ci: drop legacy release script in favor of cargo-rbmt

diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
deleted file mode 100644
index 4f8d40c5..00000000
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,27 +0,0 @@
-on:
-  push:
-    branches:
-      - master
-      - 0.28.x
-      - 0.29.x
-      - 'test-ci/**'
-  pull_request:
-
-name: Release
-permissions: {}
-
-jobs:
-  release:
-    name: Release - dry-run
-    runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
-    permissions:
-      contents: write
-    steps:
-      - name: Checkout Crate
-        uses: actions/checkout@08c6903cd8c0fde910a37f88322edcfb5dd907a8 # v5.0.0
-        with:
-          persist-credentials: false
-      - name: Checkout Toolchain
-        uses: dtolnay/rust-toolchain@5d458579430fc14a04a08a1e7d3694f545e91ce6 # stable
-      - name: run cargo
-        run: contrib/release.sh
diff --git a/.github/workflows/rust.yml b/.github/workflows/rust.yml
index ae36bde1..3ef78537 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/rust.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/rust.yml
@@ -45,6 +45,21 @@ jobs:
       - name: "Run ${{ matrix.task }}"
         run: cargo rbmt ${{ matrix.task }}
 
+  Prerelease:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
+    permissions:
+      contents: read
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@08c6903cd8c0fde910a37f88322edcfb5dd907a8 # v5.0.0
+        with:
+          persist-credentials: false
+          fetch-depth: 0 # History required for version bump detection.
+      - name: "Fetch master branch"
+        run: git fetch origin master:master
+      - uses: rust-bitcoin/rust-bitcoin-maintainer-tools/.github/actions/setup-rbmt@9de0de1f36f65a2cb9c617358d88aecd319282d9
+      - name: "Run pre-release checks"
+        run: cargo rbmt prerelease
+
   # Non cargo-rbmt jobs manage their toolchain version directly.
   Prepare:
     runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
diff --git a/bitcoin/rbmt.toml b/bitcoin/rbmt.toml
index d9c30d70..3e75057a 100644
--- a/bitcoin/rbmt.toml
+++ b/bitcoin/rbmt.toml
@@ -26,3 +26,6 @@ features_without_std = ["rand", "serde", "secp-recovery", "bitcoinconsensus", "b
 allowed_duplicates = [
     "hex-conservative",
 ]
+
+[prerelease]
+enabled = true
diff --git a/consensus_encoding/rbmt.toml b/consensus_encoding/rbmt.toml
index d8d3d998..72387c52 100644
--- a/consensus_encoding/rbmt.toml
+++ b/consensus_encoding/rbmt.toml
@@ -12,3 +12,6 @@ features_with_std = []
 # Features to test without the `std` feature.
 # Tests each feature alone, all pairs, and all together.
 features_without_std = ["alloc"]
+
+[prerelease]
+enabled = true
diff --git a/contrib/release.sh b/contrib/release.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 73abdd01..00000000
--- a/contrib/release.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,67 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env bash
-#
-# Check that we can publish crates in their current form if there are changes on top of the tip of
-# master that imply that we are about to do a release.
-#
-# disable follow sourced files.
-# shellcheck disable=SC1091
-
-set -euox pipefail
-
-REPO_DIR=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
-
-# Sets CRATES to be a list of all crates in the repo.
-. "$REPO_DIR"/contrib/test_vars.sh
-
-main () {
-    for crate in $CRATES; do
-        if release_changes "$crate"; then
-            echo "$crate has changes implying this is a release PR, checking if we can publish ..."
-
-            # Check if there is any mention of TBD which means the
-            # next version number should be filled in.
-            if grep -qr "since = \"TBD" "./$crate"; then
-                echo Version number needs to be filled in following places:
-                grep -r "since = \"TBD" "./$crate"
-                exit 1
-            fi
-
-            # Then try to dry-run cargo publish
-            publish_dry_run "$crate"
-        fi
-    done
-}
-
-# Returns 0 if crate ($1) contains changes since tip of master that imply this patch set is done in
-# preparation for releasing the crate.
-
-release_changes() {
-    local crate=$1
-    set +e
-
-    git log --patch --reverse master.. -- "$crate"/Cargo.toml | grep -E '\+version ='
-    local exit_code=$?
-
-    set -e
-    return $exit_code
-}
-
-# Do a dry run publish to crates.io using the correct package name for crate ($1).
-# We use `set -e` so this will fail the script if the dry-run fails.
-publish_dry_run() {
-    local crate=$1
-    if [ "$crate" == "bitcoin" ]; then
-        cargo publish -p "bitcoin" --dry-run
-    elif [ "$crate" == "hashes" ]; then
-        cargo publish -p "bitcoin_hashes" --dry-run
-    elif [ "$crate" == "internals" ]; then
-        cargo publish -p "bitcoin-internals" --dry-run
-    elif [ "$crate" == "units" ]; then
-        cargo publish -p "bitcoin-units" --dry-run
-    fi
-}
-
-#
-# Main script.
-#
-main "$@"
diff --git a/hashes/rbmt.toml b/hashes/rbmt.toml
index 6d07c1a3..95f796d1 100644
--- a/hashes/rbmt.toml
+++ b/hashes/rbmt.toml
@@ -17,3 +17,6 @@ features_without_std = ["alloc", "serde", "small-hash"]
 allowed_duplicates = [
     "hex-conservative",
 ]
+
+[prerelease]
+enabled = true
diff --git a/internals/rbmt.toml b/internals/rbmt.toml
index 4d5687c6..aa0fee74 100644
--- a/internals/rbmt.toml
+++ b/internals/rbmt.toml
@@ -12,3 +12,6 @@ features_with_std = ["serde"]
 # Features to test without the `std` feature.
 # Tests each feature alone, all pairs, and all together.
 features_without_std = ["alloc", "serde"]
+
+[prerelease]
+enabled = true
diff --git a/primitives/rbmt.toml b/primitives/rbmt.toml
index ba405803..b5d370c3 100644
--- a/primitives/rbmt.toml
+++ b/primitives/rbmt.toml
@@ -17,3 +17,6 @@ features_without_std = ["alloc", "serde", "arbitrary", "hex"]
 allowed_duplicates = [
     "hex-conservative",
 ]
+
+[prerelease]
+enabled = true
diff --git a/units/rbmt.toml b/units/rbmt.toml
index f5573628..7f430b26 100644
--- a/units/rbmt.toml
+++ b/units/rbmt.toml
@@ -12,3 +12,6 @@ features_with_std = ["serde", "arbitrary", "encoding"]
 # Features to test without the `std` feature.
 # Tests each feature alone, all pairs, and all together.
 features_without_std = ["alloc", "serde", "arbitrary", "encoding"]
+
+[prerelease]
+enabled = true