diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-stable.yml b/.github/workflows/release-stable.yml
index 9980e0f2..c0b13874 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release-stable.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release-stable.yml
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ on:
   push:
     tags:
       - 'stable-v*'
+      - 'v20*'
 
 env:
   # Bump this when Tauri/Rust target artifacts capture stale absolute paths.
@@ -34,14 +35,24 @@ jobs:
           from datetime import date
 
           tag = os.environ["GITHUB_REF_NAME"]
-          version = tag.removeprefix("stable-v")
-          match = re.fullmatch(r"(\d{4})\.(\d{1,2})\.(\d{1,2})", version)
-          if not match:
-              raise SystemExit(f"Stable tags must use stable-vYYYY.M.D, got {tag}")
+          legacy_match = re.fullmatch(r"stable-v(\d{4})\.(\d{1,2})\.(\d{1,2})", tag)
+          date_match = re.fullmatch(r"v(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})", tag)
+
+          if date_match:
+              year, month, day = map(int, date_match.groups())
+              date(year, month, day)
+              version = f"{year}.{month}.{day}"
+              display_version = tag
+          elif legacy_match:
+              year, month, day = map(int, legacy_match.groups())
+              date(year, month, day)
+              version = f"{year}.{month}.{day}"
+              display_version = version
+          else:
+              raise SystemExit(f"Stable tags must use vYYYY-MM-DD or stable-vYYYY.M.D, got {tag}")
 
-          date(*map(int, match.groups()))
           print(f"version={version}")
-          print(f"display_version={version}")
+          print(f"display_version={display_version}")
           print(f"tag={tag}")
           PY
 
@@ -565,16 +576,23 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Generate release notes
         run: |
-          PREV_TAG=$(git tag --list 'stable-v*' --sort=-version:refname | grep -vx "${{ needs.version.outputs.tag }}" | head -n 1 || echo "")
-          if [ -z "$PREV_TAG" ]; then
-            NOTES=$(git log --oneline --no-merges -20)
+          NOTES_FILE="release-notes/${{ needs.version.outputs.tag }}.md"
+          if [ -f "$NOTES_FILE" ]; then
+            cat "$NOTES_FILE" > release_notes.md
           else
-            NOTES=$(git log --oneline --no-merges "${PREV_TAG}..${{ needs.version.outputs.tag }}")
+            PREV_TAG=$(git for-each-ref --sort=-creatordate --format='%(refname:short)' refs/tags/v20* refs/tags/stable-v* | grep -vx "${{ needs.version.outputs.tag }}" | head -n 1 || echo "")
+            if [ -z "$PREV_TAG" ]; then
+              NOTES=$(git log --oneline --no-merges -20)
+            else
+              NOTES=$(git log --oneline --no-merges "${PREV_TAG}..${{ needs.version.outputs.tag }}")
+            fi
+            {
+              echo "## What's Changed"
+              echo ""
+              echo "$NOTES" | while IFS= read -r line; do echo "- $line"; done
+            } > release_notes.md
           fi
           {
-            echo "## What's Changed"
-            echo ""
-            echo "$NOTES" | while IFS= read -r line; do echo "- $line"; done
             echo ""
             echo "---"
             echo "**Stable release — manually promoted from \`main\`**"
@@ -582,7 +600,7 @@ jobs:
             echo "**Includes macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Windows x64, and Linux x64 bundles**"
             echo ""
             echo "*Built from \`$(git rev-parse --short ${{ needs.version.outputs.tag }})\` on $(date -u +%Y-%m-%d)*"
-          } > release_notes.md
+          } >> release_notes.md
 
       - name: Build stable-latest.json
         run: |
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index b1abf9cc..5d390960 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -69,10 +69,18 @@ jobs:
           else:
               today = datetime.now(timezone.utc).date()
               stable_date = None
-              stable_pattern = re.compile(r"^stable-v(\d{4})\.(\d{1,2})\.(\d{1,2})$")
+              stable_patterns = (
+                  re.compile(r"^v(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})$"),
+                  re.compile(r"^stable-v(\d{4})\.(\d{1,2})\.(\d{1,2})$"),
+              )
 
-              for stable_tag in lines(["git", "tag", "--list", "stable-v*", "--sort=-version:refname"]):
-                  match = stable_pattern.fullmatch(stable_tag)
+              stable_tags = lines([
+                  "git", "for-each-ref", "--sort=-creatordate", "--format=%(refname:short)",
+                  "refs/tags/v20*", "refs/tags/stable-v*",
+              ])
+
+              for stable_tag in stable_tags:
+                  match = next((pattern.fullmatch(stable_tag) for pattern in stable_patterns if pattern.fullmatch(stable_tag)), None)
                   if not match:
                       continue
 
diff --git a/release-notes/v2026-05-04.md b/release-notes/v2026-05-04.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..bfa633e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release-notes/v2026-05-04.md
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+## New Features
+
+- 🤖 **Direct AI Model Providers** — Use OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, OpenRouter, Ollama, LM Studio, or a custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint directly from Tolaria.
+- 🖊️ **Markdown Whiteboards** — Create and edit tldraw-powered whiteboards that live as durable Markdown files in your vault.
+- 🧭 **Table of Contents Panel** — Navigate long notes with a lazy, outline-style panel generated from the current document headings.
+- 📄 **Readable Release Notes** — View stable releases through curated notes written for users instead of raw commit lists.
+
+## Improvements
+
+- 🧩 **Cleaner AI Settings** — Configure provider secrets, local models, and AI targets through a more focused settings experience.
+- 💬 **Better Agent Context Handling** — Large AI agent contexts are compacted more safely, and Codex MCP tools are exposed more reliably.
+- 🧱 **Improved Editor Blocks** — Code blocks can be copied more easily, block controls feel steadier, and rich exports avoid unsupported browser APIs.
+- 🗂️ **Smarter Note and Type Handling** — Renames, type changes, frontmatter placeholders, and path identity now behave more consistently across vault flows.
+- 🌍 **Better International Editing** — RTL text direction, IME composition, Korean sidebar copy, and unicode git paths all received focused polish.
+
+## Stability and Fixes
+
+- Embedded diagrams, tldraw whiteboard assets, stale checklist toggles, and stale note open or rename flows were hardened to avoid broken editor states.
+- Vault recovery, missing active vault handling, fresh-note heading paste, and same-path type collisions now fail more gracefully.
+- Linux AppImage startup, MCP resource discovery, release CI, Codacy security findings, and AI provider runtime paths all received stability fixes.