please's
-# own "autorelease: pending" label. Both conditions must hold, so this never
-# touches a human-authored PR or a release-please PR that already failed
-# something (release-please clears the label / the PR gets closed in that
-# case). Enabling auto-merge does not merge anything immediately; GitHub
-# still waits for every required check to succeed first.
-
-on:
-  pull_request:
-    types: [opened, labeled, synchronize, reopened]
-    branches: [main]
-
-permissions:
-  pull-requests: write
-  contents: write
-
-jobs:
-  auto-merge-release-pr:
-    name: Enable auto-merge on the release-please PR
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    if: >
-      github.event.pull_request.user.login == 'github-actions[bot]' &&
-      contains(github.event.pull_request.labels.*.name, 'autorelease: pending')
-    steps:
-      - name: Enable auto-merge
-        env:
-          GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
-        run: |
-          gh pr merge "${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}" --auto --squash --repo "${{ github.repository }}"