diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/release.yaml b/.gitea/workflows/release.yaml
index c22a24b..cf6ac11 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/release.yaml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/release.yaml
@@ -126,6 +126,28 @@ jobs:
           [ -n "$release_id" ] || { echo "::error::could not determine release id"; exit 1; }
           echo "release id $release_id"
 
+          # The release notes are the tag's own message, minus its subject line: the
+          # tag body is the changelog for this project, and without this the release
+          # page stays empty. Only an annotated tag has one, and only a release with
+          # no notes is filled, so a re-run repairs a release created empty without
+          # overwriting notes somebody has since edited by hand.
+          #
+          # There is no jq in this image, so the JSON string is escaped by hand:
+          # backslashes first (or the ones added next would double), then quotes and
+          # tabs, then each line end becomes a literal \n.
+          if [ "$(git cat-file -t "$REF_NAME")" = tag ] \
+             && printf '%s' "$body" | grep -q '"body":""'; then
+            notes=$(git tag -l --format='%(contents)' "$REF_NAME" | sed '1,2d')
+            if [ -n "$notes" ]; then
+              notes_json=$(printf '%s\n' "$notes" \
+                | sed -e 's/\\/\\\\/g' -e 's/"/\\"/g' -e 's/\t/\\t/g' -e 's/\r$//' \
+                | awk 'BEGIN { ORS = "\\n" } { print }')
+              echo "setting release notes from the tag message"
+              curl -sf -X PATCH -H "$auth" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
+                -d "{\"body\":\"$notes_json\"}" "$API/releases/$release_id" > /dev/null
+            fi
+          fi
+
           for f in dist/*; do
             name=$(basename "$f")
             # Drop an existing asset of the same name first: Gitea happily stores two