diff --git a/.github/actions/bump-version/action.yml b/.github/actions/bump-version/action.yml
index 660127f..1f5bf98 100644
--- a/.github/actions/bump-version/action.yml
+++ b/.github/actions/bump-version/action.yml
@@ -24,28 +24,28 @@ runs:
           RANGE="HEAD"
         fi
 
-        # Extract changelog lines from merge commit PR titles (strip conventional prefix for readability)
+        # `|| true` keeps an empty pipeline (e.g. grep finding no matches) from
+        # tripping `set -e -o pipefail` before the fallbacks below can run.
         ENTRIES=$(git log "$RANGE" --merges --pretty=format:"%s" \
           | sed -n 's/^Merge pull request #[0-9]* from .*//p; s/^.*: //p' \
           | grep -v '^$' \
           | grep -iv '^release\|^chore(release)' \
           | head -20 \
-          | sed 's/^/- /')
+          | sed 's/^/- /' || true)
 
         if [ -z "$ENTRIES" ]; then
-          # Fallback: use non-merge commit subjects
+          # Fallback: use non-merge commit subjects (covers squash merges)
           ENTRIES=$(git log "$RANGE" --no-merges --pretty=format:"%s" \
             | grep -v '^chore(release)' \
             | head -20 \
-            | sed 's/^/- /')
+            | sed 's/^/- /' || true)
         fi
 
         if [ -z "$ENTRIES" ]; then
           ENTRIES="- See release notes"
         fi
 
-        # Write to file to preserve newlines across steps
-        echo "$ENTRIES" > /tmp/changelog_entries.txt
+        printf '%s\n' "$ENTRIES" > /tmp/changelog_entries.txt
 
     - name: Bump version
       shell: bash
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-v2.yml b/.github/workflows/release-v2.yml
index 4559830..d2a553f 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release-v2.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release-v2.yml
@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@ jobs:
         with:
           ref: ${{ needs.prep.outputs.release_branch }}
           token: ${{ github.token }}
+          fetch-depth: 0
+          fetch-tags: true
 
       - uses: ./.github/actions/bump-version
         with:
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 44bd3e3..ff83a8f 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@ jobs:
         with:
           ref: ${{ needs.prep.outputs.release_branch }}
           token: ${{ github.token }}
+          fetch-depth: 0
+          fetch-tags: true
 
       - uses: ./.github/actions/bump-version
         with: