diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/release.yml b/.gitea/workflows/release.yml
index ca4b051..b1842eb 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/release.yml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ on:
         required: true
         type: string
       changelog:
-        description: "Release notes (markdown, shown on the release page)"
+        description: "Release notes (markdown, shown on the release page). Single-line field — use literal \\n for line breaks."
         required: false
         type: string
 
@@ -178,19 +178,38 @@ jobs:
           REPO="${GITEA_REPOSITORY:-$GITHUB_REPOSITORY}"
           TOKEN="${RELEASE_TOKEN:-$GITHUB_TOKEN}"
           VERSION=$(jq -r '.inputs.version' "$GITHUB_EVENT_PATH")
-          CHANGELOG=$(jq -r '.inputs.changelog // ""' "$GITHUB_EVENT_PATH")
+          # The dispatch input is a single-line field; turn literal \n into real newlines.
+          CHANGELOG=$(jq -r '.inputs.changelog // ""' "$GITHUB_EVENT_PATH" | sed 's/\\n/\n/g')
           TAG="v$VERSION"
           API="$SERVER/api/v1/repos/$REPO"
           AUTH="Authorization: token $TOKEN"
 
-          # Re-run safety: drop a previous release (and its tag) for this version.
-          OLD_ID=$(curl -sf -H "$AUTH" "$API/releases/tags/$TAG" | jq -r '.id // empty')
+          # curl wrapper: on HTTP >= 400, print the response body (Gitea's error
+          # message) before failing — plain `curl -f` hides it (exit 22).
+          api() {
+            local code body
+            body=$(mktemp)
+            code=$(curl -s -o "$body" -w '%{http_code}' "$@") || { cat "$body"; rm -f "$body"; return 1; }
+            if [ "${code:0:1}" != "2" ]; then
+              echo "API error $code: $(cat "$body")" >&2
+              rm -f "$body"
+              return 1
+            fi
+            cat "$body"
+            rm -f "$body"
+          }
+
+          # Re-run safety: drop a previous release AND its tag for this version.
+          # (Gitea's DELETE /releases/:id does NOT remove the tag; a leftover tag
+          # makes the POST below fail with 409.)
+          OLD_ID=$(api -H "$AUTH" "$API/releases/tags/$TAG" | jq -r '.id // empty') || true
           if [ -n "$OLD_ID" ]; then
-            curl -sf -X DELETE -H "$AUTH" "$API/releases/$OLD_ID" > /dev/null
+            api -X DELETE -H "$AUTH" "$API/releases/$OLD_ID" > /dev/null
           fi
+          api -X DELETE -H "$AUTH" "$API/git/refs/tags/$TAG" > /dev/null || true
 
           # Gitea creates the tag at the default branch HEAD automatically.
-          RELEASE_ID=$(curl -sf -X POST -H "$AUTH" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
+          RELEASE_ID=$(api -X POST -H "$AUTH" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
             "$API/releases" \
             -d "$(jq -n --arg tag "$TAG" --arg title "Iris $VERSION" --arg body "$CHANGELOG" \
                  '{tag_name:$tag, title:$title, body:$body}')" \
@@ -200,7 +219,7 @@ jobs:
           for f in "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE"/iris-android-v* "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE"/iris-desktop-*; do
             [ -f "$f" ] || continue
             echo "Uploading $(basename "$f")"
-            curl -sf -X POST -H "$AUTH" -F "attachment=@$f" \
+            api -X POST -H "$AUTH" -F "attachment=@$f" \
               "$API/releases/$RELEASE_ID/attachments" > /dev/null
           done
           echo "Done: $SERVER/$REPO/releases/tag/$TAG"