diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-please.yml b/.github/workflows/release-please.yml
index 589348d..187cbc4 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release-please.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release-please.yml
@@ -79,30 +79,45 @@ jobs:
       # release-please regenerates both the branch and the notes on every run.
       # It is a no-op when nothing is duplicated, which is the normal case now
       # that pull requests are squash-merged.
-      - name: Deduplicate the release changelog
+      - name: Tidy the release changelog
         env:
           GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
-          RELEASE_BRANCH: release-please--branches--main
         run: |
           set -euo pipefail
 
           # Copied out of the working tree before anything is checked out. The
           # release branch is cut from whatever main was when release-please
           # first opened the pull request, so it does not necessarily contain
-          # this script - the first run failed with MODULE_NOT_FOUND on the
+          # these scripts - the first run failed with MODULE_NOT_FOUND on the
           # script's own path, immediately after checking out that branch.
-          SCRIPT="$RUNNER_TEMP/dedupe-changelog.mjs"
-          cp scripts/dedupe-changelog.mjs "$SCRIPT"
+          DEDUPE="$RUNNER_TEMP/dedupe-changelog.mjs"
+          FOLD="$RUNNER_TEMP/consolidate-prerelease-changelog.mjs"
+          cp scripts/dedupe-changelog.mjs "$DEDUPE"
+          cp scripts/consolidate-prerelease-changelog.mjs "$FOLD"
+
+          # Asked for rather than hardcoded. The branch name depends on the
+          # strategy's component, so it changed from
+          # `release-please--branches--main` to
+          # `release-please--branches--main--components--monorepo` when
+          # `separate-pull-requests: false` was removed - and a hardcoded name
+          # does not fail, it silently skips, leaving the changelog untidied.
+          RELEASE_BRANCH=$(gh pr list --state open --json headRefName \
+            --jq '[.[] | select(.headRefName | startswith("release-please--"))][0].headRefName // empty')
 
           # 1. The rolling release pull request.
-          if git ls-remote --exit-code --heads origin "$RELEASE_BRANCH" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+          if [ -n "$RELEASE_BRANCH" ]; then
+            echo "release branch: $RELEASE_BRANCH"
             git fetch --quiet origin "$RELEASE_BRANCH"
             git checkout --quiet "$RELEASE_BRANCH"
-            node "$SCRIPT" CHANGELOG.md
+            # Fold first: a prerelease and the stable release that supersedes it
+            # can list the same change, and the deduplicator only compares
+            # within one section.
+            node "$FOLD" CHANGELOG.md
+            node "$DEDUPE" CHANGELOG.md
             if ! git diff --quiet -- CHANGELOG.md; then
               git config user.name "github-actions[bot]"
               git config user.email "41898282+github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com"
-              git commit -q -m "chore: drop duplicate changelog entries" -- CHANGELOG.md
+              git commit -q -m "chore: tidy the release changelog" -- CHANGELOG.md
               git push origin "$RELEASE_BRANCH"
             fi
             # Deliberately does not switch back. `git checkout -` aborts if
@@ -119,6 +134,6 @@ jobs:
           for tag in $(gh release list --limit 20 --json tagName,isDraft \
                         --jq '.[] | select(.isDraft) | .tagName'); do
             gh release view "$tag" --json body --jq .body > "$notes"
-            node "$SCRIPT" "$notes"
+            node "$DEDUPE" "$notes"
             gh release edit "$tag" --notes-file "$notes"
           done
diff --git a/scripts/consolidate-prerelease-changelog.mjs b/scripts/consolidate-prerelease-changelog.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1538197
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/consolidate-prerelease-changelog.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,164 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+
+/**
+ * Folds prerelease changelog sections into the stable release that supersedes
+ * them.
+ *
+ * release-please writes one section per release, and a prerelease is a release.
+ * So shipping 5.1.0 after 5.1.0-beta leaves:
+ *
+ *   ## [5.1.0]        Bug Fixes, Documentation, Chores      <- since the beta
+ *   ## [5.1.0-beta]   Features, Bug Fixes, Performance, ... <- the actual work
+ *
+ * which reads as though 5.1.0 contained almost nothing, while everything that
+ * went into it sits under a heading for a version most people never installed.
+ * Anyone upgrading 5.0.1 -> 5.1.0 wants one list.
+ *
+ * A prerelease is folded into the stable release with the same major.minor.patch
+ * once that stable release exists. Entries keep their order, the stable
+ * section's own entries first. The compare link is widened to start where the
+ * earliest prerelease started, since the stable release now spans all of it.
+ *
+ * Runs from release-please.yml on the release branch, before the deduplicator.
