diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index d7bb53c0..b5c4eb5f 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ jobs:
         run: pytest tests/unit/ tests/conformance/ tests/integration/ tests/confinement/ -v --tb=short --cov=src --cov-report=xml
 
       - name: Upload coverage report
+        if: github.event_name != 'release' && github.workflow != 'Release'
         uses: codecov/codecov-action@303a32d7a59b442fa8d48b6a1cc6825c09c847a5 # v7.1.1
         with:
           use_oidc: true
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-validation.yml b/.github/workflows/release-validation.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..2f1a9b6f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/release-validation.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,140 @@
+name: Release validation
+
+# Credential-free CI mirror. test_release_validation_permissions prevents drift.
+on:
+  workflow_call:
+
+permissions:
+  contents: read
+
+jobs:
+  test:
+    permissions:
+      contents: read
+    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
+    strategy:
+      matrix:
+        python-version: ["3.11", "3.12", "3.13"]
+        os: [ubuntu-latest, windows-latest]
+
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@3d3c42e5aac5ba805825da76410c181273ba90b1 # v7.0.1
+
+      - uses: actions/setup-python@5fda3b95a4ea91299a34e894583c3862153e4b97 # v7.0.0
+        with:
+          python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
+
+      - name: Install dependencies
+        # Third-party dependencies come from the hash-pinned lock first; the
+        # local package then goes in with --no-deps, because pip cannot
+        # hash-pin an editable install in the same invocation.
+        run: |
+          python -m pip install --require-hashes -r requirements/dev.txt
+          python -m pip install --no-deps -e .
+
+      - name: Security scan
+        # --skip-editable: pip-audit resolves the editable install of this package
+        # against PyPI and fails when the version is not published yet, so without
+        # it no version-bump PR can ever pass CI. Dependencies are still audited.
+        #
+        # bandit and pip-audit are already in the dev extra above, so the
+        # scan runs against the same pinned versions rather than fetching
+        # whatever is current at scan time.
+        run: bandit -r src/ -c pyproject.toml && pip-audit --skip-editable
+
+      - name: Lint
+        run: ruff check src/ tests/
+
+      - name: Type check
+        run: mypy src/cmcp_runtime/
+
+      - name: Test
+        # Soak tests are intentionally excluded from per-PR CI.
+        run: pytest tests/unit/ tests/conformance/ tests/integration/ tests/confinement/ -v --tb=short --cov=src --cov-report=xml
+
+
+  governance:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    needs: test
+
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@3d3c42e5aac5ba805825da76410c181273ba90b1 # v7.0.1
+
+      - uses: actions/setup-python@5fda3b95a4ea91299a34e894583c3862153e4b97 # v7.0.0
+        with:
+          python-version: "3.12"
+
+      - name: Install cMCP dependencies
+        # Third-party dependencies come from the hash-pinned lock first; the
+        # local package then goes in with --no-deps, because pip cannot
+        # hash-pin an editable install in the same invocation.
+        run: |
+          python -m pip install --require-hashes -r requirements/dev.txt
+          python -m pip install --no-deps -e .
+
+      - name: Install AGT as isolated CI tooling
+        run: |
+          python -m venv .agt-venv
+          .agt-venv/bin/python -m pip install --require-hashes -r requirements/agt.txt
+          .agt-venv/bin/python -m pip install --no-deps -e .
+
+      - name: Generate evidence file
+        run: .agt-venv/bin/python scripts/gen_agt_evidence.py
+
+      - name: Verify AGT runtime evidence (isolated)
+        run: |
+          set +e
+          output=$(.agt-venv/bin/agt verify --evidence agt-evidence.json 2>&1)
+          status=$?
+          set -e
+          printf '%s\n' "$output"
+          printf '%s\n' "$output" | grep -Fq "Runtime Evidence: 6/6 checks passed"
+          test "$status" -eq 0 || test "$status" -eq 1
+
+      - name: Save attestation JSON
+        run: |
+          set +e
+          .agt-venv/bin/agt --json verify --evidence agt-evidence.json > agt-attestation.json
+          status=$?
+          set -e
+          python -m json.tool agt-attestation.json > /dev/null
+          test "$status" -eq 0 || test "$status" -eq 1
+
+      - name: Upload governance artifacts
+        uses: actions/upload-artifact@043fb46d1a93c77aae656e7c1c64a875d1fc6a0a # v7.0.0
+        with:
+          name: agt-governance-${{ github.sha }}
+          path: |
+            agt-evidence.json
+            agt-attestation.json
+          if-no-files-found: warn
+
+  benchmark:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    needs: test
+    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
+
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@3d3c42e5aac5ba805825da76410c181273ba90b1 # v7.0.1
+
+      - uses: actions/setup-python@5fda3b95a4ea91299a34e894583c3862153e4b97 # v7.0.0
+        with:
+          python-version: "3.12"
+
+      - name: Install dependencies
+        # Third-party dependencies come from the hash-pinned lock first; the
+        # local package then goes in with --no-deps, because pip cannot
+        # hash-pin an editable install in the same invocation.
+        run: |
+          python -m pip install --require-hashes -r requirements/dev.txt
+          python -m pip install --no-deps -e .
+
+      - name: Run benchmark (software-only, CI gate p99 < 5ms)
+        run: python -m cmcp_runtime.benchmarks --provider software-only --calls 10000 --out benchmarks/
+
+      - name: Upload benchmark results
+        uses: actions/upload-artifact@043fb46d1a93c77aae656e7c1c64a875d1fc6a0a # v7.0.0
+        with:
+          name: benchmark-results
+          path: benchmarks/
+          if-no-files-found: warn
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index b3ed0b73..9c1ee5d9 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -19,8 +19,7 @@ jobs:
   test:
     permissions:
       contents: read
-      id-token: write # The existing CI uploads coverage through Codecov OIDC.
-    uses: ./.github/workflows/ci.yml
+    uses: ./.github/workflows/release-validation.yml
 
   build:
     needs: test
diff --git a/tests/unit/test_release_validation_permissions.py b/tests/unit/test_release_validation_permissions.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e02db2f9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/unit/test_release_validation_permissions.py
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+"""Release validation preserves CI checks without publishing-token authority."""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import copy
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import yaml
+
+
+def _workflow(name: str) -> dict:
+    return yaml.safe_load(Path(f".github/workflows/{name}.yml").read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
+
+
+def test_release_validation_permissions() -> None:
+    ci = _workflow("ci")
+    validation = _workflow("release-validation")
+    release = _workflow("release")
+    expected = copy.deepcopy(ci["jobs"])
+    expected["test"]["permissions"].pop("id-token")
+    steps = expected["test"]["steps"]
+    coverage = [step for step in steps if step.get("name") == "Upload coverage report"]
+    assert len(coverage) == 1
+    assert coverage[0]["if"] == "github.event_name != 'release' && github.workflow != 'Release'"
+    steps.remove(coverage[0])
+    assert validation["jobs"] == expected
+    assert validation["permissions"] == {"contents": "read"}
+    assert set(validation[True]) == {"workflow_call"}
+    assert release["jobs"]["test"]["uses"] == "./.github/workflows/release-validation.yml"
+    assert release["jobs"]["test"]["permissions"] == {"contents": "read"}
+    assert release["permissions"] == {"contents": "read"}
+    assert [
+        name for name, job in release["jobs"].items()
+        if job.get("permissions", {}).get("id-token") == "write"
+    ] == ["publish"]
+    for job in validation["jobs"].values():
+        assert job.get("permissions", {}).get("id-token", "none") == "none"
+        assert not any("codecov/" in step.get("uses", "") for step in job["steps"])