diff --git a/.github/workflows/libsql-server-release-build-setup.yml b/.github/workflows/libsql-server-release-build-setup.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..dbe70309b9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/libsql-server-release-build-setup.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+- name: Prepare env vars
+  env:
+    RUSTFLAGS: --cfg tokio_unstable
diff --git a/.github/workflows/libsql-server-release.yml b/.github/workflows/libsql-server-release.yml
index 780eb7e21a..56a2dbf0a0 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/libsql-server-release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/libsql-server-release.yml
@@ -12,9 +12,8 @@
 # title/body based on your changelogs.
 
 name: Release
-
 permissions:
-  contents: write
+  "contents": "write"
 
 # This task will run whenever you push a git tag that looks like a version
 # like "1.0.0", "v0.1.0-prerelease.1", "my-app/0.1.0", "releases/v1.0.0", etc.
@@ -38,15 +37,15 @@ permissions:
 # If there's a prerelease-style suffix to the version, then the release(s)
 # will be marked as a prerelease.
 on:
+  pull_request:
   push:
     tags:
       - 'libsql-server**[0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+*'
-  pull_request:
 
 jobs:
   # Run 'cargo dist plan' (or host) to determine what tasks we need to do
   plan:
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    runs-on: "ubuntu-20.04"
     outputs:
       val: ${{ steps.plan.outputs.manifest }}
       tag: ${{ !github.event.pull_request && github.ref_name || '' }}
@@ -54,7 +53,6 @@ jobs:
       publishing: ${{ !github.event.pull_request }}
     env:
       GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
-      RUSTFLAGS: --cfg tokio_unstable
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
         with:
@@ -63,7 +61,12 @@ jobs:
         # we specify bash to get pipefail; it guards against the `curl` command
         # failing. otherwise `sh` won't catch that `curl` returned non-0
         shell: bash
-        run: "curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/axodotdev/cargo-dist/releases/download/v0.14.1/cargo-dist-installer.sh | sh"
+        run: "curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/axodotdev/cargo-dist/releases/download/v0.21.0/cargo-dist-installer.sh | sh"
+      - name: Cache cargo-dist
+        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
+        with:
+          name: cargo-dist-cache
+          path: ~/.cargo/bin/cargo-dist
       # sure would be cool if github gave us proper conditionals...
       # so here's a doubly-nested ternary-via-truthiness to try to provide the best possible
       # functionality based on whether this is a pull_request, and whether it's from a fork.
@@ -105,7 +108,6 @@ jobs:
     env:
       GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
       BUILD_MANIFEST_NAME: target/distrib/${{ join(matrix.targets, '-') }}-dist-manifest.json
-      RUSTFLAGS: --cfg tokio_unstable
     steps:
       - name: enable windows longpaths
         run: |
@@ -113,9 +115,9 @@ jobs:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
         with:
           submodules: recursive
-      - uses: swatinem/rust-cache@v2
-        with:
-          key: ${{ join(matrix.targets, '-') }}
+      - name: "Prepare env vars"
+        env:
+          "RUSTFLAGS": "--cfg tokio_unstable"
       - name: Install cargo-dist
         run: ${{ matrix.install_dist }}
       # Get the dist-manifest
@@ -163,14 +165,16 @@ jobs:
     env:
       GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
       BUILD_MANIFEST_NAME: target/distrib/global-dist-manifest.json
-      RUSTFLAGS: --cfg tokio_unstable
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
         with:
           submodules: recursive
-      - name: Install cargo-dist
-        shell: bash
-        run: "curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/axodotdev/cargo-dist/releases/download/v0.14.1/cargo-dist-installer.sh | sh"
+      - name: Install cached cargo-dist
+        uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
+        with:
+          name: cargo-dist-cache
+          path: ~/.cargo/bin/
+      - run: chmod +x ~/.cargo/bin/cargo-dist
       # Get all the local artifacts for the global tasks to use (for e.g. checksums)
       - name: Fetch local artifacts
         uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
@@ -207,7 +211,6 @@ jobs:
     if: ${{ always() && needs.plan.outputs.publishing == 'true' && (needs.build-global-artifacts.result == 'skipped' || needs.build-global-artifacts.result == 'success') && (needs.build-local-artifacts.result == 'skipped' || needs.build-local-artifacts.result == 'success') }}
     env:
       GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
-      RUSTFLAGS: --cfg tokio_unstable
     runs-on: "ubuntu-20.04"
     outputs:
       val: ${{ steps.host.outputs.manifest }}
@@ -215,8 +218,12 @@ jobs:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
         with:
           submodules: recursive
-      - name: Install cargo-dist
-        run: "curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/axodotdev/cargo-dist/releases/download/v0.14.1/cargo-dist-installer.sh | sh"
+      - name: Install cached cargo-dist
+        uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
+        with:
+          name: cargo-dist-cache
+          path: ~/.cargo/bin/
+      - run: chmod +x ~/.cargo/bin/cargo-dist
       # Fetch artifacts from scratch-storage
       - name: Fetch artifacts
         uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
@@ -224,7 +231,6 @@ jobs:
           pattern: artifacts-*
           path: target/distrib/
           merge-multiple: true
-      # This is a harmless no-op for GitHub Releases, hosting for that happens in "announce"
       - id: host
         shell: bash
         run: |
@@ -238,6 +244,28 @@ jobs:
           # Overwrite the previous copy
           name: artifacts-dist-manifest
           path: dist-manifest.json
+      # Create a GitHub Release while uploading all files to it
+      - name: "Download GitHub Artifacts"
+        uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
+        with:
+          pattern: artifacts-*
+          path: artifacts
+          merge-multiple: true
+      - name: Cleanup
+        run: |
+          # Remove the granular manifests
+          rm -f artifacts/*-dist-manifest.json
+      - name: Create GitHub Release
+        env:
+          PRERELEASE_FLAG: "${{ fromJson(steps.host.outputs.manifest).announcement_is_prerelease && '--prerelease' || '' }}"
+          ANNOUNCEMENT_TITLE: "${{ fromJson(steps.host.outputs.manifest).announcement_title }}"
+          ANNOUNCEMENT_BODY: "${{ fromJson(steps.host.outputs.manifest).announcement_github_body }}"
+          RELEASE_COMMIT: "${{ github.sha }}"
+        run: |
+          # Write and read notes from a file to avoid quoting breaking things
+          echo "$ANNOUNCEMENT_BODY" > $RUNNER_TEMP/notes.txt
+
+          gh release create "${{ needs.plan.outputs.tag }}" --target "$RELEASE_COMMIT" $PRERELEASE_FLAG --title "$ANNOUNCEMENT_TITLE" --notes-file "$RUNNER_TEMP/notes.txt" artifacts/*
 
