diff --git a/Documentation/contributor-guide/release.md b/Documentation/contributor-guide/release.md
index e5726d00b497..d6f9ebf7eca3 100644
--- a/Documentation/contributor-guide/release.md
+++ b/Documentation/contributor-guide/release.md
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@ which don't need to be executed before releasing each version.
 4. Authenticate the image registry, refer to [Authentication methods](https://cloud.google.com/container-registry/docs/advanced-authentication).
    - `gcloud auth login`
    - `gcloud auth configure-docker`
+5. Install gh, refer to [GitHub's documentation](https://github.com/cli/cli#installation). Ensure that running `gh auth login` succeeds.
 
 ### Release steps
 
@@ -81,13 +82,8 @@ which don't need to be executed before releasing each version.
 
    **Remove the `quay.io` login entry from `~/.docker/config.json` after pushing Docker images.**
 7. Publish the release page on GitHub
-   - Set the release title as the version name
-   - Choose the correct release tag (generated from step #4)
-   - Follow the format of previous release pages
-   - Attach the generated binaries and signature file
-   - Verify the historical binary size for each architecture. If there's a big difference, verify that it works for that architecture
-   - Select whether it's a pre-release
-   - Publish the release
+   - Open the **draft** release URL shown by the release script
+   - Review that it looks correct, then publish the release
 8. Announce to the etcd-dev googlegroup
 
    Follow the format of previous release emails sent to etcd-dev@googlegroups.com, see an example below. After sending out the email, ask one of the mailing list maintainers to approve the email from the pending list. Additionally, label the release email as `Release`.
diff --git a/scripts/release.sh b/scripts/release.sh
index c2940a1fcd10..3ec58c2569ee 100755
--- a/scripts/release.sh
+++ b/scripts/release.sh
@@ -33,8 +33,7 @@ help() {
   echo "WARNING: This does not perform the 'Add API capabilities', 'Performance testing' "
   echo "         or 'Documentation' steps. These steps must be performed manually BEFORE running this tool."
   echo ""
-  echo "WARNING: This script does not sign releases, publish releases to github or sent announcement"
-  echo "         emails. These steps must be performed manually AFTER running this tool."
+  echo "WARNING: This script does not send announcement emails. This step must be performed manually AFTER running this tool."
   echo ""
   echo "  args:"
   echo "    version: version of etcd to release, e.g. 'v3.2.18'"
@@ -119,6 +118,23 @@ main() {
     exit 1
   fi
 
+  # Check that gh is installed and logged in.
+  log_callout "Check gh installation"
+  if ! command -v gh >/dev/null; then
+    log_error "Cannot find gh. Please follow the installation instructions at https://github.com/cli/cli#installation"
+    exit 1
+  fi
+  local gh_version
+  gh_version=$(gh --version | head -n1 | awk 'match($0,/([0-9]+\.){2}[0-9]+/) {print substr($0,RSTART,RLENGTH)}')
+  if [ "$(cut -d. -f1 <(echo "${gh_version}"))" -lt "2" ] || [ "$(cut -d. -f2 <(echo "${gh_version}"))" -lt "57" ]; then
+    log_error "The minimum version required for gh is 2.57.0, got ${gh_version}"
+    exit 1
+  fi
+  if [ "${DRY_RUN}" != "true" ] && ! gh auth status &>/dev/null; then
+    log_error "GitHub authentication failed for gh. Please run gh auth login."
+    exit 1
+  fi
+
   # If the release tag does not already exist remotely, create it.
   log_callout "Create tag if not present"
   if [ "${remote_tag_exists}" -eq 0 ]; then
@@ -314,9 +330,39 @@ main() {
     exit 1
   fi
 
