diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 5f118f2..dbcb2ae 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -44,9 +44,9 @@ release:
 	# The regex targets only the indented info.version line, never the
 	# top-level schema `version: '3'`.
 	@echo "Bumping build/config.yml to $(VERSION)..."
-	@python3 -c "import re; p='build/config.yml'; s=open(p).read(); s2=re.sub(r'^  version: \"[^\"]*\"', '  version: \"$(VERSION)\"', s, count=1, flags=re.M); assert s2 != s, 'info.version not found'; open(p,'w').write(s2)"
+	@python3 -c "import re; p='build/config.yml'; s=open(p).read(); m=re.search(r'^  version: \"([^\"]*)\"', s, flags=re.M); assert m, 'info.version not found'; print('build/config.yml', m.group(1), '-> $(VERSION)' if m.group(1) != '$(VERSION)' else '(already at version)'); open(p,'w').write(re.sub(r'^  version: \"[^\"]*\"', '  version: \"$(VERSION)\"', s, count=1, flags=re.M))"
 	@git add wails.json build/config.yml
-	@git commit -m "chore(release): bump version to $(VERSION)"
+	@git diff --cached --quiet && echo "versions already at $(VERSION), skipping bump commit" || git commit -m "chore(release): bump version to $(VERSION)"
 	@echo "Generating release notes for $(VERSION)..."
 	@git tag "$(VERSION)" HEAD && \
 		(git cliff --latest --config cliff.toml > .release-notes.tmp && git tag -d "$(VERSION)" >/dev/null) || \