diff --git a/ci-requirements.md b/ci-requirements.md
index b5d8db7..0489762 100644
--- a/ci-requirements.md
+++ b/ci-requirements.md
@@ -183,3 +183,17 @@ bash -n desktop/packaging/publish-release.sh
 Where a script resolves URLs from the Forgejo API, exercise the resolution
 against the live instance (plain `curl` reads, no install) rather than trusting
 the regex by eye. Both channel paths in `install.sh` were verified that way.
+
+**Hand-assembled JSON: parse it before you push it.** `publish-release.sh` builds
+its request bodies as shell strings, and quoting context decides what survives
+into the JSON — a `` \` `` inside an unquoted heredoc loses its backslash to the
+shell, the same `` \` `` inside a single-quoted variable does not, and reaches
+Forgejo as an illegal escape (HTTP 422, one wasted build). `sh -n` cannot see
+this. Extract the body block and parse it for every branch it can take:
+
+```
+sed -n '/^# The install command printed/,/^JSON$/p' desktop/packaging/publish-release.sh > /tmp/body.sh
+echo ')' >> /tmp/body.sh
+bash -c 'GITHUB_SERVER_URL=https://git.fabledsword.com GITHUB_REPOSITORY=o/r \
+  TAG=dev RELEASE_PRERELEASE=true; . /tmp/body.sh; printf "%s" "$BODY" | python3 -m json.tool >/dev/null'
+```
diff --git a/desktop/packaging/publish-release.sh b/desktop/packaging/publish-release.sh
index 3aee7f6..ebcf027 100755
--- a/desktop/packaging/publish-release.sh
+++ b/desktop/packaging/publish-release.sh
@@ -100,7 +100,11 @@ first_id() { grep -oE '"id"[[:space:]]*:[[:space:]]*[0-9]+' | head -1 | grep -oE
 # wonders why the version they were sent isn't what they got.
 if [ "$TAG" = "dev" ]; then
   INSTALL_TAIL='sh -s -- --channel dev'
-  CHANNEL_NOTE='\n\nThis is the rolling **dev** channel: republished on every green push to \`dev\`, and pruned to the current build.'
+  # Backticks BARE, not `\``. The heredoc below is unquoted, so there the backslash
+  # is the shell's — it suppresses command substitution and never reaches the JSON.
+  # Here single quotes already do that job, so a backslash would survive into the
+  # body as `\``, which is not a legal JSON escape: Forgejo answers 422.
+  CHANNEL_NOTE='\n\nThis is the rolling **dev** channel: republished on every green push to `dev`, and pruned to the current build.'
 else
   INSTALL_TAIL='sh'
   CHANNEL_NOTE=''