diff --git a/.github/workflows/build.yml b/.github/workflows/build.yml
index 5c666fed75..e3d9d6824a 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build.yml
@@ -7,6 +7,9 @@ defaults:
 on:
   release:
     types: [created]
+  push:
+    branches:
+      - '*-check-build'
 
 jobs:
   build:
@@ -30,8 +33,8 @@ jobs:
         ghc-version: ${{ matrix.ghc }}
         cabal-version: '3.4'
 
-    - if: ${{ matrix.ghc == '9.0.1' }}
-      name: Use modified cabal.project for ghc9
+    - name: Use modified cabal.project for ghc9
+      if: ${{ matrix.ghc == '9.0.1' }}
       run: cp cabal-ghc901.project cabal.project
 
     - name: Shorten binary names
@@ -77,13 +80,13 @@ jobs:
           echo "package floskell" >> cabal.project
           echo "  ghc-options: -O0" >> cabal.project
 
-    - name: Build Server
+    - name: Build server
       # Try building it twice in case of flakey builds on Windows
       run: |
         cabal build exe:hls -O2 $LINUX_CABAL_ARGS || \
         cabal build exe:hls -O2 $LINUX_CABAL_ARGS -j1
 
-    - name: Compress Server Binary
+    - name: Compress server binary
       id: compress_server_binary
       run: |
         HLS_BUILD=$(find dist-newstyle \( -name 'hls' -o -name 'hls.exe' \) -type f)
@@ -101,7 +104,8 @@ jobs:
           echo ::set-output name=extension::gz
         fi
 
-    - name: Upload Server Binary
+    - name: Upload server to release
+      if: ${{ !contains(github.ref_name, 'check') }}
       uses: actions/upload-release-asset@v1.0.2
       env:
         GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
@@ -111,16 +115,17 @@ jobs:
         asset_name: haskell-language-server-${{ runner.OS }}-${{ env.GHC_VERSION }}${{env.EXE_EXT}}.${{ steps.compress_server_binary.outputs.extension }}
         asset_content_type: ${{ steps.compress_server_binary.outputs.content_type }}
 
-    - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
+    - name: Upload server to workflow artifacts
+      uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
       with:
         name: haskell-language-server-${{ runner.OS }}-${{ matrix.ghc }}${{env.EXE_EXT}}.${{ steps.compress_server_binary.outputs.extension }}
         path: ${{ steps.compress_server_binary.outputs.path }}
 
-    - name: Build Wrapper
+    - name: Build wrapper
       if: matrix.ghc == '8.10.7'
       run: cabal build exe:hls-wrapper -O2 $LINUX_CABAL_ARGS
 
-    - name: Compress Wrapper Binary
+    - name: Compress wrapper binary
       if: matrix.ghc == '8.10.7'
       id: compress_wrapper_binary
       run: |
@@ -139,8 +144,8 @@ jobs:
           echo ::set-output name=extension::gz
         fi
 
-    - name: Upload Wrapper
-      if: matrix.ghc == '8.10.7'
+    - name: Upload wrapper to the release
+      if: ${{ matrix.ghc == '8.10.7' && !contains(github.ref_name, 'check') }}
       uses: actions/upload-release-asset@v1.0.2
       env:
         GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
@@ -150,31 +155,34 @@ jobs:
         asset_name: haskell-language-server-wrapper-${{ runner.OS }}${{env.EXE_EXT}}.${{ steps.compress_wrapper_binary.outputs.extension }}
         asset_content_type: ${{ steps.compress_wrapper_binary.outputs.content_type}}
 
-    - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
+    - name: Upload wrapper to workflow artifacts
+      uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
       if: matrix.ghc == '8.10.7'
       with:
         name: haskell-language-server-wrapper-${{ runner.OS }}${{env.EXE_EXT}}.${{ steps.compress_wrapper_binary.outputs.extension }}
         path: ${{ steps.compress_wrapper_binary.outputs.path }}
-  
-  # generates a custom tarball with sources, used by `ghcup compile hls` 
+
+  # generates a custom tarball with sources, used by `ghcup compile hls`
   src-tar:
     needs: build
     runs-on: ubuntu-18.04
-    
+
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v2
         with:
           submodules: true
-      
-      - name: "Create source tarball"
+
+      - name: Create source tarball
         run: |
           mkdir src-dist
           git archive --prefix=haskell-language-server-${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}/ \
                       --format=tar.gz \
                       -o src-dist/haskell-language-server.tar.gz \
                       HEAD
-      
-      - uses: actions/upload-release-asset@v1.0.2
+
+      - name: Upload source tarball to the release
+        if: ${{ !contains(github.ref_name, 'check') }}
+        uses: actions/upload-release-asset@v1.0.2
         env:
           GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
         with:
@@ -183,11 +191,12 @@ jobs:
           asset_name: haskell-language-server-${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}-src.tar.gz
           asset_content_type: application/gzip
 
