diff --git a/.changeset/.released/README.md b/.changeset-released/README.md
similarity index 88%
rename from .changeset/.released/README.md
rename to .changeset-released/README.md
index 72c61a3562..c2e34098ff 100644
--- a/.changeset/.released/README.md
+++ b/.changeset-released/README.md
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ Fixes are cherry-picked between `main` and `release/*` branches, so the same cha
 
 The ledger prevents that double-application. Each branch only writes to its own file, so cross-branch merges are conflict-free; the wrapper around `changeset version` reads the union of every file when deciding what to skip.
 
+The directory lives at the repo root (sibling of `.changeset/`) rather than inside `.changeset/` because `@changesets/read` treats every directory inside `.changeset/` as a legacy v1 changeset and tries to read `changes.md` from it.
+
 ## How it gets updated
 
 `pnpm bump` runs the wrapper at `__utils__/scripts/src/bump.ts`, which:
diff --git a/__utils__/scripts/src/bump.ts b/__utils__/scripts/src/bump.ts
index e7e12e1fc1..582e66f070 100644
--- a/__utils__/scripts/src/bump.ts
+++ b/__utils__/scripts/src/bump.ts
@@ -1,9 +1,13 @@
 // Wrapper around `changeset version` that prevents cherry-picked changesets
 // from being applied twice when a release branch is merged back into main.
-// Maintains a per-branch ledger at .changeset/.released/<branch>.txt of
+// Maintains a per-branch ledger at .changeset-released/<branch>.txt of
 // consumed changeset ids; before running `changeset version` it hides any
 // changeset whose id is already in the union of those files. See
-// .changeset/.released/README.md for the full explanation.
+// .changeset-released/README.md for the full explanation.
+//
+// The ledger lives outside `.changeset/` because `@changesets/read` treats
+// every directory inside `.changeset/` as a legacy v1 changeset and tries to
+// read `changes.md` from it.
 
 import { execSync } from 'node:child_process'
 import fs from 'node:fs'
@@ -105,7 +109,7 @@ function detectCurrentBranch (cwd: string): string {
 function main (): void {
   const repoRoot = path.resolve(import.meta.dirname, '../../..')
   const changesetDir = path.join(repoRoot, '.changeset')
-  const releasedDir = path.join(changesetDir, '.released')
+  const releasedDir = path.join(repoRoot, '.changeset-released')
   const branch = detectCurrentBranch(repoRoot)
 
   console.log(`Branch: ${branch}`)
diff --git a/__utils__/scripts/test/bump.ts b/__utils__/scripts/test/bump.ts
index 2205381647..7a6b55d834 100644
--- a/__utils__/scripts/test/bump.ts
+++ b/__utils__/scripts/test/bump.ts
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ describe('appendReleased', () => {
   })
 
   test('creates the released directory if missing', () => {
-    const nested = path.join(dir, 'nested', '.released')
+    const nested = path.join(dir, 'nested', 'released')
     appendReleased(nested, 'main', ['foo'])
     expect(fs.readFileSync(path.join(nested, 'main.txt'), 'utf8')).toBe('foo\n')
   })