diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
index fb496ed..f2ed6d0 100644
--- a/.gitattributes
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -1 +1,6 @@
 docs/*.md linguist-generated=true
+
+# Configuration for 'git archive'
+# see https://git-scm.com/docs/git-archive/2.40.0#ATTRIBUTES
+# Stamp the version into the archive
+esbuild/private/versions.bzl  export-subst
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release_prep.sh b/.github/workflows/release_prep.sh
index fd55231..ca5859e 100755
--- a/.github/workflows/release_prep.sh
+++ b/.github/workflows/release_prep.sh
@@ -9,11 +9,7 @@ TAG=${GITHUB_REF_NAME}
 PREFIX="rules_esbuild-${TAG:1}"
 ARCHIVE="rules_esbuild-$TAG.tar.gz"
 
-# Stamp the version into the archive
-cat >>.git/info/attributes <<EOF
-esbuild/private/versions.bzl  export-subst
-EOF
-
+# NB: configuration for 'git archive' is in /.gitattributes
 git archive --format=tar --prefix=${PREFIX}/ ${TAG} | gzip > $ARCHIVE
 SHA=$(shasum -a 256 $ARCHIVE | awk '{print $1}')