diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index f1ef6165..6a8a4f47 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -565,6 +565,26 @@ jobs:
       packages: write
 
     steps:
+      - name: Wait for npm package availability
+        timeout-minutes: 5
+        shell: bash
+        env:
+          CHATLAB_VERSION: ${{ needs.prepare_release.outputs.version }}
+        run: |
+          for attempt in {1..30}; do
+            published_version="$(npm view "chatlab-cli@${CHATLAB_VERSION}" version --registry=https://registry.npmjs.org --prefer-online --fetch-timeout=10000 --fetch-retries=0 2>/dev/null || true)"
+            if [ "$published_version" = "$CHATLAB_VERSION" ]; then
+              echo "chatlab-cli@${CHATLAB_VERSION} is available on npm"
+              exit 0
+            fi
+
+            echo "Waiting for chatlab-cli@${CHATLAB_VERSION} to become available on npm (${attempt}/30)"
+            sleep 10
+          done
+
+          echo "::error::chatlab-cli@${CHATLAB_VERSION} was not available on npm after 5 minutes"
+          exit 1
+
       - name: Checkout image definition
         uses: actions/checkout@v5