diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yaml b/.github/workflows/release.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e4f4e536
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+name: Release packages
+on:
+  release:
+    types: [published]
+concurrency: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
+jobs:
+  # Releases to npm after bumping the package.json version from 0.0.0 to $TAG.0 as the tags only contain MAJOR.MINOR
+  npm:
+    name: Publish to npm
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    if: github.event.release.prerelease == false
+    defaults:
+      run:
+        working-directory: packages/npm
+    steps:
+      - name: 🧮 Checkout code
+        uses: actions/checkout@v3
+
+      - name: 🔧 Yarn cache
+        uses: actions/setup-node@v3
+        with:
+          cache: "yarn"
+          registry-url: "https://registry.npmjs.org"
+
+      - name: 🔨 Install dependencies
+        run: "yarn install --frozen-lockfile"
+
+      - name: 🎖 Bump package.json version
+        run: "yarn version $VERSION"
+        env:
+          VERSION: ${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}.0
+
+      - name: 🚀 Publish to npm
+        id: npm-publish
+        uses: JS-DevTools/npm-publish@5a85faf05d2ade2d5b6682bfe5359915d5159c6c # v2.2.1
+        with:
+          token: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
+          package: packages/npm
+          access: public
+          ignore-scripts: false
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 1482fcdd..26d8f5c2 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ Additionally, the following directories may be of interest:
 * `/data-definitions`: Bits of structured data consumable by Matrix implementations.
 * `/meta`: Documentation relating to the spec's processes that are otherwise untracked (release instructions, etc).
 * `/scripts`: Various scripts for generating the spec and validating its contents.
+* `/packages`: Various packages for shipping spec files like OpenAPI/swagger bindings and data definitions.
 
 ## Authoring changes to the spec
 
diff --git a/changelogs/internal/newsfragments/1620.feature b/changelogs/internal/newsfragments/1620.feature
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..76f7eee7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/internal/newsfragments/1620.feature
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Create @matrix-org/spec npm package to ship the SAS Emoji data definitions & translations.
diff --git a/packages/npm/.gitignore b/packages/npm/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..133fcabd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/npm/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+node_modules
+sas-emoji.json
diff --git a/packages/npm/package.json b/packages/npm/package.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d305fda9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/npm/package.json
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+{
+  "name": "@matrix-org/spec",
+  "version": "0.0.0",
+  "description": "Data definitions for the Matrix Spec",
+  "author": "matrix.org",
+  "license": "Apache-2.0",
+  "files": [
+    "sas-emoji.json"
+  ],
+  "scripts": {
+    "prepare": "cp ../../data-definitions/sas-emoji.json ."
+  }
+}
diff --git a/packages/npm/yarn.lock b/packages/npm/yarn.lock
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..fb57ccd1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/npm/yarn.lock
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+# THIS IS AN AUTOGENERATED FILE. DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE DIRECTLY.
+# yarn lockfile v1
+
+