diff --git a/scripts/release-manifest.sh b/scripts/release-manifest.sh
index 0a624db..5eca96f 100755
--- a/scripts/release-manifest.sh
+++ b/scripts/release-manifest.sh
@@ -26,6 +26,71 @@ code="$(sed -n "s/.*versionCode='\([0-9]*\)'.*/\1/p" <<<"$badging" | head -1)"
 name="$(sed -n "s/.*versionName='\([^']*\)'.*/\1/p" <<<"$badging" | head -1)"
 [ -n "$code" ] && [ -n "$name" ] || { echo "could not read version from $apk" >&2; exit 1; }
 
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# 🔴 **A build does not ship without its release notes.**
+#
+# The gate lives here, on the manifest, because the manifest is the step that
+# cannot be skipped — it is what the in-app updater reads, so an APK published
+# without it offers nobody an update. A reminder in a checklist would be
+# skipped on exactly the busy evening the notes matter most.
+#
+# ⚠️ It matches on `versionName` read out of the APK above, never on a number
+# typed here, for the same reason the manifest does: the two cannot disagree.
+#
+# The changelog lives in the relay repository because that is what serves the
+# page, and the check lives THERE too — see Scripts/covers-android.py. Parsing
+# the JSON here would leave a second copy of the schema to drift.
+if [ "${FN_SKIP_RELEASE_NOTES:-}" = "1" ]; then
+  # Loud, and on stderr: a skipped gate that printed nothing would be a gate
+  # nobody remembered turning off.
+  echo "⚠️  FN_SKIP_RELEASE_NOTES=1 — writing a manifest for $name with no" >&2
+  echo "    release notes. Nothing on /releases will mention this build." >&2
+else
+  relay_dir="${FN_RELAY_DIR:-$(cd "$(dirname "$0")/../.." && pwd)/flamenet-relay}"
+  checker="$relay_dir/Scripts/covers-android.py"
+  if [ ! -f "$checker" ]; then
+    cat >&2 <<MSG
+No release-notes checker at:
+  $checker
+
+That file lives in the flamenet-relay repository, which serves the /releases
+page. Point FN_RELAY_DIR at your checkout of it, or set
+FN_SKIP_RELEASE_NOTES=1 to publish $name with no notes.
+MSG
+    exit 1
+  fi
+  if ! python3 "$checker" "$name"; then
+    cat >&2 <<MSG
+
+Nothing on the /releases page mentions Android $name, so this build would ship
+without a word to anyone about what changed in it.
+
+Add a release to:
+  $relay_dir/Resources/releases.json
+
+The newest release goes FIRST in the list, and it looks like this — write the
+notes for somebody holding a phone, and put anything only an operator cares
+about in "selfHosting" at the end:
+
+  {
+    "date": "$(date +%Y-%m-%d)",
+    "platforms": [{ "name": "android", "version": "$name" }],
+    "headline": "One sentence, or leave it out.",
+    "changes": [
+      { "kind": "fixed", "text": "What a person will notice, in their words." }
+    ]
+  }
+
+"kind" is "new", "changed" or "fixed". Add an { "name": "ios", "version": … }
+or { "name": "relay" } entry alongside it when the same release touched those
+too — one release, every platform it landed on.
+
+Then deploy the relay so the page and the APK go out together.
+MSG
+    exit 1
+  fi
+fi
+
 sha="$(shasum -a 256 "$apk" | cut -d' ' -f1)"
 
 # ⚠️ No `url` field, deliberately. The client builds the download URL from the