diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 31dc3b3..d15276d 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -62,6 +62,45 @@ The `focal64` trustlet is proprietary and is not in this repo. It is
 extracted from the device's own stock Android partition on first boot by the
 `fp6-vendor-blobs` mechanism, the same way other firmware in fp6-img is.
 
+## Releases
+
+Every push to `main` is built and tested by CI, which then publishes the
+apks to the Forgejo Alpine registry that installed phones already point at.
+CI treats the registry's "already published" answer as nothing to do, so a
+push publishes only a package version new to the registry. The package
+version is `pkgver-rpkgrel`: `pkgver` is the `Version` constant in
+`interfaces/Fingerprintd.cppm`, `pkgrel` is the APKBUILD's and stays at 0.
+An installed phone picks a published version up with plain `apk upgrade`.
+
+From 0.2.6 on, a release is a range of commits ending in a bump commit
+titled `fingerprintd X.Y.Z` that changes only the version: the constant and
+the APKBUILD's `pkgver`. Each release is tagged `vX.Y.Z` on its bump commit
+(signed, annotated) with the release notes as the tag message, and
+published as a Forgejo release of the same name and text. No version
+before 0.2.6 has a tag or release notes. The notes are written for the
+people whose phones will upgrade:
+
+```
+fingerprintd X.Y.Z
+
+## New
+
+- **What a user can now do.** One bullet per change, the most important
+  first, with anything the user has to do inside the bullet.
+
+## Fixes
+
+- **What went wrong, in the user's terms.** What they saw, what changes,
+  what to do.
+```
+
+A section with nothing in it is left out, and so is behaviour the release
+does not change. Versioning, from 0.2.6 on, is `MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH`: the
+patch number counts releases, fixes and features alike; the minor number
+moves when a release changes what a user can rely on the daemon for; the
+major number moves when a release changes what an installed phone does
+without being asked.
+
 ## License
 
 GPL-3.0-only, see LICENSE.