diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index ca8ed72..f877d60 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -14,11 +14,11 @@ jobs:
     outputs:
       release_created: ${{ steps.release.outputs.release_created }}
     steps:
+      # Versioning lives in release-please-config.json and
+      # .release-please-manifest.json; passing release-type here would make
+      # the action ignore both and fall back to 0.1.0 (no v1.0.0 tag exists).
       - uses: googleapis/release-please-action@v4
         id: release
-        with:
-          release-type: python
-          package-name: apinator-server
 
   publish:
     needs: release-please
diff --git a/.release-please-manifest.json b/.release-please-manifest.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..37fcefa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.release-please-manifest.json
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+{
+  ".": "1.0.0"
+}
diff --git a/apinator/__init__.py b/apinator/__init__.py
index b684da5..d6a4e61 100644
--- a/apinator/__init__.py
+++ b/apinator/__init__.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 from .webhook import verify_webhook
 from .errors import RealtimeError, AuthenticationError, ValidationError, ApiError
 
-__version__ = "1.0.0"
+__version__ = "1.0.0"  # x-release-please-version
 __all__ = [
     "Apinator",
     "authenticate_channel",
diff --git a/release-please-config.json b/release-please-config.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9d663dc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release-please-config.json
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+{
+  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/googleapis/release-please/main/schemas/config.json",
+  "bootstrap-sha": "97e43871f7c985870d24ab5dfb71b8b5043ab031",
+  "include-component-in-tag": false,
+  "packages": {
+    ".": {
+      "release-type": "python",
+      "package-name": "apinator-server",
+      "extra-files": ["apinator/__init__.py"]
+    }
+  }
+}