   publish-homebrew-formula:
     needs:
@@ -279,7 +307,6 @@ jobs:
           done
           git push
 
-  # Create a GitHub Release while uploading all files to it
   announce:
     needs:
       - plan
@@ -296,21 +323,3 @@ jobs:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
         with:
           submodules: recursive
-      - name: "Download GitHub Artifacts"
-        uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
-        with:
-          pattern: artifacts-*
-          path: artifacts
-          merge-multiple: true
-      - name: Cleanup
-        run: |
-          # Remove the granular manifests
-          rm -f artifacts/*-dist-manifest.json
-      - name: Create GitHub Release
-        uses: ncipollo/release-action@v1
-        with:
-          tag: ${{ needs.plan.outputs.tag }}
-          name: ${{ fromJson(needs.host.outputs.val).announcement_title }}
-          body: ${{ fromJson(needs.host.outputs.val).announcement_github_body }}
-          prerelease: ${{ fromJson(needs.host.outputs.val).announcement_is_prerelease }}
-          artifacts: "artifacts/*"
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 685f14964f..b29e9ce49a 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ zerocopy = { version = "0.7.32", features = ["derive", "alloc"] }
 # Config for 'cargo dist'
 [workspace.metadata.dist]
 # The preferred cargo-dist version to use in CI (Cargo.toml SemVer syntax)
-cargo-dist-version = "0.14.1"
+cargo-dist-version = "0.21.0"
 # CI backends to support
 ci = "github"
 # The installers to generate for each app
@@ -65,12 +65,16 @@ targets = ["aarch64-apple-darwin", "aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu", "x86_64-apple-da
 publish-jobs = ["homebrew"]
 # Whether cargo-dist should create a Github Release or use an existing draft
 create-release = true
-# Publish jobs to run in CI
+# Which actions to run on pull requests
 pr-run-mode = "plan"
 # A prefix git tags must include for cargo-dist to care about them
 tag-namespace = "libsql-server"
 # Whether to install an updater program
 install-updater = false
+# additional setup steps
+github-build-setup = "libsql-server-release-build-setup.yml"
+# Path that installers should place binaries in
+install-path = "CARGO_HOME"
 
 [workspace.metadata.dist.github-custom-runners]
 aarch64-apple-darwin = "macos-14"