diff --git a/.github/workflows/rust-release.yml b/.github/workflows/rust-release.yml
index 1759b87f2..a2646e3ea 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/rust-release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/rust-release.yml
@@ -1357,15 +1357,20 @@ jobs:
             other_tarballs+=("${tarball}")
           done
 
-          publish_tarball() {
-            local tarball="$1"
-            local filename
-            local tag
-            local platform
-            local publish_output
-            local publish_status
-            local -a publish_cmd
+          # npm returns HTTP 409 when concurrent publishes update the same
+          # packument. Every platform tarball is a version of @openai/codex,
+          # so publish all tarballs serially.
+          tarballs=(
+            "${platform_tarballs[@]}"
+            "${other_tarballs[@]}"
+            "${root_tarball}"
+          )
+          # The SDK depends on this exact root package version.
+          if [[ -f "${sdk_tarball}" ]]; then
+            tarballs+=("${sdk_tarball}")
+          fi
 
+          for tarball in "${tarballs[@]}"; do
             filename="$(basename "${tarball}")"
             tag=""
 
@@ -1380,7 +1385,7 @@ jobs:
                 ;;
               *)
                 echo "Unexpected npm tarball: ${filename}"
-                return 1
+                exit 1
                 ;;
             esac
 
@@ -1397,34 +1402,16 @@ jobs:
 
             echo "${publish_output}"
             if [[ ${publish_status} -eq 0 ]]; then
-              return 0
+              continue
             fi
 
             if grep -qiE "previously published|cannot publish over|version already exists" <<< "${publish_output}"; then
               echo "Skipping already-published package version for ${filename}"
-              return 0
+              continue
             fi
 
-            return "${publish_status}"
-          }
-
-          # Publish independent packages concurrently, but wait for all of
-          # them before publishing the root CLI wrapper.
-          independent_tarballs=(
-            "${platform_tarballs[@]}"
-            "${other_tarballs[@]}"
-          )
-
-          export prefix
-          export -f publish_tarball
-          printf '%s\0' "${independent_tarballs[@]}" |
-            xargs -0 -n1 -P0 bash -c "publish_tarball \"\$1\"" _
-
-          publish_tarball "${root_tarball}"
-          # The SDK depends on this exact root package version.
-          if [[ -f "${sdk_tarball}" ]]; then
-            publish_tarball "${sdk_tarball}"
-          fi
+            exit "${publish_status}"
+          done
 
   deploy-dev-website:
     name: Trigger developers.openai.com deploy