diff --git a/.versionrc.js b/.versionrc.js
index 7fdd91b0..117096cb 100644
--- a/.versionrc.js
+++ b/.versionrc.js
@@ -17,11 +17,10 @@
 module.exports = {
   releaseCommitMessageFormat: 'chore(release): mark v{{currentTag}}',
   skip: {
-    commit: true,
     tag: true,
   },
   scripts: {
     prerelease: 'node utils/remove_version_suffix.js',
-    postbump: 'IS_RELEASE=true npm run doc',
+    postbump: 'IS_RELEASE=true npm run doc && git add --update',
   },
 };
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 4910b39f..b40d4426 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -276,8 +276,8 @@ node utils/bisect.js --good 686378 --bad 706915 script.js
 Releasing to npm consists of the following phases:
 
 1. Source Code: mark a release.
-    1. Run `npm run release` to bump the version number in `package.json`, populate the changelog, and update the docs.
-    1. Send a PR titled `'chore(release): mark vXXX.YYY.ZZZ'` ([example](https://github.com/puppeteer/puppeteer/pull/5078)).
+    1. Run `npm run release`. (This automatically bumps the version number in `package.json`, populates the changelog, updates the docs, and creates a Git commit for the next step.)
+    1. Send a PR for the commit created in the previous step.
     1. Make sure the PR passes **all checks**.
         - **WHY**: there are linters in place that help to avoid unnecessary errors, e.g. [like this](https://github.com/puppeteer/puppeteer/pull/2446)
     1. Merge the PR.
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 3c5bc1c0..8b64a8cd 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
     "test-install": "scripts/test-install.sh",
     "generate-docs": "npm run tsc && api-extractor run --local --verbose && api-documenter markdown -i temp -o new-docs",
     "ensure-correct-devtools-protocol-revision": "ts-node -s scripts/ensure-correct-devtools-protocol-package",
-    "release": "node utils/remove_version_suffix.js && standard-version"
+    "release": "node utils/remove_version_suffix.js && standard-version --commit-all"
   },
   "files": [
     "lib/",