diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 26781ede1..e8747f1a0 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -60,6 +60,34 @@ jobs:
           echo "version=${VERSION}" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
           echo "Building tag=${TAG} version=${VERSION}"
 
+      - name: Verify tag is reachable from main
+        # Releases must be cut from `main`. Tagging a feature branch (e.g. when
+        # a stacked PR has merged into a parent feature branch but not yet into
+        # `main`) silently produces a release whose contents diverge from the
+        # canonical history. Precedent: v0.0.8/v0.0.9 were tagged from
+        # feat/embed-lmnr-key after PR #33 merged into the feature branch
+        # (not into main); main moved on without it and the bcode-laminar
+        # package had to be re-landed in PR #39. This guard fails the release
+        # before any binaries are uploaded.
+        #
+        # Resolves the tag name to a commit SHA via `git rev-parse` rather than
+        # using `$GITHUB_SHA`. For `push: tags` the two are equivalent, but for
+        # `workflow_dispatch` with `inputs.tag` `$GITHUB_SHA` is the dispatch
+        # ref's HEAD (typically main), not the selected tag's commit — using it
+        # would let a feature-branch tag pass the check trivially.
+        env:
+          TAG: ${{ steps.ver.outputs.tag }}
+        run: |
+          git fetch origin main --depth=1
+          TAG_SHA=$(git rev-parse -q --verify "refs/tags/${TAG}^{commit}") || {
+            echo "::error::Tag ${TAG} does not exist locally. Create the tag on a main commit first (e.g. \`gh release create ${TAG} --target main\`), then re-run."
+            exit 1
+          }
+          if ! git merge-base --is-ancestor "$TAG_SHA" origin/main; then
+            echo "::error::Tag ${TAG} points at $TAG_SHA which is not reachable from origin/main. Release tags must be cut from main."
+            exit 1
+          fi
+
       - name: Setup Bun
         uses: ./.github/actions/setup-bun