-  # TODO: signing process
+  local gh_repo
+  if [ "${REPOSITORY}" = "$(pwd)" ]; then
+    gh_repo=$(git remote get-url origin)
+  else
+    gh_repo="${REPOSITORY}"
+  fi
+
+  gh_repo=$(echo "${gh_repo}" | sed 's/^[^@]\+@//' | sed 's/https\?:\/\///' | sed 's/\.git$//' | tr ':' '/')
+  log_callout "Creating GitHub release for ${RELEASE_VERSION} on ${gh_repo}"
+
+  # Disable sellcheck SC2016, the single quoted syntax for sed is intentional.
+  # shellcheck disable=SC2016
+  maybe_run sed 's/${RELEASE_VERSION}/'"${RELEASE_VERSION}"'/' ./scripts/release_notes.tpl.txt | \
+    gh release create "${RELEASE_VERSION}" \
+      --repo "${gh_repo}" \
+      --draft \
+      --prerelease \
+      --title "${RELEASE_VERSION}" \
+      --notes-file - \
+      ./release/SHA256SUMS
+
+  # Upload files one by one, as gh doesn't support passing globs as input.
+  maybe_run find ./release '(' -name '*.tar.gz' -o -name '*.zip' ')' -exec \
+    gh --repo "${gh_repo}" release upload "${RELEASE_VERSION}" {} \;
+  local release_url
+  if [ "${DRY_RUN}" == "true" ]; then
+    release_url="<to be provided when running with DRY_MODE=false>"
+  else
+    release_url=$(gh --repo "${gh_repo}" release view "${RELEASE_VERSION}" --json url --jq '.url')
+  fi
+
   log_warning ""
-  log_warning "WARNING: The release has not been signed and published to github. This must be done manually."
+  log_warning "WARNING: The GitHub release for ${RELEASE_VERSION} has been created as a draft, please go to ${release_url} and release it."
   log_warning ""
   log_success "Success."
   exit 0
diff --git a/scripts/release_notes.tpl.txt b/scripts/release_notes.tpl.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..7c60b4635bcd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/release_notes.tpl.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,91 @@
+Please check out [CHANGELOG](https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd/blob/main/CHANGELOG/CHANGELOG-3.5.md) for a full list of changes. And make sure to read [upgrade guide](https://github.com/etcd-io/website/blob/main/content/en/docs/v3.6/upgrades/upgrade_3_6.md) before upgrading etcd (there may be breaking changes).
+
+For installation guides, please check out [play.etcd.io](http://play.etcd.io) and [operating etcd](https://etcd.io/docs/v3.6/op-guide/). Latest support status for common architectures and operating systems can be found at [supported platforms](https://etcd.io/docs/v3.6/op-guide/supported-platform/).
+
+###### Linux
+
+```sh
+ETCD_VER=${RELEASE_VERSION}
+
+# choose either URL
+GOOGLE_URL=https://storage.googleapis.com/etcd
+GITHUB_URL=https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd/releases/download
+DOWNLOAD_URL=${GOOGLE_URL}
+
+rm -f /tmp/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-linux-amd64.tar.gz
+rm -rf /tmp/etcd-download-test && mkdir -p /tmp/etcd-download-test
+
+curl -L ${DOWNLOAD_URL}/${ETCD_VER}/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-linux-amd64.tar.gz -o /tmp/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-linux-amd64.tar.gz
+tar xzvf /tmp/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-linux-amd64.tar.gz -C /tmp/etcd-download-test --strip-components=1
+rm -f /tmp/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-linux-amd64.tar.gz
+
+/tmp/etcd-download-test/etcd --version
+/tmp/etcd-download-test/etcdctl version
+/tmp/etcd-download-test/etcdutl version
+
+# start a local etcd server
+/tmp/etcd-download-test/etcd
+
+# write,read to etcd
+/tmp/etcd-download-test/etcdctl --endpoints=localhost:2379 put foo bar
+/tmp/etcd-download-test/etcdctl --endpoints=localhost:2379 get foo
+```
+
+###### macOS (Darwin)
+
+```sh
+ETCD_VER=${RELEASE_VERSION}
+
+# choose either URL
+GOOGLE_URL=https://storage.googleapis.com/etcd
+GITHUB_URL=https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd/releases/download
+DOWNLOAD_URL=${GOOGLE_URL}
+
+rm -f /tmp/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-darwin-amd64.zip
+rm -rf /tmp/etcd-download-test && mkdir -p /tmp/etcd-download-test
+
+curl -L ${DOWNLOAD_URL}/${ETCD_VER}/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-darwin-amd64.zip -o /tmp/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-darwin-amd64.zip
+unzip /tmp/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-darwin-amd64.zip -d /tmp && rm -f /tmp/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-darwin-amd64.zip
+mv /tmp/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-darwin-amd64/* /tmp/etcd-download-test && rm -rf mv /tmp/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-darwin-amd64
+
+/tmp/etcd-download-test/etcd --version
+/tmp/etcd-download-test/etcdctl version
+/tmp/etcd-download-test/etcdutl version
+```
+
+###### Docker
+
+etcd uses [`gcr.io/etcd-development/etcd`](https://gcr.io/etcd-development/etcd) as a primary container registry, and [`quay.io/coreos/etcd`](https://quay.io/coreos/etcd) as secondary.
+
+```sh
+ETCD_VER=${RELEASE_VERSION}
+
+rm -rf /tmp/etcd-data.tmp && mkdir -p /tmp/etcd-data.tmp && \
+  docker rmi gcr.io/etcd-development/etcd:${ETCD_VER} || true && \
+  docker run \
+  -p 2379:2379 \
+  -p 2380:2380 \
+  --mount type=bind,source=/tmp/etcd-data.tmp,destination=/etcd-data \
+  --name etcd-gcr-${ETCD_VER} \
+  gcr.io/etcd-development/etcd:${ETCD_VER} \
+  /usr/local/bin/etcd \
+  --name s1 \
+  --data-dir /etcd-data \
+  --listen-client-urls http://0.0.0.0:2379 \
+  --advertise-client-urls http://0.0.0.0:2379 \
+  --listen-peer-urls http://0.0.0.0:2380 \
+  --initial-advertise-peer-urls http://0.0.0.0:2380 \
+  --initial-cluster s1=http://0.0.0.0:2380 \
+  --initial-cluster-token tkn \
+  --initial-cluster-state new \
+  --log-level info \
+  --logger zap \
+  --log-outputs stderr
+
+docker exec etcd-gcr-${ETCD_VER}/usr/local/bin/etcd --version
+docker exec etcd-gcr-${ETCD_VER}/usr/local/bin/etcdctl version
+docker exec etcd-gcr-${ETCD_VER}/usr/local/bin/etcdutl version
+docker exec etcd-gcr-${ETCD_VER}/usr/local/bin/etcdctl endpoint health
+docker exec etcd-gcr-${ETCD_VER}/usr/local/bin/etcdctl put foo bar
+docker exec etcd-gcr-${ETCD_VER}/usr/local/bin/etcdctl get foo
+```