diff --git a/scripts/ci/codegen/createGitHubReleases.ts b/scripts/ci/codegen/createGitHubReleases.ts
index 87c341e1b9e..ec05a90c00b 100644
--- a/scripts/ci/codegen/createGitHubReleases.ts
+++ b/scripts/ci/codegen/createGitHubReleases.ts
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import type { Language } from '../../types.js';
 import { cloneRepository } from '../utils.js';
 
 import { resolve } from 'path';
+import { stripCommitMessage } from '../../release/common.js';
 import { commitStartRelease } from './text.js';
 
 async function createGitHubRelease(lang: Language): Promise<void> {
@@ -55,7 +56,7 @@ async function createGitHubRelease(lang: Language): Promise<void> {
   const content = `
 # New ${isMajor ? '**major** ' : ''}version released!
 ## What's Changed
-${changelog}
+${stripCommitMessage(changelog)}
 
 **Full Changelog**: ${repositoryLink}/compare/${previousVersion}...${newVersion}
 
diff --git a/scripts/release/common.ts b/scripts/release/common.ts
index a37c76f5c73..bbb6549fa27 100644
--- a/scripts/release/common.ts
+++ b/scripts/release/common.ts
@@ -35,3 +35,7 @@ export function getGitAuthor(): { name: string; email: string } {
 export async function writeJsonFile(ppath: string, data: Record<string, any>): Promise<void> {
   await fsp.writeFile(ppath, JSON.stringify(data, null, 2).concat('\n'));
 }
+
+export function stripCommitMessage(message: string): string {
+  return message.replace(/ \[skip-bc\]/g, '').replace(/ \[skip-e2e\]/g, '');
+}
diff --git a/scripts/release/createReleasePR.ts b/scripts/release/createReleasePR.ts
index d16a265d15a..ac6fb516917 100755
--- a/scripts/release/createReleasePR.ts
+++ b/scripts/release/createReleasePR.ts
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ import {
 import { getPackageVersionDefault } from '../config.js';
 import type { Language } from '../types.js';
 
-import { getFileChanges, getLastReleasedTag } from './common.js';
+import { getFileChanges, getLastReleasedTag, stripCommitMessage } from './common.js';
 import TEXT from './text.js';
 import type { Changelog, Commit, CommitType, ParsedCommit, Scope, Versions } from './types.js';
 import { updateAPIVersions } from './updateAPIVersions.js';
@@ -202,7 +202,7 @@ export function decideReleaseStrategy({
     console.log(`Deciding next version bump for ${lang}.`);
 
     if (relevantCommits.length === 0) {
-      console.log(`    > Skipping, no commits found for ${lang}.`);
+      console.log(`    > Skipping, no commits found for ${lang}, staying on '${currentVersion}'.`);
 
       versionsToPublish[lang] = { current: currentVersion };
 
@@ -383,7 +383,7 @@ export async function createReleasePR({
 
       const changelogCommit = [
         `[${validCommit.hash}](https://github.com/${OWNER}/${REPO}/commit/${validCommit.hash})`,
-        validCommit.message,
+        stripCommitMessage(validCommit.message),
         validCommit.prNumber
           ? `([#${validCommit.prNumber}](https://github.com/${OWNER}/${REPO}/pull/${validCommit.prNumber}))`
           : undefined,
diff --git a/scripts/release/updateAPIVersions.ts b/scripts/release/updateAPIVersions.ts
index 8f892a14646..15d3b4ded25 100755
--- a/scripts/release/updateAPIVersions.ts
+++ b/scripts/release/updateAPIVersions.ts
@@ -12,8 +12,10 @@ import type { Changelog, Versions } from './types.js';
 
 async function updateConfigFiles(versionsToRelease: Versions): Promise<void> {
   // update the other versions in clients.config.json
-  for (const lang of Object.keys(versionsToRelease)) {
-    clientsConfig[lang].packageVersion = versionsToRelease[lang].next;
+  for (const lang of Object.keys(versionsToRelease) as Language[]) {
+    if (versionsToRelease[lang]?.next) {
+      clientsConfig[lang].packageVersion = versionsToRelease[lang].next;
+    }
   }
 
   await writeJsonFile(toAbsolutePath('config/clients.config.json'), clientsConfig);