diff --git a/.changeset/README.md b/.changeset/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e5b6d8d6a6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+# Changesets
+
+Hello and welcome! This folder has been automatically generated by `@changesets/cli`, a build tool that works
+with multi-package repos, or single-package repos to help you version and publish your code. You can
+find the full documentation for it [in our repository](https://github.com/changesets/changesets)
+
+We have a quick list of common questions to get you started engaging with this project in
+[our documentation](https://github.com/changesets/changesets/blob/main/docs/common-questions.md)
diff --git a/.changeset/config.json b/.changeset/config.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a8b33b210d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/config.json
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+{
+  "$schema": "https://unpkg.com/@changesets/config@2.3.0/schema.json",
+  "changelog": ["@svitejs/changesets-changelog-github-compact", { "repo": "sveltejs/svelte" }],
+  "commit": false,
+  "fixed": [],
+  "linked": [],
+  "access": "public",
+  "baseBranch": "version-4",
+  "bumpVersionsWithWorkspaceProtocolOnly": true,
+  "ignore": ["!(@sveltejs/*|svelte)"]
+}
diff --git a/.changeset/pre.json b/.changeset/pre.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..7c25128a63
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/pre.json
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+{
+  "mode": "pre",
+  "tag": "next",
+  "initialVersions": {
+    "svelte": "4.0.0-next.1"
+  },
+  "changesets": []
+}
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8f3bad8107
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+name: Release
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches:
+      - version-4
+
+permissions: {}
+jobs:
+  release:
+    # prevents this action from running on forks
+    if: github.repository == 'sveltejs/svelte'
+    permissions:
+      contents: write # to create release (changesets/action)
+      pull-requests: write # to create pull request (changesets/action)
+    name: Release
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout Repo
+        uses: actions/checkout@v3
+        with:
+          # This makes Actions fetch all Git history so that Changesets can generate changelogs with the correct commits
+          fetch-depth: 0
+      - uses: pnpm/action-setup@v2.2.4
+      - name: Setup Node.js
+        uses: actions/setup-node@v3
+        with:
+          node-version: 18.x
+          cache: pnpm
+
+      - run: pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
+
+      - name: Create Release Pull Request or Publish to npm
+        id: changesets
+        uses: changesets/action@v1
+        with:
+          version: pnpm changeset:version
+        env:
+          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+          NPM_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index e2e60ef732..1fc9c0d3cf 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -9,7 +9,9 @@
     "build": "pnpm -r build",
     "check": "pnpm -r check",
     "lint": "pnpm -r lint",
-    "format": "pnpm -r format"
+    "format": "pnpm -r format",
+    "changeset:version": "changeset version && pnpm -r generate:version && git add --all",
+    "release": "changeset release"
   },
   "repository": {
     "type": "git",
@@ -27,5 +29,5 @@
     "prettier": "^2.8.8",
     "prettier-plugin-svelte": "^2.10.0"
   },
-  "packageManager": "pnpm@8.4.0"
+  "packageManager": "pnpm@8.6.0"
 }
diff --git a/packages/svelte/.gitignore b/packages/svelte/.gitignore
index f09b147927..4b6e382652 100644
--- a/packages/svelte/.gitignore
+++ b/packages/svelte/.gitignore
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 *.map
 /src/compiler/compile/internal_exports.js
-/src/shared/version.js
 /compiler.d.ts
 /compiler.cjs
 /index.d.ts
diff --git a/packages/svelte/.prettierignore b/packages/svelte/.prettierignore
index cc6961726d..3f6fbefc04 100644
--- a/packages/svelte/.prettierignore
+++ b/packages/svelte/.prettierignore
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ sites/svelte.dev/.vercel
 /test/**/_actual*
 /test/**/expected*
 /test/**/_output
+/test/**/shards/*.test.js
 /types
 !rollup.config.js
 !vitest.config.js
diff --git a/packages/svelte/CHANGELOG.md b/packages/svelte/CHANGELOG.md
index 3e5cdb9f47..ef78702e88 100644
--- a/packages/svelte/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/packages/svelte/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 - breaking: Minimum supported TypeScript version is now TypeScript 5 (it will likely work with lower versions, but we make no guarantees about that) ([#8488](https://github.com/sveltejs/svelte/pull/8488))
 - breaking: Remove `svelte/register` hook, CJS runtime version and CJS compiler output ([#8613](https://github.com/sveltejs/svelte/pull/8613))
 - breaking: Stricter types for `createEventDispatcher` (see PR for migration instructions) ([#7224](https://github.com/sveltejs/svelte/pull/7224))
-- breaking: Stricter types for `Action` and `ActionReturn` (see PR for migration instructions) ([#7224](https://github.com/sveltejs/svelte/pull/7224))
+- breaking: Stricter types for `Action` and `ActionReturn` (see PR for migration instructions) ([#7442](https://github.com/sveltejs/svelte/pull/7442))
 - breaking: Stricter types for `onMount` - now throws a type error when returning a function asynchronously to catch potential mistakes around callback functions (see PR for migration instructions) ([#8136](https://github.com/sveltejs/svelte/pull/8136))
 - breaking: Overhaul and drastically improve creating custom elements with Svelte (see PR for list of changes and migration instructions) ([#8457](https://github.com/sveltejs/svelte/pull/8457))
 - breaking: Deprecate `SvelteComponentTyped` in favor of `SvelteComponent` ([#8512](https://github.com/sveltejs/svelte/pull/8512))
@@ -2654,4 +2654,4 @@ Set `style.cssText` rather than `style` ([#44](https://github.com/sveltejs/svelt
 
