diff --git a/.github/release-note-must-say.txt b/.github/release-note-must-say.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..26b3ab3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/release-note-must-say.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+# What a release note has to say, in one place.
+#
+# A person landing on a release page has to be told how to check what they
+# downloaded. These are the substrings that have to appear in the note, and
+# they are here rather than written into a workflow because they were written
+# into two things at once: the workflow that generates the note and the
+# workflow that checks the published page. Two copies of one fact agree until
+# the day one of them is edited, and this project has measured that day twice.
+#
+# The predicate URI is the sharpest example. Change it in the generator alone
+# and the check goes red on a correct page. Change it in the check alone and a
+# page telling people the wrong command passes.
+#
+# One substring per line. Blank lines and lines starting with # are ignored.
+# Matched literally, not as a pattern, because a URI is full of characters a
+# pattern would read as syntax.
+
+gh attestation verify
+--predicate-type https://spdx.dev/Document/v2.3
+verify-SHA256SUMS.txt
diff --git a/.github/scripts/note_says.sh b/.github/scripts/note_says.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0dde315
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/scripts/note_says.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+#
+# Does this release note say what a release note has to say.
+#
+# Used twice and that is the point of it being a file: the workflow that
+# GENERATES the note checks its own output with this, and the workflow that
+# reads the PUBLISHED page checks that with the same list. Before this, the
+# list lived inline in the second one and the first one simply wrote the
+# sentences out - two copies of one fact with nothing comparing them.
+#
+# Reports every missing line rather than the first. A person reads a release
+# page once, and a check that names one problem per run turns a list into a
+# queue.
+#
+# Usage: note_says.sh <file with the note> [file with the list]
+set -euo pipefail
+
+note="${1:?usage: note_says.sh <note file> [list file]}"
+list="${2:-.github/release-note-must-say.txt}"
+
+test -f "$note" || {
+  echo "note_says: there is no note at $note, so nothing was checked"
+  exit 1
+}
+
+# An empty or missing list would let this pass on any page at all, which is
+# the shape of a gate that never reads its own answer.
+test -s "$list" || {
+  echo "note_says: $list is missing or empty, so this would pass on any note"
+  exit 1
+}
+
+missing=0
+asked=0
+while IFS= read -r promised || [ -n "$promised" ]; do
+  case "$promised" in
+    '' | '#'*) continue ;;
+  esac
+  asked=$((asked + 1))
+  if ! grep -qF -- "$promised" "$note"; then
+    echo "  the note never mentions: $promised"
+    missing=$((missing + 1))
+  fi
+done < "$list"
+
+if [ "$asked" = "0" ]; then
+  echo "note_says: $list names nothing, so this checked nothing"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+if [ "$missing" != "0" ]; then
+  echo "note_says: $missing of $asked things a release note has to say are not in $note."
+  echo "A person reading that page is not told how to check what they downloaded."
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+echo "note_says: the note says all $asked things it has to"
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index ff51e24..4f64887 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -500,6 +500,14 @@ jobs:
           } > notes.md
           cat notes.md
 
+          # The note this just wrote has to say what a release note has to say,
+          # checked against the same file verify-release.yml reads after the
+          # release is published. A generator that quietly stops emitting one of
+          # those sentences would produce a draft that looks finished and a gate
+          # that goes red hours later, on the published page, where fixing it is
+          # a public edit rather than a build failure.
+          bash .github/scripts/note_says.sh notes.md
+
       - name: open the draft, with nothing in it yet
         env:
           GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
diff --git a/.github/workflows/verify-release.yml b/.github/workflows/verify-release.yml
index 0f728ac..74a31a6 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/verify-release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/verify-release.yml
@@ -298,17 +298,21 @@ jobs:
         # and two written copies of one instruction drift. This is the
         # comparison that stops them: what the page tells a person to type has
         # to be what was just run.
+        #
+        # What has to be said lives in .github/release-note-must-say.txt, and
+        # release.yml checks its generated note against the same file. The list
+        # used to be written out here while the generator wrote the sentences
+        # out separately - two copies of one fact, which is how a check ends up
+        # red on a correct page after somebody edits the wording in one of them.
         run: |
           set -euo pipefail
           gh release view "$TAG" --repo "$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" --json body --jq .body > notes.md
-          for promised in "gh attestation verify" "--predicate-type https://spdx.dev/Document/v2.3" "verify-SHA256SUMS.txt"; do
-            grep -qF -- "$promised" notes.md || {
-              echo "the release notes never mention: $promised"
-              echo "This job just ran it, so the page and the check disagree about what a person should do."
-              exit 1
-            }
-          done
-          echo "the notes and this job say the same thing"
+          bash .github/scripts/note_says.sh notes.md || {
+            echo "This job just ran those, so the page and the check disagree about"
+            echo "what a person should do. Either the page lost them, or the list in"
+            echo ".github/release-note-must-say.txt no longer describes this release."
+            exit 1
+          }
 
       - name: a full release has to be the one people are offered
         id: latest
diff --git a/internal/guard/releasenote_test.go b/internal/guard/releasenote_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..886f47c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/guard/releasenote_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,132 @@
+package guard
+
+import (
+	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// What this defends. What a release note has to say is decided in one place,
+// and both halves that care about it read that place.
