diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 9413205..d844a0b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -4,6 +4,12 @@ All notable changes to this project are recorded here. The format follows Keep a
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+## [0.2.2] - 2026-09-15
+
+### Changed
+
+- `make install` copies `bin/git-locks` into `$(PREFIX)/bin` instead of symlinking it. The symlink made the development checkout live for every consumer on the machine: while the v0.2.1 refactor was in progress on a branch, a downstream project's pre-commit hook ran the half-fixed script and its lock step failed once. An installed binary is now a snapshot of the checkout it was installed from; upgrade by re-running `make install`.
+
 ## [0.2.1] - 2026-09-15
 
 ### Changed
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 05dc917..2e5c37f 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ test:
 
 install:
 	mkdir -p $(PREFIX)/bin
-	ln -sf $(CURDIR)/bin/git-locks $(PREFIX)/bin/git-locks
+	install -m 0755 bin/git-locks $(PREFIX)/bin/git-locks
 
 uninstall:
 	rm -f $(PREFIX)/bin/git-locks
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index e39cb81..4fe18f0 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -403,10 +403,12 @@ Paths are repo-relative, `./` prefixes are stripped, and absolute or `..` paths
 ## Install
 
 ```sh
-make install            # symlinks bin/git-locks into ~/.local/bin
+make install            # copies bin/git-locks into ~/.local/bin (a snapshot of this checkout, on purpose)
 git locks list          # git dispatches `git locks` to git-locks on PATH
 ```
 
+`make install` copies rather than symlinks. A symlink into a development checkout makes every uncommitted edit live for every consumer on the machine at once; on 2026-09-15 that turned a half-finished refactor into a transient lock failure in another project's pre-commit hook. Install from a tagged checkout and re-run `make install` when you mean to upgrade.
+
 ## Develop
 
 ```sh
diff --git a/bin/git-locks b/bin/git-locks
index f39c1bf..454caa2 100755
--- a/bin/git-locks
+++ b/bin/git-locks
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ export LC_ALL=C # string offsets below are byte offsets: cat-file --batch sizes
 NS='refs/locks'
 DEFAULT_TTL=14400
 SCHEMA='git-locks/1'
-VERSION='0.2.1'
+VERSION='0.2.2'
 TEXT=0 # 1 after --text: human lines instead of JSONL
 
 usage_text() {