diff --git a/release/release.go b/release/release.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a8d0e6b62
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release/release.go
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+// Copyright (c) Tailscale Inc & AUTHORS
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
+
+// Package release provides functionality for building client releases.
+package release
+
+import "embed"
+
+// This contains all files in the release directory,
+// notably the files needed for deb, rpm, and similar packages.
+// Because we assign this to the blank identifier, it does not actually embed the files.
+// However, this does cause `go mod vendor` to include the files when vendoring the package.
+//
+//go:embed *
+var _ embed.FS