diff --git a/.github/scripts/deploy-to-docker.sh b/.github/scripts/deploy-to-docker.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 5148abcce3..0000000000
--- a/.github/scripts/deploy-to-docker.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,28 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env bash
-set -e
-
-# change to the project root
-cd "$(dirname "$0")/../.."
-
-# read the nextflow version
-read -r NF_VERSION<VERSION
-
-# build the docker image
-cd docker
-make build version="$NF_VERSION"
-
-# push to docker hub
-IMAGE_TAG="nextflow/nextflow:$NF_VERSION"
-docker push "$IMAGE_TAG"
-
-# push to seqera registry
-if [ -z "$SEQERA_REGISTRY" ]; then
-  echo "Missing env var SEQERA_REGISTRY"
-  exit 1
-fi
-SEQERA_IMAGE_TAG="$SEQERA_REGISTRY/$IMAGE_TAG"
-
-docker tag "$IMAGE_TAG" "$SEQERA_IMAGE_TAG"
-docker push "$SEQERA_IMAGE_TAG"
-
-echo "Done"
diff --git a/.github/scripts/release.sh b/.github/scripts/release.sh
deleted file mode 100644
index 78310b866f..0000000000
--- a/.github/scripts/release.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,28 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env bash
-set -e
-
-# build artifacts
-make distribution
-
-# tag release
-./tag-release.sh
-
-# deploy to maven
-./deploy-to-maven.sh
-
-# deploy to S3
-./deploy-to-s3.sh
-
-# deploy to docker
-./deploy-to-docker.sh
-
-# deploy to github
-./deploy-to-github.sh
-
-# deploy plugins
-./deploy-plugins-to-maven.sh
-./deploy-plugins-to-github.sh
-./update-plugins-index.sh
-
-# finally, publish the distribution
-./publish-release.sh
diff --git a/.github/scripts/update-plugins-index.sh b/.github/scripts/update-plugins-index.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 1cfe68d08c..0000000000
--- a/.github/scripts/update-plugins-index.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env bash
-set -e
-
-# change to the project root
-cd "$(dirname "$0")/../.."
-
-echo "Updating plugins index"
-
-./gradlew plugins:publishIndex
-
-echo "Done"
diff --git a/.github/workflows/build.yml b/.github/workflows/build.yml
index 1a77e9e0f8..86436823f2 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build.yml
@@ -252,6 +252,8 @@ jobs:
     if: ${{ contains(needs.build.outputs.commit_message,'[release]') }}
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     needs: build
+    permissions:
+        contents: write
     timeout-minutes: 10
     steps:
       # setup steps
@@ -290,7 +292,7 @@ jobs:
 
       # release step
       - name: Release
-        run: bash .github/scripts/release.sh
+        run: bash release/main.sh
         env:
           AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: ${{ secrets.AWS_DEPLOY_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
           AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: ${{ secrets.AWS_DEPLOY_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
@@ -301,7 +303,7 @@ jobs:
           MAVEN_PUBLISH_URL: ${{ vars.MAVEN_PLUGINS_PUBLISH_URL }}
           PLUGINS_INDEX_JSON: ${{ vars.PLUGINS_INDEX_JSON }}
           S3_RELEASE_BUCKET: ${{ vars.S3_RELEASE_BUCKET }}
-          SEQERA_REGISTRY: ${{ vars.SEQERA_PUBLIC_CR_URL }}
+          SEQERA_CONTAINER_REGISTRY: ${{ vars.SEQERA_PUBLIC_CR_URL }}
 
       # upload steps
       - name: Upload artifacts (libs)
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index c3be61fffb..040877a530 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -98,8 +98,9 @@ pack:
 	BUILD_PACK=1 ./gradlew pack
 
 #
-# Upload final package to GitHub
+# Initiate the nextflow release process
 #
+.PHONY: release
 release:
 	./make-release.sh
 
diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index f841e8d798..a307337019 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -279,8 +279,7 @@ ext.enableSignArchives = project.findProperty('signing.keyId')
 ext.coreProjects = projects( ':nextflow', ':nf-commons', ':nf-httpfs' )
 
