diff --git a/documentation/misc/RELEASE_ISSUE_TEMPLATE.md b/documentation/misc/RELEASE_ISSUE_TEMPLATE.md
index 116c615d3..da0ef8c37 100644
--- a/documentation/misc/RELEASE_ISSUE_TEMPLATE.md
+++ b/documentation/misc/RELEASE_ISSUE_TEMPLATE.md
@@ -14,11 +14,13 @@
 **Note for whoever is owning the release:** please capture notes as comments in this issue for anything you noticed that could be improved for future releases.  There is a *Post Release* step below for incorporating changes back into the [RELEASE_ISSUE_TEMPLATE](https://github.com/filecoin-project/lotus/blob/master/documentation/misc/RELEASE_ISSUE_TEMPLATE.md), and this is easier done by collecting notes from along the way rather than just thinking about it at the end.
 
 First steps:
-  - [ ] FFI: Fork a new branch (`release/lotus-vX.Y.Z`) from the filecoin-ffi `master` branch
-  - [ ] FFI: Tag the head of `release/lotus-vX.Y.Z` as `vX.Y.Z-pre1`
+  - [ ] Set shell variables vX.Y.Z `X=1;Y=24;Z=3`
+  - [ ] FFI: Fork a new branch (`release/lotus-vX.Y.Z`) from the filecoin-ffi `master` branch: `git checkout master && git checkout -b release/lotus-v$X.$Y.$Z`
+  - [ ] FFI: Tag the head of `release/lotus-vX.Y.Z` as `vX.Y.Z-pre1`: `git tag -a v$X.$Y.$Z-pre1 -m"release"`
   - [ ] Open and land a PR in lotus `master` that updates the FFI dependency to `vX.Y.Z-pre1` as cut in the previous step
   - [ ] Fork a new branch (`release/vX.Y.Z`) from `master` and make any further release related changes to this branch. If any "non-trivial" changes get added to the release, uncheck all the checkboxes and return to this stage.
-  - [ ] Bump the version in `build/version.go` in the `master` branch to `vX.Y.(Z+1)-dev` (bump from feature release) or `vX.(Y+1).0-dev` (bump from mandatory release). Run make gen and make docsgen-cli before committing changes
+  - [ ] Bump the version in `build/version.go` in the `master` branch to `vX.Y.(Z+1)-dev` (bump from feature release) or `vX.(Y+1).0-dev` (bump from mandatory release).
+  - [ ] Run `make gen && make docsgen-cli` before committing changes
     
 **Prepping an RC**:
 
@@ -26,6 +28,7 @@ First steps:
 - [ ] run `make gen && make docsgen-cli`
 - [ ] Generate changelog using the script at scripts/mkreleaselog
 - [ ] Add contents of generated text to lotus/CHANGELOG.md in addition to other details
+- [ ] Commit using PR
 - [ ] tag commit with `vX.Y.Z-rcN`
 - [ ] cut a pre-release [here](https://github.com/filecoin-project/lotus/releases/new?prerelease=true)