diff --git a/.github/scripts/download-latest-publish-results.sh b/.github/scripts/download-latest-publish-results.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..deb4fe21
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/scripts/download-latest-publish-results.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Downloads the publish-result-* artifacts of a publish.yml run into a flat
+# directory, keeping only the NEWEST artifact per artifact name.
+#
+# Usage: download-latest-publish-results.sh <run-id> <dest-dir>
+#
+# Why not actions/download-artifact with merge-multiple? Re-running or
+# restarting a publish job (e.g. after cancelling it) uploads a second
+# artifact with the same name into the same run, and the earlier attempt's
+# artifact is kept. merge-multiple extracts every match into one directory in
+# no guaranteed order, so a stale "failed" fragment can overwrite the newer
+# "published" one, and the summary then reports a published pack as failed.
+#
+# Requires: gh (GH_TOKEN with actions:read), jq, unzip. GITHUB_REPOSITORY
+# defaults to this repo so the script also works locally.
+set -euo pipefail
+
+RUN_ID="${1:?usage: download-latest-publish-results.sh <run-id> <dest-dir>}"
+DEST="${2:?usage: download-latest-publish-results.sh <run-id> <dest-dir>}"
+REPO="${GITHUB_REPOSITORY:-GitHubSecurityLab/CodeQL-Community-Packs}"
+
+mkdir -p "$DEST"
+WORK=$(mktemp -d)
+trap 'rm -rf "$WORK"' EXIT
+
+# One "<id> <name>" line per artifact name: the newest non-expired one.
+gh api --paginate "repos/${REPO}/actions/runs/${RUN_ID}/artifacts?per_page=100" \
+  --jq '.artifacts[] | select((.expired | not) and (.name | startswith("publish-result-"))) | [.created_at, .id, .name] | @tsv' \
+  | sort -t$'\t' -k3,3 -k1,1r \
+  | awk -F'\t' '!seen[$3]++ { print $2, $3 }' > "$WORK/latest.txt"
+
+if [ ! -s "$WORK/latest.txt" ]; then
+  echo "No publish-result-* artifacts found for run ${RUN_ID}."
+  exit 0
+fi
+
+while read -r ID NAME; do
+  echo "Downloading ${NAME} (artifact ${ID})"
+  gh api "repos/${REPO}/actions/artifacts/${ID}/zip" > "$WORK/${ID}.zip"
+  unzip -o -q "$WORK/${ID}.zip" -d "$DEST"
+done < "$WORK/latest.txt"
diff --git a/.github/workflows/publish.yml b/.github/workflows/publish.yml
index 731cc0ad..9078b0ec 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/publish.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/publish.yml
@@ -387,17 +387,19 @@ jobs:
 
     permissions:
       contents: write
+      actions: read
 
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v7
 
+      # Not actions/download-artifact with merge-multiple: a re-run or restarted publish job
+      # leaves a second same-named artifact in the run, and merge-multiple can let the stale
+      # (e.g. cancelled/failed) one overwrite the newer result. This keeps the newest per name.
       - name: Download publish results
-        uses: actions/download-artifact@v8
         continue-on-error: true
-        with:
-          pattern: publish-result-*
-          path: publish-results
-          merge-multiple: true
+        env:
+          GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+        run: .github/scripts/download-latest-publish-results.sh "${{ github.run_id }}" publish-results
 
       - name: Build summary table
         run: |