diff --git a/.github/workflows/auto_approve.yml b/.github/workflows/auto_approve.yml
index 5fbbef7..a43c12b 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/auto_approve.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/auto_approve.yml
@@ -13,9 +13,16 @@ jobs:
         id: metadata
         uses: dependabot/fetch-metadata@v1
         with:
-          github-token: "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}"
-      - name: Approve a PR
+          github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+      - name: approve and enable auto-merge
+        run: | 
+          gh pr review --approve "$PR_URL"
+          gh pr merge --auto --squash "$PR_URL"
+        env:
+          PR_URL: ${{ github.event.pull_request.html_url }}
+          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+      - name: second approval
         run: gh pr review --approve "$PR_URL"
         env:
           PR_URL: ${{ github.event.pull_request.html_url }}
-          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
\ No newline at end of file
+          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.APPROVAL_TOKEN }}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release_bump.yml b/.github/workflows/release_bump.yml
index 9da53d4..6845773 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release_bump.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release_bump.yml
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ jobs:
           # Run semantic-release to generate new changelog
           pip install --upgrade hatch
           hatch env create release
+          hatch run release:deps
           NEXT_SEMVER=$(hatch run release:bump $BUMP_ARGS)
 
           # Grab the new version's changelog and prepend it to the original changelog contents
diff --git a/hatch.toml b/hatch.toml
index ba6cff8..189ecd9 100644
--- a/hatch.toml
+++ b/hatch.toml
@@ -42,10 +42,8 @@ test = "pytest --no-cov {args:test/*/e2e}"
 
 [envs.release]
 detached = true
-dependencies = [
-  "python-semantic-release == 8.7.*"
-]
 
 [envs.release.scripts]
+deps = "pip install -r requirements-release.txt"
 bump = "semantic-release -v --strict version --no-push --no-commit --no-tag --skip-build {args}"
 version = "semantic-release -v --strict version --print {args}"
diff --git a/requirements-release.txt b/requirements-release.txt
index 2f7766c..1b5560d 100644
--- a/requirements-release.txt
+++ b/requirements-release.txt
@@ -1,3 +1 @@
-# HACK: This file solely exists for dependabot checks. The actual dependencies are in `hatch.toml` in the `release` environment.
-# If dependabot opens a PR that modifies this file, please make sure to update the coresponding dependency in `hatch.toml` as well.
 python-semantic-release == 8.7.*
\ No newline at end of file