-      - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
+      - name: Upload source tarball to workflow artifacts
+        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
         with:
           name: haskell-language-server-${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}-src.tar.gz
           path: src-dist/haskell-language-server.tar.gz
-      
+
   # this generates .gz tarfiles containing binaries for all GHC versions and OS's
   # used by `ghcup install hls`
   tar:
@@ -199,7 +208,8 @@ jobs:
     steps:
       - uses: actions/download-artifact@v2
 
-      - run: |
+      - name: Generate tarball with all binaries
+        run: |
           # move the binaries for the specific platform into bin/
           mkdir bin
           mv haskell-language-server-${{ matrix.os }}-*/* bin
@@ -214,7 +224,9 @@ jobs:
           fi
           tar -czpf haskell-language-server.tar.gz *
 
-      - uses: actions/upload-release-asset@v1.0.2
+      - name: Upload binaries tarball to the release
+        if: ${{ !contains(github.ref_name, 'check') }}
+        uses: actions/upload-release-asset@v1.0.2
         env:
           GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
         with:
@@ -223,7 +235,8 @@ jobs:
           asset_name: haskell-language-server-${{ matrix.os }}-${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}.tar.gz
           asset_content_type: application/gzip
 
-      - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
+      - name: Upload binaries tarball to workflow artifacts
+        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
         with:
           name: haskell-language-server-${{ matrix.os }}-${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}.tar.gz
           path: bin/haskell-language-server.tar.gz
@@ -234,13 +247,15 @@ jobs:
     steps:
       - uses: actions/download-artifact@v2
 
-      - run: |
-          # generate sha256 sums for all current artifacts
+      - name: Generate sha256 sums for all workflow artifacts
+        run: |
           sha256sum --tag haskell-language-server*/* >> SHA256SUMS
           # we clean up tags to match the release file names
           sed -i 's/\/.*)/)/g' SHA256SUMS
 
-      - uses: actions/upload-release-asset@v1.0.2
+      - name: Upload sha256sums to the release
+        if: ${{ !contains(github.ref_name, 'check') }}
+        uses: actions/upload-release-asset@v1.0.2
         env:
           GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
         with:
@@ -249,7 +264,8 @@ jobs:
           asset_name: SHA256SUMS
           asset_content_type: plain/text
 
-      - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
+      - name: Upload sha256sums to workflow artifacts
+        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
         with:
           name: SHA256SUMS
           path: SHA256SUMS
diff --git a/docs/contributing/releases.md b/docs/contributing/releases.md
index 7f8bd40ee0..37100bf6cb 100644
--- a/docs/contributing/releases.md
+++ b/docs/contributing/releases.md
@@ -16,23 +16,38 @@ and it is being used in nix environments.
 
 ## Minimal checklist
 
+### prerelease sanity checks
+
+- [ ] create a branch named `${version}-check-hackage`: it will trigger the hackage workflow *without* uploading the packages
+- [ ] trigger the build workflow pushing a branch named `${version}-check-build`
+- [ ] create a prerelease tag `${version}-check-gitlab` and push it to the [project repo in gitlab](https://gitlab.haskell.org/haskell/haskell-language-server) to check the build is fine
 ### github release
 
