diff --git a/scripts/release-prerelease.mjs b/scripts/release-prerelease.mjs
index 2012b17f..7236e317 100644
--- a/scripts/release-prerelease.mjs
+++ b/scripts/release-prerelease.mjs
@@ -72,6 +72,12 @@ export function verifyReleaseProjection(release, { tag }) {
   return release;
 }
 
+/** Telegram announcements are deliberately skipped for prereleases. */
+export function prereleaseWorkflowSucceeded(label, conclusion) {
+  return conclusion === 'success'
+    || (label === 'Announce release' && conclusion === 'skipped');
+}
+
 /**
  * Read selected root entries from an ordinary ZIP archive without relying on
  * platform-specific `tar`/`unzip` executables. GitHub runners, Git Bash, WSL
@@ -339,7 +345,8 @@ if (invokedDirectly) {
       if (state !== last) console.log(`${label}: ${state} ${row.url}`);
       last = state;
       if (row.status === 'completed') {
-        if (row.conclusion !== 'success') throw new Error(`${label} concluded ${row.conclusion}: ${row.url}`);
+        if (!prereleaseWorkflowSucceeded(label, row.conclusion))
+          throw new Error(`${label} concluded ${row.conclusion}: ${row.url}`);
         return row;
       }
       await sleep(10_000);
diff --git a/test/release-contract.test.mjs b/test/release-contract.test.mjs
index e61ebb15..e8d14615 100644
--- a/test/release-contract.test.mjs
+++ b/test/release-contract.test.mjs
@@ -15,7 +15,8 @@ import {
   versionFromTag,
 } from '../scripts/release-contract.mjs';
 import {
-  parseIssueList, parsePrereleaseArgs, readZipEntries, verifyReleaseProjection,
+  parseIssueList, parsePrereleaseArgs, prereleaseWorkflowSucceeded,
+  readZipEntries, verifyReleaseProjection,
 } from '../scripts/release-prerelease.mjs';
 
 const repo = 'Matysh/houseplan-card';
@@ -129,6 +130,10 @@ test('local orchestrator validates issue lists and public release assets', () =>
     () => verifyReleaseProjection({ ...release, assets: release.assets.slice(0, 1) }, { tag }),
     /houseplan\.zip/,
   );
+  assert.equal(prereleaseWorkflowSucceeded('Release', 'success'), true);
+  assert.equal(prereleaseWorkflowSucceeded('Announce release', 'skipped'), true);
+  assert.equal(prereleaseWorkflowSucceeded('Release', 'skipped'), false);
+  assert.equal(prereleaseWorkflowSucceeded('Announce release', 'failure'), false);
 });
 
 test('release ZIP inspection is portable and does not depend on tar', () => {