diff --git a/.github/workflows/publish.yml b/.github/workflows/publish.yml
index 7e6445fb..761e9279 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/publish.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/publish.yml
@@ -223,11 +223,11 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Validate wheels
         run: |
-          pip install "twine>=6.1,<6.2"
+          pip install check-wheel-contents
           for whl in dist/*.whl; do
             unzip -qt "$whl"
           done
-          twine check dist/*
+          check-wheel-contents dist/*.whl
 
       - name: Check PyPI for existing version
         id: pypi-check
diff --git a/docs/content/docs/more/changelog.mdx b/docs/content/docs/more/changelog.mdx
index dbae9878..24e4ff45 100644
--- a/docs/content/docs/more/changelog.mdx
+++ b/docs/content/docs/more/changelog.mdx
@@ -14,8 +14,10 @@ Patch release: publish workflow hardening.
 - **PyPI publish pre-check.** Publish job now queries PyPI before uploading,
   compares SHA-256 hashes per artifact, and skips upload when all wheels are
   already present. Prevents `400 File already exists` on workflow reruns.
-- **PEP 639 compatibility.** Dropped `twine check --strict` which rejected the
-  `License-File` metadata emitted by maturin 1.13.3. Pinned `twine>=6.1`.
+- **PEP 639 compatibility.** Replaced `twine check` with `check-wheel-contents`
+  for wheel validation. `twine check` broke on PEP 639 `License-File` metadata
+  emitted by maturin 1.13.3 (`packaging` library incompatibility). Structural
+  validation via `check-wheel-contents`; PyPI validates metadata on upload.
 - **Timeout guards.** Added `timeout=30` on PyPI API calls and
   `--connect-timeout 10 --max-time 30` on verification curl.
 - **Dashboard artifact download retry.** Extracted dashboard download into a