diff --git a/scripts/create-release.sh b/scripts/create-release.sh
index 0d87dc79..6c90f02d 100755
--- a/scripts/create-release.sh
+++ b/scripts/create-release.sh
@@ -156,6 +156,14 @@ mkdir -p "$PROJECT_ROOT/releases"
 "$SCRIPT_DIR/create-release-manifest.sh" --version "$VERSION" --date "$RELEASE_DATE" --output "$PROJECT_ROOT/releases/manifest.json" 2>&1 | grep -v "^$"
 cp "$PROJECT_ROOT/releases/manifest.json" "$PROJECT_ROOT/release-manifest.json"
 
+echo "[6b/8] Staging release artifacts for validation..."
+VERSION_DIR="$PROJECT_ROOT/releases/v${VERSION}"
+FRONTEND_ARCHIVE="/tmp/archipelago-frontend-${VERSION}.tar.gz"
+mkdir -p "$VERSION_DIR"
+install -m 0755 "$PROJECT_ROOT/core/target/release/archipelago" "$VERSION_DIR/archipelago"
+install -m 0644 "$FRONTEND_ARCHIVE" "$VERSION_DIR/archipelago-frontend-${VERSION}.tar.gz"
+"$SCRIPT_DIR/check-release-manifest.sh"
+
 echo "[7/8] Committing version bump..."
 git -C "$PROJECT_ROOT" add \
     core/archipelago/Cargo.toml \
@@ -179,15 +187,13 @@ echo "  - Version bumped in Cargo.toml and package.json"
 echo "  - Changelog updated in CHANGELOG.md"
 echo "  - Release manifest: releases/manifest.json"
 echo "  - Release manifest copy: release-manifest.json"
+echo "  - Staged artifacts: releases/v${VERSION}/"
 echo "  - Git tag: v${VERSION}"
 echo ""
 echo "Next steps:"
 echo "  1. Review: git log --oneline -5"
-echo "  2. Create Gitea release v${VERSION} and upload artifacts:"
-echo "       archipelago"
-echo "       archipelago-frontend-${VERSION}.tar.gz"
-echo "  3. Push to gitea-local and gitea-vps2:"
-echo "       git push gitea-local main --tags && git push gitea-vps2 main --tags"
-echo "  4. Verify manifest is live on both mirrors:"
+echo "  2. Publish commits, tag, artifacts, and verify download URLs:"
+echo "       scripts/publish-release-assets.sh ${VERSION} gitea-vps2"
+echo "  3. Verify manifest is live on both mirrors:"
 echo "       curl -fsS http://localhost:3000/lfg2025/archy/raw/branch/main/releases/manifest.json"
 echo "       curl -fsS http://146.59.87.168:3000/lfg2025/archy/raw/branch/main/releases/manifest.json"
diff --git a/scripts/publish-release-assets.sh b/scripts/publish-release-assets.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..cd227515
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/publish-release-assets.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,102 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Publish an Archipelago OTA release to a Gitea remote and verify downloads.
+
+set -euo pipefail
+
+VERSION="${1:-}"
+REMOTE="${2:-gitea-vps2}"
+
+if [ -z "$VERSION" ]; then
+    echo "Usage: $0 VERSION [remote]"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
+PROJECT_ROOT="$(cd "$SCRIPT_DIR/.." && pwd)"
+VERSION_DIR="$PROJECT_ROOT/releases/v${VERSION}"
+BACKEND="$VERSION_DIR/archipelago"
+FRONTEND="$VERSION_DIR/archipelago-frontend-${VERSION}.tar.gz"
+
+fail() { echo "Error: $*" >&2; exit 1; }
+
+[ -f "$PROJECT_ROOT/releases/manifest.json" ] || fail "releases/manifest.json missing"
+[ -f "$BACKEND" ] || fail "backend artifact missing: $BACKEND"
+[ -f "$FRONTEND" ] || fail "frontend artifact missing: $FRONTEND"
+
+"$SCRIPT_DIR/check-release-manifest.sh"
+
+remote_url=$(git -C "$PROJECT_ROOT" remote get-url "$REMOTE")
+case "$remote_url" in
+    http://*@*) ;;
+    *) fail "$REMOTE must be an authenticated http:// Gitea remote URL for API uploads" ;;
+esac
+
+auth=${remote_url#http://}
+auth=${auth%@*}
+host_path=${remote_url#http://$auth@}
+host=${host_path%%/*}
+repo_path=${host_path#*/}
+repo_path=${repo_path%.git}
+api="http://$host/api/v1/repos/$repo_path"
+release_url="$api/releases/tags/v${VERSION}"
+
+echo "Pushing main and v${VERSION} to $REMOTE..."
+git -C "$PROJECT_ROOT" push "$REMOTE" main "refs/tags/v${VERSION}"
+
+release_json=$(curl -fsS -u "$auth" "$release_url" || true)
+if [ -z "$release_json" ]; then
+    echo "Creating Gitea release v${VERSION}..."
+    release_body=$(python3 - "$VERSION" <<'PY'
+import json
+import sys
+
+version = sys.argv[1]
+print(json.dumps({
+    "tag_name": f"v{version}",
+    "target_commitish": "main",
+    "name": f"v{version}",
+    "body": f"Archipelago v{version} release artifacts for OTA updates.",
+    "draft": False,
+    "prerelease": True,
+}))
+PY
+)
+    release_json=$(curl -fsS -u "$auth" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d "$release_body" "$api/releases")
+fi
+
+release_id=$(printf '%s' "$release_json" | python3 -c 'import json,sys; print(json.load(sys.stdin)["id"])')
+
+asset_names=$(curl -fsS -u "$auth" "$api/releases/$release_id/assets" | python3 -c 'import json,sys; print("\n".join(a["name"] for a in json.load(sys.stdin)))')
+upload_asset() {
+    local path="$1"
+    local name="$2"
+    if printf '%s\n' "$asset_names" | grep -Fxq "$name"; then
+        echo "Asset $name already exists; leaving it in place."
+        return
+    fi
+    echo "Uploading $name..."
+    curl --fail --show-error --silent --http1.1 --connect-timeout 20 --max-time 900 \
+        -u "$auth" \
+        -F "attachment=@$path" \
+        "$api/releases/$release_id/assets?name=$name" >/dev/null
+    asset_names=$(printf '%s\n%s\n' "$asset_names" "$name")
+}
+
+upload_asset "$BACKEND" "archipelago"
+upload_asset "$FRONTEND" "archipelago-frontend-${VERSION}.tar.gz"
+
+echo "Verifying public download URLs from manifest..."
+python3 - "$PROJECT_ROOT/releases/manifest.json" <<'PY' | while read -r url size; do
+import json
+import sys
+
+manifest = json.load(open(sys.argv[1]))
+for component in manifest["components"]:
+    print(component["download_url"], component["size_bytes"])
+PY
+    headers=$(curl -fsSI -L --max-time 60 "$url") || fail "download URL failed: $url"
+    actual_size=$(printf '%s\n' "$headers" | awk 'tolower($1)=="content-length:" { size=$2 } END { gsub("\r", "", size); print size }')
+    [ "$actual_size" = "$size" ] || fail "download size mismatch for $url (expected $size, got ${actual_size:-missing})"
+done
+
+echo "Release v${VERSION} published and verified on $REMOTE."