+//
+// Why it needed a guard. Two workflows had an opinion about the same sentences.
+// release.yml wrote them into the note it generates, and verify-release.yml
+// held the published page to a list written out inside itself. Nothing compared
+// the two. Change the predicate URI in the generator alone and the check goes
+// red on a correct page - somebody then debugs the release page. Change it in
+// the check alone and a page telling people the wrong command sails through.
+// This is the shape closed for archive settings earlier the same day, O171,
+// found again a few hours later in a different corner.
+//
+// Why the wiring rather than the wording. A person edits the published note by
+// hand, by the owner's decision of 2026-09-02, so what the note SAYS is theirs.
+// What is not theirs is whether anything still looks: deleting the call from
+// verify-release.yml removes the check with nothing going red, which is the
+// silent kind this project writes guards for.
+//
+// What this does NOT check, and it is checked another way. That note_says.sh
+// behaves. Running it from here would mean running bash from a Go test on a
+// machine with three of them, where the one a lookup finds is not the one
+// CreateProcess starts - measured 2026-09-02 and written down. It was run by
+// hand instead, three ways: a real published note missing all three sentences
+// fails and names all three, a note carrying them passes, and an empty list is
+// refused rather than passing on any note at all.
+
+const (
+	releaseNoteList   = "release-note-must-say.txt"
+	releaseNoteScript = "note_says.sh"
+)
+
+// requiredOfAReleaseNote reads the list the way the script does.
+func requiredOfAReleaseNote(t *testing.T) []string {
+	t.Helper()
+
+	body, err := os.ReadFile(filepath.Join(repoRoot(t), ".github", releaseNoteList))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Skipf("no %s here: %v", releaseNoteList, err)
+	}
+
+	var out []string
+	for _, line := range strings.Split(string(body), "\n") {
+		line = strings.TrimRight(line, "\r")
+		if line == "" || strings.HasPrefix(line, "#") {
+			continue
+		}
+		out = append(out, line)
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
+// One list, and both workflows read it.
+func TestWhatAReleaseNoteHasToSayIsDecidedInOnePlace(t *testing.T) {
+	required := requiredOfAReleaseNote(t)
+
+	// An empty list would let every check built on it pass on any page, which
+	// is the gate that never reads its own answer.
+	if len(required) == 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("%s names nothing, so every check reading it passes on any release note",
+			releaseNoteList)
+	}
+
+	script := filepath.Join(repoRoot(t), ".github", "scripts", releaseNoteScript)
+	if _, err := os.Stat(script); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("%s is missing, so the workflows that call it fail at the worst moment "+
+			"- one of them runs on a tag: %v", releaseNoteScript, err)
+	}
+
+	// Both halves. The one that WRITES the note and the one that reads the
+	// PUBLISHED page. Either alone leaves the other free to drift.
+	for _, wf := range []string{"release.yml", "verify-release.yml"} {
+		text := workflowText(t, wf)
+		if !strings.Contains(text, releaseNoteScript) {
+			t.Errorf("%s never calls %s, so nothing holds it to %s.\n"+
+				"release.yml has to check the note it generates and verify-release.yml has "+
+				"to check the note that got published. A missing call here is a check that "+
+				"stopped happening with nothing going red.",
+				wf, releaseNoteScript, releaseNoteList)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// The generator says everything the list asks for.
+//
+// Caught here rather than at release time on purpose. release.yml checks its
+// own note when it runs, which is a tag - so a line added to the list and never
+// taught to the generator would break the build at the one moment nobody wants
+// a surprise. This asks the same question on a pull request.
+func TestTheGeneratedReleaseNoteSaysEverythingTheListAsksFor(t *testing.T) {
+	required := requiredOfAReleaseNote(t)
+	if len(required) == 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("%s names nothing, so this proved nothing", releaseNoteList)
+	}
+
+	text := workflowText(t, "release.yml")
+
+	// The block that builds the note, rather than the whole file. A substring
+	// found somewhere else in the workflow - in the step that computes the
+	// checksums, say - would answer yes to a question about the note.
+	const closes = "} > notes.md"
+	end := strings.Index(text, closes)
+	if end < 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("release.yml no longer ends a block with %q, so this guard cannot find "+
+			"the note it generates. Teach it the new shape rather than deleting it.", closes)
+	}
+	const opens = "\n          {\n"
+	start := strings.LastIndex(text[:end], opens)
+	if start < 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("release.yml has %q with no block opening before it, so this guard cannot "+
+			"tell where the note starts", closes)
+	}
+	block := text[start:end]
+
+	for _, promised := range required {
+		if !strings.Contains(block, promised) {
+			t.Errorf("%s asks a release note to say %q and the note release.yml generates "+
+				"never says it.\n"+
+				"The workflow would catch this itself - on a tag, while building a release. "+
+				"Either teach the generator to say it, or take the line out of the list.",
+				releaseNoteList, promised)
+		}
+	}
+}