diff --git a/.github/workflows/dev-publish.yml b/.github/workflows/dev-publish.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e298b05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/dev-publish.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+name: Publish dev release
+
+# Auto-publishes an ephemeral dev build to npm (dist-tag `dev`) on every merged PR to main.
+# Version is computed at publish time as <next-patch>-dev-<shortsha> and never written back to
+# the repo, so there is no version-bump commit and no re-trigger loop.
+
+on:
+  pull_request:
+    types: [closed]
+    branches: [main]
+
+jobs:
+  dev-publish:
+    if: github.event.pull_request.merged == true
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    permissions:
+      contents: read
+      id-token: write
+
+    steps:
+      - name: Check out repository
+        uses: actions/checkout@v6
+
+      - name: Set up pnpm
+        uses: pnpm/action-setup@v6
+        with:
+          version: 11
+
+      - name: Set up Node.js
+        uses: actions/setup-node@v6
+        with:
+          node-version: '24'
+          registry-url: 'https://registry.npmjs.org'
+          cache: 'pnpm'
+
+      - name: Compute ephemeral dev version
+        id: version
+        run: |
+          base="$(node -p "require('./package.json').version")"
+          # Next patch: split on '.', bump the last field. No semver dependency needed.
+          next="$(node -p "const [a,b,c]=require('./package.json').version.split('.'); [a,b,Number(c)+1].join('.')")"
+          sha="$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)"
+          devver="${next}-dev-${sha}"
+          # Edits the runner's copy only; --no-git-tag-version makes no commit and no tag.
+          npm version --no-git-tag-version "$devver"
+          echo "devver=$devver" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+          echo "Publishing dev release \`$devver\` (base $base)" >> "$GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY"
+
+      - name: Install dependencies
+        run: pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
+
+      - name: Build package
+        run: pnpm build
+
+      - name: Publish to npm
+        run: pnpm publish --no-git-checks --access public --tag dev