diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 55463a376e..3410787361 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -58,27 +58,35 @@ to build.
 1. Install or update `node.js` so that your `npm` is at least at version `2.0.0`
 1. Clone the repo: `git clone https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web.git`
 1. Switch to the riot-web directory: `cd riot-web`
-1. Install the prerequisites: `npm install`
-1. If you are using the `develop` branch of vector-web, you will probably need
-   to rebuild some of the dependencies, due to
-   https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/3055:
-
+1. If you're using the `develop` branch, install the develop versions of the
+   dependencies, as the released ones will be too old:
    ```
-   (cd node_modules/matrix-js-sdk && npm install)
-   (cd node_modules/matrix-react-sdk && npm install)
+   scripts/fetch-develop-deps.sh
    ```
    Whenever you git pull on riot-web you will also probably need to force an update
-   to these dependencies - the easiest way is probably:
+   to these dependencies - the simplest way is to re-run the script, but you can also
+   manually update and reuild them:
    ```
-   rm -rf node_modules/matrjx-{js,react}-sdk && npm i
-   (cd node_modules/matrix-js-sdk && npm install)
-   (cd node_modules/matrix-react-sdk && npm install)
+   cd matrix-js-sdk
+   git pull
+   npm install # re-run to pull in any new dependencies
+   # Depending on your version of npm, npm run build may happen as part of
+   # the npm install above (https://docs.npmjs.com/misc/scripts#prepublish-and-prepare)
+   # If in doubt, run it anyway:
+   npm run build
+   cd ../matrix-react-sdk
+   git pull
+   npm install
+   npm run build
    ```
    However, we recommend setting up a proper development environment (see "Setting
    up a development environment" below) if you want to run your own copy of the
    `develop` branch, as it makes it much easier to keep these dependencies
    up-to-date.  Or just use https://riot.im/develop - the continuous integration
    release of the develop branch.
+   (Note that we don't reference the develop versions in git directly due to
+   https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/3055)
+1. Install the prerequisites: `npm install`
 1. Configure the app by copying `config.sample.json` to `config.json` and
    modifying it (see below for details)
 1. `npm run dist` to build a tarball to deploy. Untaring this file will give
diff --git a/release.sh b/release.sh
index c245456051..8ae307f7e2 100755
--- a/release.sh
+++ b/release.sh
@@ -9,6 +9,22 @@ set -e
 
 cd `dirname $0`
 
+for i in matrix-js-sdk matrix-react-sdk
+do
+    depver=`cat package.json | jq -r .dependencies.\"$i\"`
+    latestver=`npm show $i version`
+    if [ "$depver" != "$latestver" ]
+    then
+        echo "The latest version of $i is $latestver but package.json depends on $depver"
+        echo -n "Type 'Yes' to continue anyway: "
+        read resp
+        if [ "$resp" != "Yes" ]
+        then
+            echo "OK, never mind."
+            exit 1
+        fi
+    fi
+done
 
 # bump Electron's package.json first
 release="${1#v}"