diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 71e5bb3..dbdba16 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -64,6 +64,9 @@ jobs:
         env:
           TAG: ${{ needs.release-please.outputs.tag_name }}
         run: |
+          # Install the freshly built wheel so we verify the artifact that is
+          # about to be published, not an editable/source checkout.
+          python -m pip install dist/*.whl
           VERSION="$(python -c 'import senderkit; print(senderkit.__version__)')"
           echo "Package version: $VERSION"
           echo "Release tag:     $TAG"
diff --git a/.release-please-manifest.json b/.release-please-manifest.json
index 37fcefa..e18ee07 100644
--- a/.release-please-manifest.json
+++ b/.release-please-manifest.json
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 {
-  ".": "1.0.0"
+  ".": "0.0.0"
 }
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 1740fb0..97de1f8 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,13 +1,5 @@
 # Changelog
 
-## 1.0.0 (2026-06-13)
-
-
-### Features
-
-* automate releases with release-please ([a8ccebd](https://github.com/senderkit/senderkit-sdk-python/commit/a8ccebd6ebef1a4a5ff04e5b52d3027a12899193))
-* automate releases with release-please ([aec6d70](https://github.com/senderkit/senderkit-sdk-python/commit/aec6d700dc9c4cf8a7d42fa56c7ddbe4cb11c304))
-
 ## 0.1.0
 
 Initial release of the hand-written SenderKit Python SDK (replacing the earlier
diff --git a/release-please-config.json b/release-please-config.json
index d2ec1c7..07febc3 100644
--- a/release-please-config.json
+++ b/release-please-config.json
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
     ".": {
       "release-type": "simple",
       "package-name": "senderkit",
+      "include-component-in-tag": false,
       "changelog-path": "CHANGELOG.md",
       "extra-files": ["src/senderkit/_version.py"]
     }
diff --git a/src/senderkit/_version.py b/src/senderkit/_version.py
index dcb0811..778398f 100644
--- a/src/senderkit/_version.py
+++ b/src/senderkit/_version.py
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 """Single source of truth for the SDK version, surfaced in the User-Agent header."""
 
-VERSION = "1.0.0"  # x-release-please-version
+VERSION = "0.1.0"  # x-release-please-version