 /*
- * Maven central deployment
- * http://central.sonatype.org/pages/gradle.html
+ * Maven deployment
  */
 configure(coreProjects) {
     apply plugin: 'maven-publish'
@@ -343,8 +342,8 @@ configure(coreProjects) {
 
         repositories {
             maven {
-                url = System.getenv('MAVEN_PUBLISH_URL')
-                    ?: ( version.endsWith('-SNAPSHOT') ? "s3://maven.seqera.io/snapshots" : "s3://maven.seqera.io/releases" )
+                url = System.getenv('MAVEN_PUBLISH_URL') ?: 's3://maven.seqera.io'
+                url = version.endsWith('-SNAPSHOT') ? "$url/snapshots" : "$url/releases"
 
                 credentials(AwsCredentials) {
                     accessKey = System.getenv('AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID') ?: findProperty('aws_access_key_id')
diff --git a/make-release.sh b/make-release.sh
index 7259ab79b7..008080fb1e 100755
--- a/make-release.sh
+++ b/make-release.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,14 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 set -e
 
+# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Nextflow release entrypoint
+#
+# This script starts a Nextflow release, and is executed by the `make release`
+# command. It will help guide you through the manual steps required to perform
+# a release, and then trigger a release build on the CI system (Github Actions).
+# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
 cd "$(dirname "$0")"
 
 # read the nextflow version
diff --git a/plugins/build.gradle b/plugins/build.gradle
index 2e06f8fbe2..42731706de 100644
--- a/plugins/build.gradle
+++ b/plugins/build.gradle
@@ -135,8 +135,8 @@ subprojects {
         }
         repositories {
             maven {
-                url = System.getenv('MAVEN_PUBLISH_URL')
-                    ?: ( version.endsWith('-SNAPSHOT') ? "s3://maven.seqera.io/snapshots" : "s3://maven.seqera.io/releases" )
+                url = System.getenv('MAVEN_PUBLISH_URL') ?: 's3://maven.seqera.io'
+                url = version.endsWith('-SNAPSHOT') ? "$url/snapshots" : "$url/releases"
 
                 credentials(AwsCredentials) {
                     accessKey = System.getenv('AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID') ?: findProperty('aws_access_key_id')
diff --git a/.github/scripts/deploy-plugins-to-github.sh b/release/deploy-plugins-to-github.sh
similarity index 84%
rename from .github/scripts/deploy-plugins-to-github.sh
rename to release/deploy-plugins-to-github.sh
index 93f11508b9..4fa333469f 100755
--- a/.github/scripts/deploy-plugins-to-github.sh
+++ b/release/deploy-plugins-to-github.sh
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 set -e
 
 # change to the project root
-cd "$(dirname "$0")/../.."
+cd "$(dirname "$0")/.."
 
 GH_ORG=${GH_ORG:-'nextflow-io'}
 
@@ -14,7 +14,11 @@ function get_plugin_version() {
 }
 
 # deploy plugin artifacts to github releases
-echo "Publishing plugins to github"
+echo "
+----------------------------------
+-- Publishing plugins to github --
+----------------------------------
+"
 
 for plugin in plugins/nf-*; do
   if [[ -d "$plugin" ]]; then
@@ -24,11 +28,12 @@ for plugin in plugins/nf-*; do
     plugin_version=$(get_plugin_version "$plugin")
 
     # check if release already exists
+    release_exists=false
     gh release view --repo "$plugin_repo" "$plugin_version" > /dev/null 2>&1 \
       && release_exists=true
 
     # if not exists, create github release, with zip & meta json files
-    if [[ $release_exists ]]; then
+    if [[ $release_exists == true ]]; then
       echo "Plugin $plugin_name $plugin_version already deployed to github, skipping"
     else
       gh release create \
diff --git a/.github/scripts/deploy-plugins-to-maven.sh b/release/deploy-plugins-to-maven.sh
similarity index 73%
rename from .github/scripts/deploy-plugins-to-maven.sh
rename to release/deploy-plugins-to-maven.sh
index 114129caba..238093625a 100755
--- a/.github/scripts/deploy-plugins-to-maven.sh
+++ b/release/deploy-plugins-to-maven.sh
@@ -2,9 +2,13 @@
 set -e
 
 # change to the project root
-cd "$(dirname "$0")/../.."
+cd "$(dirname "$0")/.."
 
-echo "Publishing plugins to maven"
+echo "
+---------------------------------
+-- Publishing plugins to maven --
+---------------------------------
+"
 
