diff --git a/.claude-plugin/plugin.json b/.claude-plugin/plugin.json
index 06386fc..e4f4da6 100644
--- a/.claude-plugin/plugin.json
+++ b/.claude-plugin/plugin.json
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "name": "skills",
   "description": "Mathias's engineering skills library, plus the hooks and MCP servers that make it enforceable: TDD, clean code, debugging, specs, discovery, CI, and secret hygiene.",
-  "version": "0.9.0",
+  "version": "0.10.0",
   "author": {
     "name": "Mathias",
     "url": "https://git.d-ma.be/mathias"
diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml b/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
index 55b87f7..8f54585 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -94,26 +94,51 @@ jobs:
           git config user.name "${GITEA_ACTOR}"
           git config user.email "${GITEA_ACTOR}@noreply.gitea.d-ma.be"
 
-          # Claude Code gates plugin updates on plugin.json's version field:
-          # if it does not move, installed hosts never see the new tag. Bump
-          # it in the same commit train so the tag and the manifest agree —
-          # `task check` enforces that equality on every run.
+          # The tag goes up FIRST and on its own. It names the commit this run
+          # checked out and can never be rejected, however far main has moved.
+          git tag -a "$TAG" -m "release $TAG"
+          git push origin "$TAG"
+          echo "pushed $TAG"
+
+          # The manifest bump is a separate concern and must land on whatever
+          # main is NOW. The runner is maxParallel=1 and shared with other
+          # repos, so a job routinely starts several commits after its own —
+          # pushing this run's stale HEAD to main is then rejected
+          # non-fast-forward, which is how v0.10.0 ended up tagged with the
+          # manifest still reading 0.9.0.
+          #
+          # Claude Code gates plugin updates on this field: if it does not
+          # move, installed hosts never see the release. `task check` asserts
+          # the manifest is not behind the latest tag, so a failure here is a
+          # red main, not a cosmetic miss.
           manifest=.claude-plugin/plugin.json
           version="${TAG#v}"
-          current=$(sed -n 's/.*"version"[[:space:]]*:[[:space:]]*"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p' "$manifest" | head -1)
-          git tag -a "$TAG" -m "release $TAG"
 
-          if [ "$current" != "$version" ]; then
+          for attempt in 1 2 3; do
+            git fetch --quiet origin main
+            git checkout --quiet -B release-bump origin/main
+
+            current=$(sed -n 's/.*"version"[[:space:]]*:[[:space:]]*"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p' "$manifest" | head -1)
+            if [ "$current" = "$version" ]; then
+              echo "manifest already at $version"
+              exit 0
+            fi
+            # A later run may have bumped past us while this one waited.
+            if [ "$(sh bin/newer-version "$current" "$version")" = "$current" ]; then
+              echo "manifest is $current, already newer than $version — leaving it"
+              exit 0
+            fi
+
             sed -i "s/\"version\"[[:space:]]*:[[:space:]]*\"$current\"/\"version\": \"$version\"/" "$manifest"
             git add "$manifest"
             # The trailer below stops this push from re-triggering the tagger.
             git commit -m "chore(release): plugin.json version $version" -m "Skip-Release: true"
-            # Commit and tag go up in ONE push: the gate job runs `task check`
-            # on the bump commit, and that asserts manifest == latest tag. Two
-            # separate pushes leave a window where it legitimately fails.
-            git push origin HEAD:main "$TAG"
-            echo "bumped $manifest to $version"
-          else
-            git push origin "$TAG"
-          fi
-          echo "pushed $TAG"
+            if git push origin HEAD:main; then
+              echo "bumped $manifest to $version"
+              exit 0
+            fi
+            echo "main moved while bumping — retry $attempt"
+          done
+
+          echo "could not land the manifest bump after 3 attempts" >&2
+          exit 1