diff --git a/scripts/release/README.release.md b/scripts/release/README.release.md
old mode 100755
new mode 100644
diff --git a/scripts/release/archive.sh b/scripts/release/archive.sh
index c6b553e..5a5491b 100755
--- a/scripts/release/archive.sh
+++ b/scripts/release/archive.sh
@@ -8,12 +8,10 @@ cp target/release/${SDK_BIN} ${DIST_ABS_PATH}
 
 # collect the licenses & README
 cp LICENSE ${DIST_ABS_PATH}
-cp scripts/release/README.release.md scripts/release/README.release.md.local
-sed -i -- "s/#TAG#/${TAG}/g" scripts/release/README.release.md
-sed -i -- "s/#LLVM_VERSION#/${LLVM_VERSION}/g" scripts/release/README.release.md
-cp scripts/release/README.release.md ${DIST_ABS_PATH}/README.md
-rm -f scripts/release/README.release.md--
-mv scripts/release/README.release.md.local scripts/release/README.release.md
+cat scripts/release/README.release.md | \
+    sed "s/#TAG#/${TAG}/g" | \
+    sed "s/#LLVM_VERSION#/${LLVM_VERSION}/g" \
+    > ${DIST_ABS_PATH}/README.md
 
 # collect the QCS C SDK shared library
 pushd ${TMP_DEPS_ABS_PATH}/qcs-sdk-c
@@ -28,4 +26,14 @@ popd
 # create the archive
 tar -cvzf ${ARCHIVE} ${DIST_DIR}
 ls -ll ${ARCHIVE}
-shasum -a 256 ${ARCHIVE} > ${CHECKSUM}
\ No newline at end of file
+shasum -a 256 ${ARCHIVE} > ${CHECKSUM}
+
+# print location of pre-archive local release:
+if [[ $CI != "true" ]]; then
+    set +x
+    echo "------------------------------------------"
+    echo "Release build complete! See contents here:"
+    echo "./${DIST_DIR}"
+    echo ""
+    echo "Archived contents here: ./${ARCHIVE}"
+fi
\ No newline at end of file