diff --git a/packaging/appimage-recipe.env b/packaging/appimage-recipe.env
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cc6ad9c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packaging/appimage-recipe.env
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+# linuxdeploy / linuxdeploy-plugin-qt configuration — sourced by scripts/build-appimages.sh.
+# Documents the bundling choices for both AppImages.
+#
+# Spec: sethlabels-docs/specs/2026-04-29-packaging-design.md §5.3
+
+# Qt platform plugins to include (linuxdeploy-plugin-qt picks these up automatically;
+# documenting here for posterity).
+QT_PLATFORM_PLUGINS="xcb"
+
+# Image format plugins. The GUI app needs SVG/PNG support; batch CLI does not.
+QT_IMAGE_FORMAT_PLUGINS_GUI="svg"
+QT_IMAGE_FORMAT_PLUGINS_BATCH=""
+
+# Files in the AppDir we don't want bundled (linuxdeploy is greedy by default).
+APPDIR_EXCLUDE_GLOBS=()
diff --git a/packaging/changelog.md b/packaging/changelog.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b4fa786
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packaging/changelog.md
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+# sethLabels packaging changelog
+
+Per-release packaging notes. Each entry covers what changed in the *packaging*,
+not what changed upstream. For application-level changes, see the upstream
+`docs/CHANGELOG.md` and `git log upstream/master`.
+
+## Format
+
+```
+## <version>  —  <ISO date>
+
+- bullet describing what changed in this packaging release
+- ...
+```
+
+`<version>` is `<upstream-tag>-seth<N>` (e.g., `3.99-master618-seth1`), matching
+the git tag and the artifact filename. See spec §D4.
+
+---
+
+## (unreleased)
+
+- First end-to-end release dry run pending.
diff --git a/packaging/deb-metadata.env b/packaging/deb-metadata.env
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..48ad30d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packaging/deb-metadata.env
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+# CPack DEB metadata overrides — sourced by scripts/build-deb.sh.
+# All values are passed to cpack as -D CPACK_DEBIAN_PACKAGE_<KEY>="$VALUE".
+#
+# Spec: sethlabels-docs/specs/2026-04-29-packaging-design.md §5.2
+
+MAINTAINER="Seth Freiberg <seth@sethfreiberg.com>"
+SECTION="graphics"
+HOMEPAGE="https://glabels.org"
+# CPACK_PACKAGE_NAME override — required because upstream sets
+# CPACK_PACKAGE_NAME=glabels (CMakeLists.txt:86) and decision D6 wants glabels-qt.
+PACKAGE_NAME="glabels-qt"