diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 18ef030..05c7f05 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -54,6 +54,32 @@ jobs:
           grep -qF 'version: "${{ steps.v.outputs.version }}"' Sources/yap/Yap.swift \
             || { echo "Sources/yap/Yap.swift version literal != ${{ steps.v.outputs.version }} — bump it first" >&2; exit 1; }
 
+      # Before the twenty minutes of build and notarization, so a release with
+      # no notes fails in seconds rather than after Apple has stamped it.
+      # Notes are written by hand: the generated list of PR titles says what
+      # was merged, which is not the same as what changed for the person
+      # installing it.
+      - name: Read the release notes
+        id: notes
+        run: |
+          V="${{ steps.v.outputs.version }}"
+          awk -v want="## $V" '
+            $0 == want { found = 1; next }
+            found && /^## / { exit }
+            found { print }
+          ' CHANGELOG.md > notes.md
+          # -s rather than -f: an empty section is the same mistake as a
+          # missing one, and both should stop the release.
+          [ -s notes.md ] || {
+            echo "CHANGELOG.md has no '## $V' section — write the notes first" >&2
+            exit 1
+          }
+          {
+            echo 'body<<YAPNOTES'
+            cat notes.md
+            echo 'YAPNOTES'
+          } >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+
       - name: Cache SwiftPM
         uses: actions/cache@55cc8345863c7cc4c66a329aec7e433d2d1c52a9 # v6.1.0
         with:
@@ -121,6 +147,10 @@ jobs:
             dist/yap-${{ steps.v.outputs.version }}.dmg.sha256
             dist/yap-${{ steps.v.outputs.version }}.zip
             dist/yap-${{ steps.v.outputs.version }}.zip.sha256
+          # Both: GitHub puts `body` first and appends its own list of merged
+          # pull requests and the full-changelog link underneath, so the notes
+          # lead and the provenance is still one click away.
+          body: ${{ steps.notes.outputs.body }}
           generate_release_notes: true
           fail_on_unmatched_files: true
 
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eb1da0f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+# Changelog
+
+What changed, for the person using yap. The release workflow reads the section
+matching the tag and publishes it as the release notes, so a version with no
+section here does not ship.
+
+Releases before 0.3.0 are on the
+[Releases page](https://github.com/TerrifiedBug/yap/releases).
+
+## 0.3.0
+
+yap is an app now. Everything that used to need a terminal happens in the menu
+bar, and the command line is down to the one thing a terminal is genuinely
+better at.
+
+### Setting up
+
+- Launch yap from Applications and it asks for what it needs — Accessibility
+  first, then the microphone — each one click from the right pane of System
+  Settings.
+- The menu bar mark appears straight away and says what it is doing while the
+  model downloads, instead of yap being invisible for the first few minutes of
+  its life. Holding the key during that says so rather than recording into
+  nothing.
+- A missing Accessibility grant no longer stops yap. It waits, and starts
+  listening the moment you tick the box — no relaunch.
+- If macOS has the 🌐 key doing something else, the menu says which action and
+  offers to open Keyboard settings.
+
+### The hotkey
+
+- Set it by pressing it: Settings → Dictation, click the field, hold what you
+  want.
+- Any modifier on its own, now including the left-hand ones — or a chord like
+  ⌘⇧Space, or a function key like F5. A chord is swallowed while yap holds it,
+  so the app underneath never sees the keystroke.
+
+### Settings
+
+- A new General pane: launch at login, updates, and a button that reveals the
+  logs in Finder.
+- yap can update itself. "Check Now" downloads the new build, checks it is
+  signed by the same identity as the one running, and offers
+  "Update to x.y.z · Restart" in the menu — never while a recording is in
+  flight. There is no background check: yap makes no network request of its own
+  after the model is on disk unless you ask for one.
+
+### Recordings
+
+- The transcript banner gained **Delete**. It moves the session to the Trash and
+  offers Undo, so a mis-click on a banner that appeared by itself costs nothing.
+
+### Faster where you can feel it
+
+- The recording pill now appears when you press the key rather than when the
+  microphone finishes opening: **1.9 ms** instead of 70 ms, measured over ten
+  presses. Transcription itself is unchanged — 39 ms for a five-second clip.
+
+### Removed
+
+- `yap setup`, `yap install`, `yap start`, `yap stop`, `yap doctor`,
+  `yap record` and `yap models`. The menu bar does all of it.
+  `yap bench --audio FILE` stays, at
+  `/Applications/yap.app/Contents/MacOS/yap`.
+- The `--model`, `--hotkey`, `--no-overlay`, `--newline` and `--skip-doctor`
+  flags. Settings covers every one of them.
+- Homebrew no longer puts a `yap` command on your PATH.
+
+### Upgrading
+
+`brew upgrade --cask yap` handles everything, including rewriting the login
+item that 0.2 left behind. If you installed from the .dmg and use launch at
+login, launch yap once after replacing the app — otherwise the old login item
+keeps trying to start it with an argument this version no longer takes.