 # the release process should have already built the jars, so to avoid re-compiling everything
 # we can tell gradle to skip all non publish/publication related tasks
diff --git a/release/deploy-to-docker.sh b/release/deploy-to-docker.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..4779582f73
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release/deploy-to-docker.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -e
+
+# change to the project root
+cd "$(dirname "$0")/.."
+
+# read the nextflow version
+read -r NF_VERSION<VERSION
+
+# build the docker image
+echo "
+---------------------------------------
+-- Building nextflow container image --
+---------------------------------------
+"
+cd docker
+make build version="$NF_VERSION"
+
+# push to docker hub
+echo "
+-------------------------------------
+-- Pushing container to docker hub --
+-------------------------------------
+"
+IMAGE_TAG="nextflow/nextflow:$NF_VERSION"
+docker push "$IMAGE_TAG"
+
+# push to seqera registry
+echo "
+------------------------------------------
+-- Pushing container to seqera registry --
+------------------------------------------
+"
+if [ -z "$SEQERA_CONTAINER_REGISTRY" ]; then
+  echo "Missing env var SEQERA_CONTAINER_REGISTRY"
+  exit 1
+fi
+SEQERA_IMAGE_TAG="$SEQERA_CONTAINER_REGISTRY/$IMAGE_TAG"
+
+docker tag "$IMAGE_TAG" "$SEQERA_IMAGE_TAG"
+docker push "$SEQERA_IMAGE_TAG"
+
+echo "Done"
diff --git a/.github/scripts/deploy-to-github.sh b/release/deploy-to-github.sh
similarity index 88%
rename from .github/scripts/deploy-to-github.sh
rename to release/deploy-to-github.sh
index 7db90712bb..f647be5b03 100755
--- a/.github/scripts/deploy-to-github.sh
+++ b/release/deploy-to-github.sh
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 set -e
 
 # change to the project root
-cd "$(dirname "$0")/../.."
+cd "$(dirname "$0")/.."
 
 # read the nextflow version
 read -r NF_VERSION<VERSION
@@ -31,7 +31,11 @@ function get_change_notes() {
   done < changelog.txt
 }
 
-echo "Publishing nextflow release to github"
+echo "
+-------------------------------------------
+-- Publishing nextflow release to github --
+-------------------------------------------
+"
 
 # create a github (pre)release and attach launcher and dist files
 # use --verify-tag to fail if tag doesn't exist
diff --git a/.github/scripts/deploy-to-maven.sh b/release/deploy-to-maven.sh
similarity index 70%
rename from .github/scripts/deploy-to-maven.sh
rename to release/deploy-to-maven.sh
index 92415ec6ba..78c2562784 100755
--- a/.github/scripts/deploy-to-maven.sh
+++ b/release/deploy-to-maven.sh
@@ -2,9 +2,13 @@
 set -e
 
 # change to the project root
-cd "$(dirname "$0")/../.."
+cd "$(dirname "$0")/.."
 
-echo "Publishing nextflow jars to maven"
+echo "
+---------------------------------------
+-- Publishing nextflow jars to maven --
+---------------------------------------
+"
 
 # the release process should have already built the jars, so to avoid re-compiling everything
 # we can tell gradle to skip all non publish/publication related tasks
diff --git a/.github/scripts/deploy-to-s3.sh b/release/deploy-to-s3.sh
similarity index 81%
rename from .github/scripts/deploy-to-s3.sh
rename to release/deploy-to-s3.sh
index 98803682e2..d56e4dd2cc 100755
--- a/.github/scripts/deploy-to-s3.sh
+++ b/release/deploy-to-s3.sh
@@ -2,19 +2,26 @@
 set -e
 
 # change to the project root
-cd "$(dirname "$0")/../.."
+cd "$(dirname "$0")/.."
 
 # read the nextflow version
 read -r NF_VERSION<VERSION
 
+echo "
+-------------------------------------------
+-- Uploading nextflow distribution to S3 --
+-------------------------------------------
+"
+
 S3_RELEASE_BUCKET=${S3_RELEASE_BUCKET:-'www2.nextflow.io'}
 S3_RELEASE_DIR="releases/v$NF_VERSION"
 
 # check if the release already exists
+release_exists=false
 aws s3api head-object --bucket "$S3_RELEASE_BUCKET" --key "$S3_RELEASE_DIR/nextflow" > /dev/null 2>&1 \
   && release_exists=true
 
