diff --git a/deploy/publish-release.sh b/deploy/publish-release.sh
index 94b4fa6..d142c49 100644
--- a/deploy/publish-release.sh
+++ b/deploy/publish-release.sh
@@ -42,19 +42,30 @@ else
 	echo "release $TAG already exists (id $id): replacing its files"
 fi
 
-existing=$(curl -fsS -H "$AUTH" "$API/releases/$id/assets" | json 'import sys, json
+# the ids of the release's assets with a given name (a failed upload can leave a partial one behind)
+asset_ids() {
+	curl -fsS -H "$AUTH" "$API/releases/$id/assets" | "$PY" -c 'import sys, json
 for a in json.load(sys.stdin):
-    print(a["id"], a["name"])')
+    if a["name"] == sys.argv[1]:
+        print(a["id"])' "$1"
+}
 
 for f in dist/*.tar.gz dist/*.zip dist/SHA256SUMS; do
 	[ -f "$f" ] || continue
 	name=$(basename "$f")
-	echo "$existing" | while read -r aid aname; do
-		if [ "$aname" = "$name" ]; then
+	n=1
+	while :; do
+		for aid in $(asset_ids "$name"); do
 			curl -fsS -X DELETE -H "$AUTH" "$API/releases/$id/assets/$aid" > /dev/null
+		done
+		echo "uploading $name (attempt $n)"
+		if curl -fsS --max-time 1200 -X POST -H "$AUTH" -F "attachment=@$f" "$API/releases/$id/assets?name=$name" > /dev/null; then
+			break
 		fi
+		# large uploads can hit a proxy timeout (HTTP 502); try again
+		[ "$n" -lt 5 ] || { echo "giving up on $name after $n attempts" >&2; exit 1; }
+		n=$((n + 1))
+		sleep $((n * 10))
 	done
-	echo "uploading $name"
-	curl -fsS -X POST -H "$AUTH" -F "attachment=@$f" "$API/releases/$id/assets?name=$name" > /dev/null
 done
 echo "published $SERVER/$REPO/releases/tag/$TAG"