diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-please.yml b/.github/workflows/release-please.yml
index 110baacda3..2f7dcde204 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release-please.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release-please.yml
@@ -8,8 +8,10 @@ jobs:
     name: "Release please"
     runs-on: ubicloud
     steps:
-      - uses: GoogleCloudPlatform/release-please-action@v3
+      # Config lives in release-please-config.json / .release-please-manifest.json:
+      # a `release-type` input instead re-derives the last released version by
+      # paginating every GitHub release, which on a repo this size is slow enough
+      # to fail intermittently.
+      - uses: googleapis/release-please-action@v5
         with:
-          release-type: simple
-          package-name: windmill
           token: ${{ secrets.PAT_TOKEN }}
diff --git a/.release-please-manifest.json b/.release-please-manifest.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4473642597
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.release-please-manifest.json
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+{
+  ".": "1.778.0"
+}
diff --git a/release-please-config.json b/release-please-config.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9b5c16b7e5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release-please-config.json
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+{
+  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/googleapis/release-please/main/schemas/config.json",
+  "packages": {
+    ".": {
+      "release-type": "simple",
+      "package-name": "windmill",
+      "include-component-in-tag": false
+    }
+  }
+}