+ *
+ * Usage: node scripts/consolidate-prerelease-changelog.mjs CHANGELOG.md [--stdout]
+ */
+
+import { readFileSync, writeFileSync } from 'node:fs';
+
+const [, , file, ...flags] = process.argv;
+if (!file) {
+  console.error('usage: consolidate-prerelease-changelog.mjs <file> [--stdout]');
+  process.exit(1);
+}
+
+const input = readFileSync(file, 'utf8');
+const lines = input.split('\n');
+
+const HEADING = /^##\s+\[?(?<version>\d+\.\d+\.\d+[^\]\s)]*)\]?/;
+const SUBHEADING = /^###\s+(?<name>.+?)\s*$/;
+
+// --- split the document into a preamble and one entry per release -----------
+const preamble = [];
+const sections = [];
+
+for (const line of lines) {
+  const match = line.match(HEADING);
+  if (match) {
+    sections.push({ version: match.groups.version, heading: line, body: [] });
+  } else if (sections.length) {
+    sections[sections.length - 1].body.push(line);
+  } else {
+    preamble.push(line);
+  }
+}
+
+const baseOf = (version) => version.split('-')[0];
+const isPrerelease = (version) => version.includes('-');
+
+/** Split a section body into `### Name` groups, preserving their order. */
+function splitSubsections(body) {
+  const groups = [];
+  let current = null;
+
+  for (const line of body) {
+    const match = line.match(SUBHEADING);
+    if (match) {
+      current = { name: match.groups.name, entries: [] };
+      groups.push(current);
+    } else if (current) {
+      current.entries.push(line);
+    }
+    // Text before the first ### is release-please boilerplate; dropping it is
+    // deliberate, the stable section supplies its own.
+  }
+
+  return groups;
+}
+
+const trimBlank = (entries) => {
+  const out = [...entries];
+  while (out.length && out[0].trim() === '') out.shift();
+  while (out.length && out[out.length - 1].trim() === '') out.pop();
+  return out;
+};
+
+// The canonical order from release-please-config.json's changelog-sections.
+// Merging appends whole groups, so without this the folded-in sections land
+// after Chores and a reader meets the housekeeping before the features.
+const ORDER = [
+  'Features',
+  'Bug Fixes',
+  'Performance',
+  'Refactoring',
+  'Reverts',
+  'Documentation',
+  'Build System',
+  'Continuous Integration',
+  'Tests',
+  'Chores',
+];
+const rank = (name) => {
+  const index = ORDER.indexOf(name);
+  return index === -1 ? ORDER.length : index;
+};
+
+let folded = 0;
+const dropped = new Set();
+
+// Only the release being prepared, which is the topmost section. Folding every
+// stable release would rewrite history: the first run reached back and merged
+// the 2022 4.0.0-alpha.0 and 4.0.0-alpha.1 sections into 4.0.0, losing which
+// alpha introduced what, in releases that shipped years ago.
+for (const section of sections.slice(0, 1)) {
+  if (isPrerelease(section.version)) continue;
+
+  const supersedes = sections.filter(
+    (other) => isPrerelease(other.version) && baseOf(other.version) === section.version
+  );
+  if (!supersedes.length) continue;
+
+  const groups = splitSubsections(section.body);
+
+  for (const pre of supersedes) {
+    for (const group of splitSubsections(pre.body)) {
+      const existing = groups.find((g) => g.name === group.name);
+      if (existing) {
+        existing.entries = [...trimBlank(existing.entries), '', ...trimBlank(group.entries)];
+      } else {
+        groups.push({ name: group.name, entries: trimBlank(group.entries) });
+      }
+    }
+    dropped.add(pre);
+    folded += 1;
+  }
+
+  // The stable release now spans the prereleases too, so compare from where the
+  // earliest of them started rather than from the last prerelease tag.
+  const earliest = supersedes[supersedes.length - 1];
+  const from = earliest.heading.match(/compare\/([^.]+(?:\.[^.]+)*?)\.\.\./);
+  if (from) {
+    section.heading = section.heading.replace(/compare\/[^)]*?\.\.\./, `compare/${from[1]}...`);
+  }
+
+  groups.sort((a, b) => rank(a.name) - rank(b.name));
+
+  section.body = groups.flatMap((group) => ['', `### ${group.name}`, '', ...trimBlank(group.entries), '']);
+}
+
+const out = [
+  ...preamble,
+  ...sections.filter((s) => !dropped.has(s)).flatMap((s) => [s.heading, ...s.body]),
+].join('\n');
+
+if (flags.includes('--stdout')) {
+  process.stdout.write(out);
+} else {
+  writeFileSync(file, out.replace(/\n{3,}/g, '\n\n\n'));
+}
+
+console.error(
+  folded
+    ? `folded ${folded} prerelease section${folded === 1 ? '' : 's'} into its stable release`
+    : 'no prerelease sections to fold'
+);