diff --git a/scripts/trigger-release.sh b/scripts/trigger-release.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..44fb02a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/trigger-release.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,134 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -euo pipefail
+
+# Helper script to trigger a release with pre-flight validation
+# Usage: ./scripts/trigger-release.sh 4.30.0
+
+VERSION="${1:-}"
+
+if [ -z "$VERSION" ]; then
+  echo "Error: Version number required"
+  echo "Usage: $0 <version>"
+  echo "Example: $0 4.30.0"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+echo "Pre-flight checks for release v${VERSION}..."
+echo ""
+
+# Check 1: VERSION file matches
+FILE_VERSION=$(cat VERSION | tr -d '\n')
+if [ "$FILE_VERSION" != "$VERSION" ]; then
+  echo "❌ VERSION file mismatch"
+  echo ""
+  echo "  VERSION file contains: ${FILE_VERSION}"
+  echo "  Requested version:     ${VERSION}"
+  echo ""
+  echo "Fix: Update VERSION file and commit:"
+  echo "  echo '${VERSION}' > VERSION"
+  echo "  git add VERSION"
+  echo "  git commit -m 'Prepare v${VERSION} release'"
+  echo "  git push"
+  echo ""
+  exit 1
+fi
+echo "✓ VERSION file matches (${VERSION})"
+
+# Check 2: Working directory is clean
+if ! git diff-index --quiet HEAD --; then
+  echo "❌ Working directory has uncommitted changes"
+  echo ""
+  echo "Fix: Commit or stash changes before releasing"
+  echo ""
+  git status --short
+  exit 1
+fi
+echo "✓ Working directory is clean"
+
+# Check 3: On main branch
+CURRENT_BRANCH=$(git branch --show-current)
+if [ "$CURRENT_BRANCH" != "main" ]; then
+  echo "⚠️  Warning: Not on main branch (current: ${CURRENT_BRANCH})"
+  echo ""
+  read -p "Continue anyway? [y/N] " -n 1 -r
+  echo ""
+  if [[ ! $REPLY =~ ^[Yy]$ ]]; then
+    echo "Aborted"
+    exit 1
+  fi
+else
+  echo "✓ On main branch"
+fi
+
+# Check 4: Up to date with remote
+if ! git fetch origin --dry-run 2>&1 | grep -q "up to date"; then
+  echo "⚠️  Warning: Remote has updates or local branch is ahead"
+  echo ""
+  read -p "Continue anyway? [y/N] " -n 1 -r
+  echo ""
+  if [[ ! $REPLY =~ ^[Yy]$ ]]; then
+    echo "Aborted"
+    exit 1
+  fi
+else
+  echo "✓ Up to date with remote"
+fi
+
+echo ""
+echo "━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━"
+echo "Ready to release v${VERSION}"
+echo "━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━"
+echo ""
+echo "Next: Provide release notes when prompted"
+echo ""
+
+# Check 5: Release notes file (optional)
+NOTES_FILE="/tmp/release_notes_${VERSION}.md"
+if [ -f "$NOTES_FILE" ]; then
+  echo "Found release notes file: ${NOTES_FILE}"
+  echo ""
+  cat "$NOTES_FILE"
+  echo ""
+  read -p "Use these release notes? [Y/n] " -n 1 -r
+  echo ""
+  if [[ $REPLY =~ ^[Nn]$ ]]; then
+    echo "Release notes file ignored"
+    NOTES_FILE=""
+  fi
+else
+  echo "No release notes file found at ${NOTES_FILE}"
+  echo ""
+  echo "Create release notes manually or let the workflow prompt you."
+  echo ""
+  read -p "Continue without release notes file? [y/N] " -n 1 -r
+  echo ""
+  if [[ ! $REPLY =~ ^[Yy]$ ]]; then
+    echo "Aborted"
+    exit 1
+  fi
+  NOTES_FILE=""
+fi
+
+# Trigger the workflow
+echo ""
+echo "Triggering release workflow..."
+if [ -n "$NOTES_FILE" ]; then
+  gh workflow run release.yml \
+    -f version="${VERSION}" \
+    -f release_notes="$(cat "$NOTES_FILE")"
+else
+  echo ""
+  echo "❌ Error: Release notes are required"
+  echo ""
+  echo "Create ${NOTES_FILE} with your release notes, then run this script again."
+  echo ""
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+echo ""
+echo "✓ Release workflow triggered"
+echo ""
+echo "Monitor progress:"
+echo "  gh run list --workflow=release.yml --limit 1"
+echo "  gh run watch <run-id>"
+echo ""