diff --git a/.github/workflows/prepare-release.yml b/.github/workflows/prepare-release.yml
deleted file mode 100644
index 49f30798d..000000000
--- a/.github/workflows/prepare-release.yml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,43 +0,0 @@
----
-name: Prepare Release
-
-on:
-  workflow_dispatch:
-    inputs:
-      branch:
-        description: 'the branch to prepare the release against'
-        required: true
-        default: 'main'
-      tag:
-        description: 'the tag to be released'
-        required: true
-
-jobs:
-  prepare:
-    name: Prepare Release
-    runs-on: 'ubuntu-latest'
-    permissions:
-      contents: write
-      pull-requests: write
-    steps:
-      - name: Checkout
-        uses: actions/checkout@v7
-        with:
-          ref: ${{ github.event.inputs.branch }}
-          fetch-depth: 0
-          persist-credentials: true # need the changelog ref
-      - name: Changelog
-        env:
-          TAG: ${{ github.event.inputs.tag }}
-        run: |
-          git fetch --tags origin refs/notes/changelog:refs/notes/changelog
-          .github/scripts/changelog-update "${TAG}"
-      - name: Create Pull Request
-        uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v8
-        with:
-          title: "${{ github.event.inputs.tag }} Changelog Bump"
-          body: "This is an automated changelog commit."
-          commit-message: "chore: ${{ github.event.inputs.tag }} changelog bump"
-          branch: "ready-${{ github.event.inputs.tag }}"
-          signoff: true
-          delete-branch: true
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 6a5505ff9..d7b89f036 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -20,11 +20,19 @@ jobs:
         uses: actions/checkout@v7
         with:
           fetch-depth: 0
-          persist-credentials: true # Needed to fetch the changelog ref.
       - name: Changelog
+        # The CHANGELOG.md section for this tag is the source of truth; it was
+        # written by prepare-release before the tag was cut.
         run: |
-          git fetch origin refs/notes/changelog:refs/notes/changelog
-          .github/scripts/changelog-render "${VERSION}" > "${GITHUB_WORKSPACE}/changelog"
+          awk -v ver="${VERSION}" '
+            index($0, "<a name=\"" ver "\"></a>") == 1 { found = 1 }
+            found && /^<a name="/ && index($0, ver) == 0 { exit }
+            found { print }
+          ' CHANGELOG.md > "${GITHUB_WORKSPACE}/changelog"
+          if ! grep -q . "${GITHUB_WORKSPACE}/changelog"; then
+            echo "::error::no CHANGELOG.md section found for ${VERSION}"
+            exit 1
+          fi
       - name: Create Release
         uses: actions/create-release@latest
         env:
diff --git a/docs/contributor/changelog.md b/docs/contributor/changelog.md
index 8ee7a39c2..ca3b845d0 100644
--- a/docs/contributor/changelog.md
+++ b/docs/contributor/changelog.md
@@ -22,12 +22,8 @@ The primary helper script is `changelog-edit`. It allows a user to sync down
 notes, edit an entry, or both. See the output of the `h` flag for more
 information.
 
-The other script of interest is `changelog-render`, which can be used to render
-out the changelog on demand, assuming the changelog notes have been pulled
-locally.
-
-The `changelog-update` script uses `changelog-render` to add to the
-`CHANGELOG.md` file in the repository root.
+To turn notes into a `CHANGELOG.md` section and open a release PR, use
+`go tool prepare-release` (see [Releases](./releases.md)).
 
 ### Formatting