diff --git a/.github/workflows/pip.yml b/.github/workflows/pip.yml
index 1dbf10c7..d618fabf 100755
--- a/.github/workflows/pip.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/pip.yml
@@ -72,13 +72,12 @@ jobs:
           shopt -s nullglob
           wheels=(dist/archivebox-*.whl)
           [[ "${#wheels[@]}" -eq 1 ]]
-          smoke_env="$(mktemp -d)/.venv"
-          uv venv --python 3.13 "$smoke_env"
-          uv pip install --no-cache --python "$smoke_env" "${wheels[0]}"
+          uv sync --locked --no-cache --no-sources --no-dev --no-install-project
+          uv pip install --no-cache --no-deps --python .venv/bin/python "${wheels[0]}"
           unset PYTHONPATH
           cd "$(mktemp -d)"
-          VIRTUAL_ENV="$smoke_env" uv run --no-cache --active --no-project --no-sync python -c 'import archivebox'
-          VIRTUAL_ENV="$smoke_env" uv run --no-cache --active --no-project --no-sync archivebox version
+          VIRTUAL_ENV="$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/.venv" uv run --no-cache --active --no-project python -c 'import archivebox'
+          VIRTUAL_ENV="$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/.venv" uv run --no-cache --active --no-project archivebox version
 
       - name: Upload every distribution
         uses: actions/upload-artifact@ea165f8d65b6e75b540449e92b4886f43607fa02 # v4
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-candidate.yml b/.github/workflows/release-candidate.yml
index ed0c10ee..08e0650d 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release-candidate.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release-candidate.yml
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ jobs:
           token: ${{ secrets.RELEASE_GH_TOKEN }}
 
       - id: version
-        uses: ArchiveBox/monorepo/.github/actions/prepare-release-version@afb379c6279fdeeca7aa4408d9589cd969b64ae7
+        uses: ArchiveBox/monorepo/.github/actions/prepare-release-version@88995501da28f05fdac2df2fab235cd79cd92a3f
         with:
           package: archivebox
           branch: dev
diff --git a/bin/release.sh b/bin/release.sh
index 92926003..c8e99435 100755
--- a/bin/release.sh
+++ b/bin/release.sh
@@ -20,23 +20,11 @@ TAG_PREFIX=v
 PYPI_PACKAGE=archivebox
 
 pypi_release_json() {
-    "$CURL_BINARY" -fsSL --retry 30 --retry-all-errors --retry-delay 2 --retry-max-time 60 \
+    "$CURL_BINARY" -fsSL \
         -H 'Cache-Control: no-cache, no-store, max-age=0' -H 'Pragma: no-cache' \
         "https://pypi.org/pypi/${PYPI_PACKAGE}/$1/json?cache_bust=$(date +%s)-${RANDOM}"
 }
 
-pypi_wait_for_release() {
-    local version="$1"
-    pypi_release_json "${version}" >/dev/null
-    for _ in {1..30}; do
-        "$CURL_BINARY" -fsSL -H 'Cache-Control: no-cache, no-store, max-age=0' -H 'Pragma: no-cache' \
-            "https://pypi.org/simple/${PYPI_PACKAGE}/?cache_bust=$(date +%s)-${RANDOM}" | \
-            grep -Fq ">archivebox-${version}-py3-none-any.whl<" && return
-        sleep 2
-    done
-    return 1
-}
-
 VERSION="$($UV_BINARY run --no-cache --no-project python - <<'PY'
 from pathlib import Path
 import json
@@ -133,7 +121,7 @@ if [[ -n "$TAG_TARGET" && "$TAG_TARGET" != "$RELEASE_SHA" ]]; then
         echo "Existing tag $TAG is not on $RELEASE_BRANCH" >&2
         exit 1
     }
-    PYPI_URLS="$($CURL_BINARY -fsSL "https://pypi.org/pypi/${PYPI_PACKAGE}/json" | $JQ_BINARY -c --arg version "$VERSION" ".releases[\$version] // []")"
+    PYPI_URLS="$(pypi_release_json "$VERSION" | $JQ_BINARY -c '.urls')"
     PYPI_URLS="$PYPI_URLS" VERSION="$VERSION" $UV_BINARY run --no-cache --no-project python - <<'PY'
 import json
 import os
@@ -241,7 +229,7 @@ SDISTS=("$RELEASE_DISTRIBUTIONS_DIR"/archivebox-*.tar.gz)
     exit 1
 }
 
-PYPI_URLS="$($CURL_BINARY -fsSL "https://pypi.org/pypi/${PYPI_PACKAGE}/json" | $JQ_BINARY -c --arg version "$VERSION" ".releases[\$version] // []")"
+PYPI_URLS="$(pypi_release_json "$VERSION" | $JQ_BINARY -c '.urls')" || PYPI_URLS='[]'
 PYPI_STATUS_OUTPUT="$(PYPI_URLS="$PYPI_URLS" RELEASE_DISTRIBUTIONS_DIR="$RELEASE_DISTRIBUTIONS_DIR" VERSION="$VERSION" $UV_BINARY run --no-cache --no-project python - <<'PY'
 import json
 import os
@@ -308,7 +296,6 @@ if [[ "$PYPI_STATE" != complete ]]; then
     done
     [[ "${#PYPI_ARTIFACTS[@]}" -gt 0 ]]
     $UV_BINARY publish --no-cache --trusted-publishing always "${PYPI_ARTIFACTS[@]}"
-    pypi_wait_for_release "$VERSION"
 fi
 
 if [[ "$IS_RC" == true ]]; then