-if [[ $release_exists ]]; then
+if [[ $release_exists == true ]]; then
   echo "Version $NF_VERSION already deployed to S3, skipping"
   exit
 fi
diff --git a/release/main.sh b/release/main.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2ecee62fe1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release/main.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -e
+
+# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Nextflow release script
+#
+# This is the orchestration script for Nextflow releases.
+#
+# It is intended to be run by 'headless' CI environments (eg Github Actions)
+# to execute a release.You probably don't want to run this script directly.
+#
+# Instead, use the `make release` command to be guided through the process.
+# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+# set defaults for unspecified env vars
+export GH_ORG=${GH_ORG:-'nextflow-io'}
+export GH_USER=${GH_USER:-'pditommaso'} # TODO - use a service user for releases
+export GH_USER_EMAIL=${GH_USER_EMAIL:-'paolo.ditommaso@gmail.com'}
+
+export MAVEN_PUBLISH_URL=${MAVEN_PUBLISH_URL:-'s3://maven.seqera.io'}
+export PLUGINS_INDEX_JSON=${PLUGINS_INDEX_JSON:-'https://github.com/nextflow-io/plugins/main/plugins.json'}
+export S3_RELEASE_BUCKET=${S3_RELEASE_BUCKET:-'www2.nextflow.io'}
+export SEQERA_CONTAINER_REGISTRY=${SEQERA_CONTAINER_REGISTRY:-'public.cr.seqera.io'}
+
+# change to the project root
+cd "$(dirname "$0")/.."
+
+# build artifacts
+make distribution
+
+# tag release
+./release/tag-release.sh
+
+# deploy to maven
+./release/deploy-to-maven.sh
+
+# deploy to S3
+./release/deploy-to-s3.sh
+
+# deploy to docker
+./release/deploy-to-docker.sh
+
+# deploy to github
+./release/deploy-to-github.sh
+
+# deploy plugins
+./release/deploy-plugins-to-maven.sh
+./release/deploy-plugins-to-github.sh
+./release/update-plugins-index.sh
+
+# finally, publish the new launcher
+./release/publish-launcher-script.sh
diff --git a/.github/scripts/publish-release.sh b/release/publish-launcher-script.sh
similarity index 68%
rename from .github/scripts/publish-release.sh
rename to release/publish-launcher-script.sh
index ffbd319be6..7ee69ec937 100755
--- a/.github/scripts/publish-release.sh
+++ b/release/publish-launcher-script.sh
@@ -2,12 +2,18 @@
 set -e
 
 # change to the project root
-cd "$(dirname "$0")/../.."
+cd "$(dirname "$0")/.."
 
 # read the nextflow version
 read -r NF_VERSION<VERSION
 
-# determine publish location
+echo "
+-----------------------------------------------
+-- Publishing nextflow launcher script to S3 --
+-----------------------------------------------
+"
+
+# determine publish location based on release type
 S3_RELEASE_BUCKET=${S3_RELEASE_BUCKET:-'www2.nextflow.io'}
 if [[ "$NF_VERSION" =~ .+(-edge|-EDGE) ]]; then
   S3_RELEASE_DIR="releases/edge"
@@ -15,8 +21,7 @@ else
   S3_RELEASE_DIR="releases/latest"
 fi
 
-
-#publish nextflow script as latest
+# collect the files we need to publish
 files+=(
   'nextflow'
   'nextflow.sha1'
@@ -25,6 +30,7 @@ files+=(
   'VERSION'
 )
 
+# publish them to S3
 for file in "${files[@]}"; do
   filename=$(echo "$file" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')
   aws s3 cp "$file" "s3://$S3_RELEASE_BUCKET/$S3_RELEASE_DIR/$filename" \
@@ -33,3 +39,5 @@ for file in "${files[@]}"; do
     --region eu-west-1 \
    --acl public-read
 done
+
+echo "Done"
diff --git a/.github/scripts/tag-release.sh b/release/tag-release.sh
similarity index 58%
rename from .github/scripts/tag-release.sh
rename to release/tag-release.sh
index 39a0da3d88..1400e503bc 100755
--- a/.github/scripts/tag-release.sh
+++ b/release/tag-release.sh
@@ -2,12 +2,18 @@
 set -e
 
 # change to the project root
-cd "$(dirname "$0")/../.."
+cd "$(dirname "$0")/.."
 
 # read the nextflow version
 read -r NF_VERSION<VERSION
 
-# create & push an annotated git tag
+echo "
+----------------------
+-- Creating git tag --
+----------------------
+"
+
+# create & push a git tag
 git tag "v$NF_VERSION"
 git push origin "v$NF_VERSION"
 
diff --git a/release/update-plugins-index.sh b/release/update-plugins-index.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..5d8de4eccf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release/update-plugins-index.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -e
+
+# change to the project root
+cd "$(dirname "$0")/.."
+
+echo "
+----------------------------
+-- Updating plugins index --
+----------------------------
+"
+
+./gradlew plugins:publishIndex
+
+echo "Done"