diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..bf5b232865db
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+# ------------------------------------------------------------------ #
+#                                                                    #
+#           SymPy CI script for Github Actions                       #
+#                                                                    #
+#   Run on the release branch and builds the release artifacts.      #
+#                                                                    #
+# ------------------------------------------------------------------ #
+
+name: release
+on:
+  push:
+    branches:
+      - 1.8
+  pull_request:
+    branches:
+      - 1.8
+env:
+  release_branch: 1.8
+  release_version: 1.8
+
+jobs:
+
+  # -------------------- Build artifacts --------------------------- #
+
+  build:
+
+    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
+    steps:
+      # Check out with full git history for authors check:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
+        with:
+          fetch-depth: 0
+
+      - name: Setup Python
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v2
+        with:
+          python-version: 3.8
+
+      - name: Build release files
+        run: release/ci_release_script.sh ${{ env.release_version }}
+
+      - name: Store release files
+        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
+        with:
+          name: release_files
+          path: release-${{ env.release_version }}
+
+  # -------------------- Test installation ------------------------- #
+
+  test-install:
+    needs: [build]
+
+    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
+    strategy:
+      matrix:
+        python-version: ['3.6', '3.7', '3.8', '3.9', 'pypy-3.6']
+
+    name: Python ${{ matrix.python-version }} test install
+    steps:
+      - name: Setup python
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v2
+        with:
+          python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
+          architecture: x64
+
+      - name: Retrieve release files
+        uses: actions/download-artifact@v2
+        with:
+          name: release_files
+
+      - name: List files
+        run: ls -R
+
+      - name: Install wheel
+        run: pip install sympy-${{ env.release_version }}-py3-none-any.whl
+
+      - name: Run tests after install
+        run: python -c 'import sympy; sympy.test()'
diff --git a/bin/authors_update.py b/bin/authors_update.py
index e304ea0cc240..999e6ce09a4b 100755
--- a/bin/authors_update.py
+++ b/bin/authors_update.py
@@ -18,10 +18,13 @@
 if sys.version_info < (3, 6):
     sys.exit("This script requires Python 3.6 or newer")
 
-from subprocess import run, PIPE
+from subprocess import check_output, PIPE
 from distutils.version import LooseVersion
 from collections import OrderedDict
 
+def run(cmd):
+    return check_output(cmd, encoding='utf-8')
+
 def red(text):
     return "\033[31m%s\033[0m" % text
 
@@ -43,7 +46,8 @@ def green(text):
 
 # check git version
 minimal = '1.8.4.2'
-git_ver = run(['git', '--version'], stdout=PIPE, encoding='utf-8').stdout[12:]
+git_ver = run(['git', '--version'])[12:]
+
 if LooseVersion(git_ver) < LooseVersion(minimal):
     print(yellow("Please use a git version >= %s" % minimal))
 
@@ -61,7 +65,7 @@ def move(l, i1, i2, who):
 
 # find who git knows ahout
 git_command = ["git", "log", "--topo-order", "--reverse", "--format=%aN <%aE>"]
-git_people = run(git_command, stdout=PIPE, encoding='utf-8').stdout.strip().split("\n")
+git_people = run(git_command).strip().split("\n")
 
 # remove duplicates, keeping the original order
 git_people = list(OrderedDict.fromkeys(git_people))
diff --git a/release/aptinstall.sh b/release/aptinstall.sh
index bbe098b90e19..a4ae221df318 100755
--- a/release/aptinstall.sh
+++ b/release/aptinstall.sh
@@ -2,10 +2,10 @@
 
 set -o errexit
 
-sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa
+sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:deadsnakes/ppa
 sudo apt update
 
-sudo apt install\
+sudo apt install -y\
 	antlr4\
 	libgfortran5\
 	python3-venv\
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ sudo apt install\
 	gfortran\
 	#
 
-sudo apt install\
+sudo apt install -y\
 	python3.6\
 	python3.6-venv\
 	python3.7\
@@ -34,10 +34,3 @@ sudo apt install\
 	python3.9\
 	python3.9-venv\
 	# python3.8 is installed by default in 20.04
-
-python3 -m venv release/venv_main
-source release/venv_main/bin/activate
-
-pip install -U pip wheel
-pip install -r release/requirements.txt
-pip install -e .
diff --git a/release/ci_release_script.sh b/release/ci_release_script.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000000..09f4e5cc6b6e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release/ci_release_script.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+release/aptinstall.sh
+
+python3 -m venv release/venv_main
+source release/venv_main/bin/activate
+
+pip install -U pip wheel
+pip install -r release/requirements.txt
+pip install -e .
+
+python release/releasecheck.py $1 release-$1
diff --git a/release/compare_tar_against_git.py b/release/compare_tar_against_git.py
index c29fb4560e19..d7b77ccd79f5 100755
--- a/release/compare_tar_against_git.py
+++ b/release/compare_tar_against_git.py
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ def main(tarname, gitroot):
     # Travis and CI
     '.travis.yml',
     '.github/workflows/runtests.yml',
+    '.github/workflows/release.yml',
     '.ci/durations.json',
     '.ci/generate_durations_log.sh',
     '.ci/parse_durations_log.py',
@@ -134,6 +135,7 @@ def main(tarname, gitroot):
     'release/test_install.py',
     'release/sha256.py',
     'release/authors.py',
+    'release/ci_release_script.sh',
     # This is just a distribute version of setup.py. Used mainly for setup.py
     # develop, which we don't care about in the release tarball
     'setupegg.py',