diff --git a/.github/workflows/_build-image.yml b/.github/workflows/_build-image.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c9bbbe8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/_build-image.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+# Reusable workflow that builds and publishes a single service's Docker image
+# to ghcr.io. Called by docker.yml (manual workflow_dispatch) and release.yml
+# (tag-triggered release pipeline). Filename is prefixed with `_` to mark it
+# as internal-use-only — it is not invoked directly by event triggers.
+name: Build image
+
+on:
+  workflow_call:
+    inputs:
+      service:
+        description: Service name (alerter or indexer)
+        required: true
+        type: string
+
+env:
+  CARGO_INCREMENTAL: 0
+  CARGO_TERM_COLOR: always
+
+jobs:
+  build:
+    name: ${{ inputs.service }}
+    runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
+    permissions:
+      packages: write
+
+    steps:
+      - name: Set up QEMU
+        uses: docker/setup-qemu-action@49b3bc8e6bdd4a60e6116a5414239cba5943d3cf # v3.2.0
+
+      - name: Set up Docker Buildx
+        uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@c47758b77c9736f4b2ef4073d4d51994fabfe349 # v3.7.1
+        with:
+          # Limit concurrency so it can complete with small official runners
+          buildkitd-config-inline: |
+            [worker.oci]
+              max-parallelism = 1
+
+      - name: Log into registry
+        uses: docker/login-action@9780b0c442fbb1117ed29e0efdff1e18412f7567 # v3.3.0
+        with:
+          registry: ghcr.io
+          username: ${{ github.actor }}
+          password: ${{ github.token }}
+
+      - name: Extract Docker metadata
+        id: meta
+        uses: docker/metadata-action@8e5442c4ef9f78752691e2d8f8d19755c6f78e81 # v5.5.1
+        with:
+          images: |
+            ghcr.io/${{ github.repository_owner }}/chain-${{ inputs.service }}
+          tags: |
+            type=ref,event=tag
+            type=ref,event=branch
+            type=sha,format=long
+          flavor: |
+            latest=false
+            suffix=
+
+      - name: Build and push chain-${{ inputs.service }} image
+        uses: docker/build-push-action@4f58ea79222b3b9dc2c8bbdd6debcef730109a75 # v6.9.0
+        with:
+          file: docker/${{ inputs.service }}.Dockerfile
+          # TODO: Add linux/amd64/v4 when runner supports it
+          platforms: linux/amd64,linux/amd64/v2,linux/amd64/v3,linux/arm64
+          pull: true
+          push: true
+          tags: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.tags }}
+          labels: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.labels }}
diff --git a/.github/workflows/docker.yml b/.github/workflows/docker.yml
index 1d85b9a..c41b149 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/docker.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/docker.yml
@@ -1,9 +1,12 @@
-# This action builds an alerter container image.
+# Manual Docker image build for a chosen service. Use this for one-off
+# rebuilds of an image from main outside of the normal tag-triggered release
+# flow (release.yml). The actual build steps live in the reusable
+# _build-image.yml workflow.
 #
-# Container images are only marked as "latest" in GitHub Container Registry for pushes to `main` and tags (including release tags).
+# Container images are only marked as "latest" in GitHub Container Registry
+# for pushes to `main` and tags (including release tags).
 name: Docker build
 
-# This action is triggered for workflow_dispatch.
 on:
   workflow_dispatch:
     inputs:
@@ -16,59 +19,10 @@ on:
 