-* [ ] generate the list of pull requests finished since the last release using the [haskell script](https://github.com/haskell/haskell-language-server/blob/master/GenChangelogs.hs) in the project root.
+- [ ] generate the list of pull requests finished since the last release using the [haskell script](https://github.com/haskell/haskell-language-server/blob/master/GenChangelogs.hs) in the project root.
   Nix users should run command `gen-hls-changelogs` (a wrapper of the script) in nix-shell instead.
-* [ ] add that list to the actual [Changelog](https://github.com/haskell/haskell-language-server/blob/master/ChangeLog.md) with a description of the release.
-* [ ] bump up versions of changed packages. All are optional but [haskell-language-server itself](https://github.com/haskell/haskell-language-server/blob/master/haskell-language-server.cabal).
-* [ ] create the tag and make an initial prerelease to trigger the ci workflow (see details below)
-* [ ] contact ghcup team (#haskell-ghcup irc channel or via its [repo](https://gitlab.haskell.org/haskell/ghcup-hs/-/issues)) to try to sync our release and its inclusion in ghcup
-* [ ] check uploaded binaries (see windows note below) and the release description (usually the changelog entry) and uncheck the prerelease box
-* [ ] make public the release in the usual social channels: irc, twitter, reddit, discord, discourse, mailing lists, etc (not required but useful to spread the word :slightly_smiling_face:)
-
+- [ ] add that list to the actual [Changelog](https://github.com/haskell/haskell-language-server/blob/master/ChangeLog.md) with a description of the release.
+- [ ] bump up versions of changed packages. All are optional but [haskell-language-server itself](https://github.com/haskell/haskell-language-server/blob/master/haskell-language-server.cabal).
+- [ ] create the tag and make an initial prerelease to trigger the ci workflow (see details below)
+- [ ] contact ghcup team (#haskell-ghcup irc channel or via its [repo](https://gitlab.haskell.org/haskell/ghcup-hs/-/issues)) to try to sync our release and its inclusion in ghcup
+- [ ] in the github release edit page, check the attached binaries and the release description (usually the changelog entry) and uncheck the prerelease box
+- [ ] make public the release in the usual social channels (not required but useful to spread the word :slightly_smiling_face:):
+  - [ ] irc
+  - [ ] matrix
+  - [ ] twitter
+  - [ ] discord
+  - [ ] discourse
+  - [ ] reddit
 ### hackage release
 
-* [ ] bump up package versions following the [pvp specification](https://pvp.haskell.org/) if they are not already updated
-* [ ] create ${version}-hackage branch to trigger the hackage github workflow which will upload all changed packages to hackage as candidates
-* [ ] check manually candidates in hackage
-* [ ] publish them definitely
+- [ ] bump up package versions following the [pvp specification](https://pvp.haskell.org/) if they are not already updated. You could use [policeman](https://github.com/kowainik/policeman) to help with this step.
+- [ ] create ${version}-hackage branch to trigger the hackage github workflow which will upload all changed packages to hackage as candidates
+- [ ] check manually candidates in hackage
+- [ ] publish them definitely
+
+### ghcup release
+
+* [ ] push the release tag to the [haskell-language-server gitlab repo](https://gitlab.haskell.org/haskell/haskell-language-server) to trigger the build of ghcup specific artifacts
+* [ ] change ghcup metadata to include the new release in https://github.com/haskell/ghcup-metadata
 
 ## Making a new release of haskell-language-server in github
 
@@ -140,11 +155,20 @@ To manually upload a new binary we should:
 We aim to do hackage releases following the github ones described above.
 To help in that job we have added a [github workflow](https://github.com/haskell/haskell-language-server/blob/master/.github/workflows/hackage.yml)
 
-That script checks, generates the tar.gz files, unpacks and builds them in isolation against hackage head
-if the package version in the branch is different from hackage.
-If the package in the branch has the same version as the released one,
-it will check the relevant files have not changed and will throw an error
-otherwise.
+That script checks, generates the tar.gz files, unpacks and builds them in isolation
+against hackage head if the package version in the branch is different from hackage.
+If the package in the branch has the same version as the released one, it will check
+the relevant files have not changed and will throw an error otherwise.
+
+You can trigger a build which only does the above step by pushing a branch named `${version}-check-hackage`.
+
+The script will upload the tarballs as candidates, maintainers will have to check and publish them definitely.
+
+## haskell gitlab release pipeline
 
-The script will upload the tarballs as candidates, maintainers will have
-to check and publish them definitely.
+The project is present in the haskell gitlab server: https://gitlab.haskell.org/haskell/haskell-language-server
+The main motivation is to leverage the ci infrastructure which includes architectures not included in the github ci.
+The specific architectures only available through gitlab are: `armv7-linux`, `x86_64-freebsd`, `aarch64-darwin`, `aarch64-linux`
+The gitlab pipeline uses the configuration file [.gitlab-ci.yml](https://github.com/haskell/haskell-language-server/blob/master/.gitlab-ci.yml)
+and the sh/nix scripts in [.gitlab](https://github.com/haskell/haskell-language-server/tree/master/.gitlab)
+It is triggered by pushing a tag to the gitlab repo.