 ## 0.0.1
 
-- Just squatting on the package name
+- Just squatting on the package name
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/packages/svelte/package.json b/packages/svelte/package.json
index 323d672fa8..ade672ce35 100644
--- a/packages/svelte/package.json
+++ b/packages/svelte/package.json
@@ -74,18 +74,19 @@
     "format": "prettier . --cache --plugin-search-dir=. --write",
     "check": "prettier . --cache --plugin-search-dir=. --check",
     "test": "vitest run && echo \"manually check that there are no type errors in test/types by opening the files in there\"",
-    "build": "rollup -c && npm run tsd",
-    "prepare": "npm run build",
+    "build": "rollup -c && pnpm tsd",
+    "prepare": "pnpm build",
+    "generate:version": "node ./scripts/generate-version.js",
     "dev": "rollup -cw",
     "posttest": "agadoo src/internal/index.js",
-    "prepublishOnly": "npm run lint && npm run build && npm test",
+    "prepublishOnly": "pnpm lint && pnpm build && pnpm test",
     "tsd": "node ./generate-types.js",
     "lint": "eslint \"{src,test}/**/*.{ts,js}\" --cache"
   },
   "repository": {
     "type": "git",
     "url": "https://github.com/sveltejs/svelte.git",
-    "directory":"packages/svelte"
+    "directory": "packages/svelte"
   },
   "keywords": [
     "UI",
diff --git a/packages/svelte/rollup.config.js b/packages/svelte/rollup.config.js
index ec1eddca82..927f8e9495 100644
--- a/packages/svelte/rollup.config.js
+++ b/packages/svelte/rollup.config.js
@@ -5,14 +5,10 @@ import resolve from '@rollup/plugin-node-resolve';
 import commonjs from '@rollup/plugin-commonjs';
 import json from '@rollup/plugin-json';
 
-const require = createRequire(import.meta.url);
-const pkg = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('package.json', 'utf-8'));
+// runs the version generation as a side-effect of importing
+import './scripts/generate-version.js';
 
-// Create auto-generated .js files
-fs.writeFileSync(
-	'./src/shared/version.js',
-	`/** @type {string} */\nexport const VERSION = '${pkg.version}';`
-);
+const require = createRequire(import.meta.url);
 
 const internal = await import('./src/runtime/internal/index.js');
 fs.writeFileSync(
diff --git a/packages/svelte/scripts/generate-version.js b/packages/svelte/scripts/generate-version.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..351ead1eca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/svelte/scripts/generate-version.js
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+import fs from 'node:fs';
+
+const pkg = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('package.json', 'utf-8'));
+
+fs.writeFileSync(
+	'./src/shared/version.js',
+	`// generated during release, do not modify\n\n/** @type {string} */\nexport const VERSION = '${pkg.version}';\n`
+);
diff --git a/packages/svelte/src/shared/version.js b/packages/svelte/src/shared/version.js
index 270af33e83..80a6d82b3c 100644
--- a/packages/svelte/src/shared/version.js
+++ b/packages/svelte/src/shared/version.js
@@ -1,2 +1,4 @@
+// generated during release, do not modify
+
 /** @type {string} */
-export const VERSION = '4.0.0-next.0';
\ No newline at end of file
+export const VERSION = '4.0.0-next.0';
diff --git a/packages/svelte/test/version/version.test.js b/packages/svelte/test/version/version.test.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f6b3019786
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/svelte/test/version/version.test.js
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
+import { assert, describe, it } from 'vitest';
+import { VERSION } from 'svelte/compiler';
+import { try_load_json } from '../helpers.js';
+
+describe('svelte/compiler VERSION', () => {
+	it('should be the exact version from package.json');
+	const pkg = try_load_json(
+		fileURLToPath(new URL('../../../../packages/svelte/package.json', import.meta.url))
+	);
+	assert.equal(
+		VERSION,
+		pkg.version,
+		'VERSION export in src/shared/version.js does not equal version in package.json'
+	);
+});
diff --git a/pnpm-lock.yaml b/pnpm-lock.yaml
index 3d9aa49c03..2c4d34f9da 100644
--- a/pnpm-lock.yaml
+++ b/pnpm-lock.yaml
@@ -1,4 +1,8 @@
-lockfileVersion: '6.0'
+lockfileVersion: '6.1'
+
+settings:
+  autoInstallPeers: true
+  excludeLinksFromLockfile: false
 
 importers: