diff --git a/.github/workflows/mcp-release-please.yml b/.github/workflows/mcp-release-please.yml
index 60ed97b42d..dbe0c001c9 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/mcp-release-please.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/mcp-release-please.yml
@@ -16,6 +16,23 @@ name: Package Release Please
 # default, these four packages have genuinely independent release cadences and separate publish
 # targets/workflows, and bundling them would work against this repo's small-focused-PR convention.
 #
+# node-workspace plugin merge: true (release-please-config.json) -- the exception to the above:
+# packages/loopover-mcp and packages/loopover-miner both carry a REAL runtime `dependencies` entry
+# on packages/loopover-engine, so they are not actually independent of it. With merge left at its
+# prior override (false), the plugin still bumps a dependent's `@loopover/engine` version range the
+# moment engine's own version changes, but does so on that dependent's OWN separate branch/PR --
+# meaning the dependent's package.json now requires an engine version that exists NOWHERE (not
+# locally on that branch, since engine's bump lives on a different unmerged branch; not on npm
+# either, since it hasn't published yet). `npm ci` then fails with ETARGET until a human notices and
+# manually walks engine's release through to publish before updating the dependent's branch --
+# confirmed live across several mcp/miner release cycles (#7086/#7087/#7107/#7108). merge: true is
+# the plugin's own purpose-built mechanism for exactly this: it combines a package with the
+# dependents its OWN dependency-bump logic pulled in as candidates into ONE PR/commit, so engine's
+# new version and its dependents' bumped ranges land together atomically -- npm workspaces then
+# resolves the dependency from the LOCAL checkout, which always satisfies the range regardless of
+# npm registry publish timing or ordering. packages/loopover-ui-kit has no dependency edge to any
+# other package here, so it is never pulled into this merge and keeps its fully independent cadence.
+#
 # Runs on every push to main, not just a schedule: release-please is idempotent (it recomputes
 # purely from conventional-commit history since each component's last release tag), so the extra
 # runs cost nothing when there's no new commit or merged Release PR to act on. The push trigger is
diff --git a/release-please-config.json b/release-please-config.json
index 393468d488..4414b6dc88 100644
--- a/release-please-config.json
+++ b/release-please-config.json
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
   "plugins": [
     {
       "type": "node-workspace",
-      "merge": false
+      "merge": true
     }
   ],
   "changelog-sections": [