 run-name: Docker build for ${{ inputs.service }}
 
-# Incremental compilation here isn't helpful
-env:
-  CARGO_INCREMENTAL: 0
-  CARGO_TERM_COLOR: always
-
 jobs:
-  # This will build container images
-  docker-build:
-    name: ${{ inputs.service }}
-    runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
+  build:
+    uses: ./.github/workflows/_build-image.yml
+    with:
+      service: ${{ inputs.service }}
     permissions:
       packages: write
-
-    steps:
-      - name: Set up QEMU
-        uses: docker/setup-qemu-action@49b3bc8e6bdd4a60e6116a5414239cba5943d3cf # v3.2.0
-
-      - name: Set up Docker Buildx
-        uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@c47758b77c9736f4b2ef4073d4d51994fabfe349 # v3.7.1
-        with:
-          # Limit concurrency so it can complete with small official runners
-          buildkitd-config-inline: |
-            [worker.oci]
-              max-parallelism = 1
-
-      - name: Log into registry
-        uses: docker/login-action@9780b0c442fbb1117ed29e0efdff1e18412f7567 # v3.3.0
-        with:
-          registry: ghcr.io
-          username: ${{ github.actor }}
-          password: ${{ github.token }}
-
-      - name: Extract Docker metadata
-        id: meta
-        uses: docker/metadata-action@8e5442c4ef9f78752691e2d8f8d19755c6f78e81 # v5.5.1
-        with:
-          images: |
-            ghcr.io/${{ github.repository_owner }}/chain-${{ inputs.service }}
-          tags: |
-            type=ref,event=tag
-            type=ref,event=branch
-            type=sha,format=long
-          flavor: |
-            latest=false
-            suffix=
-
-      - name: Build and push chain-${{ inputs.service }} image
-        uses: docker/build-push-action@4f58ea79222b3b9dc2c8bbdd6debcef730109a75 # v6.9.0
-        with:
-          file: docker/${{ inputs.service }}.Dockerfile
-          # TODO: Add linux/amd64/v4 when runner supports it
-          platforms: linux/amd64,linux/amd64/v2,linux/amd64/v3,linux/arm64
-          pull: true
-          push: true
-          tags: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.tags }}
-          labels: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.labels }}
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4382fb3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+# Release pipeline. Fires on a tag push of the form vX.Y.Z, asserts the tag
+# matches [workspace.package].version in the root Cargo.toml, builds and
+# publishes Docker images for both services to ghcr.io (via the reusable
+# _build-image.yml workflow), and creates a draft GitHub release with
+# auto-generated notes for human review and publish.
+name: Release
+
+on:
+  push:
+    tags:
+      - 'v*.*.*'
+
+env:
+  CARGO_INCREMENTAL: 0
+  CARGO_TERM_COLOR: always
+
+jobs:
+  verify-version:
+    name: verify-version
+    runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout
+        uses: actions/checkout@b4ffde65f46336ab88eb53be808477a3936bae11 # v4.1.1
+
+      - name: Assert tag matches [workspace.package].version
+        env:
+          TAG: ${{ github.ref_name }}
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          expected="v$(awk -F\" '/^\[workspace\.package\]/{w=1} w && /^version[[:space:]]*=/{print $2; exit}' Cargo.toml)"
+          if [[ "$TAG" != "$expected" ]]; then
+            echo "::error::tag $TAG does not match Cargo workspace version $expected" >&2
+            exit 1
+          fi
+          echo "tag $TAG matches Cargo workspace version"
+
+  build-images:
+    needs: verify-version
+    strategy:
+      fail-fast: false
+      matrix:
+        service: [alerter, indexer]
+    uses: ./.github/workflows/_build-image.yml
+    with:
+      service: ${{ matrix.service }}
+    permissions:
+      packages: write
+
+  create-release:
+    name: create-release
+    needs: build-images
+    runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
+    permissions:
+      contents: write
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout
+        uses: actions/checkout@b4ffde65f46336ab88eb53be808477a3936bae11 # v4.1.1
+        with:
+          fetch-depth: 0
+
+      - name: Create draft release with auto-generated notes
+        env:
+          GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
+          TAG: ${{ github.ref_name }}
+        run: gh release create "$TAG" --draft --generate-notes
diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 4367967..e824033 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -295,7 +295,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "alerter"
-version = "1.1.1"
+version = "1.2.0"
 dependencies = [
  "clap",
  "env_logger",
@@ -3217,7 +3217,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "indexer"
-version = "0.1.0"
+version = "1.2.0"
 dependencies = [
  "actix-cors",
  "actix-web",
@@ -6103,7 +6103,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "shared"
-version = "0.1.0"
+version = "1.2.0"
 dependencies = [
  "futures-util",
  "log",
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 84fedaf..fdd4ac2 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 [workspace.package]
+version = "1.2.0"
 edition = "2024"
 authors = ["Subspace Labs <https://subspace.network>"]
 homepage = "https://subspace.network"
diff --git a/alerter/Cargo.toml b/alerter/Cargo.toml
index 0fa04e9..5e05064 100644
--- a/alerter/Cargo.toml
+++ b/alerter/Cargo.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [package]
 name = "alerter"
-version = "1.1.1"
+version.workspace = true
 edition.workspace = true
 authors.workspace = true
 homepage.workspace = true
diff --git a/indexer/Cargo.toml b/indexer/Cargo.toml
index 3483b25..033c304 100644
--- a/indexer/Cargo.toml
+++ b/indexer/Cargo.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [package]
 name = "indexer"
-version = "0.1.0"
+version.workspace = true
 edition.workspace = true
 authors.workspace = true
 homepage.workspace = true
diff --git a/shared/Cargo.toml b/shared/Cargo.toml
index 33cded8..786a533 100644
--- a/shared/Cargo.toml
+++ b/shared/Cargo.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [package]
 name = "shared"
-version = "0.1.0"
+version.workspace = true
 edition.workspace = true
 authors.workspace = true
 homepage.workspace = true