diff --git a/docs/hacking-howto b/docs/hacking-howto
index 52b10c494..f1c82612b 100644
--- a/docs/hacking-howto
+++ b/docs/hacking-howto
@@ -75,11 +75,9 @@ you could have a look at previous reviews and see what the common mistakes are.
 
 === Which branch to use?
 
-Work on i3 generally happens in two branches: “master” and “next” (the latter
-being the default branch, the one that people get when they check out the git
-repository).
+Work on i3 generally happens in two branches: “next” (default) and “stable”.
 
-The contents of “master” are always stable. That is, it contains the source code
+The contents of “stable” are always stable. That is, it contains the source code
 of the latest release, plus any bugfixes that were applied since that release.
 
 New features are only found in the “next” branch. Always use this branch when
diff --git a/release.sh b/release.sh
index 0d8e30c7b..c6b045c0a 100755
--- a/release.sh
+++ b/release.sh
@@ -75,23 +75,23 @@ echo "${RELEASE_VERSION}-non-git" > I3_VERSION
 git add I3_VERSION
 git commit -a -m "Set non-git version to ${RELEASE_VERSION}-non-git."
 
-if [ "${RELEASE_BRANCH}" = "master" ]; then
-	git checkout master
+if [ "${RELEASE_BRANCH}" = "stable" ]; then
+	git checkout stable
 	git merge --no-ff release-${RELEASE_VERSION} -m "Merge branch 'release-${RELEASE_VERSION}'"
 	git checkout next
-	git merge --no-ff -s recursive -X ours -X no-renames master -m "Merge branch 'master' into next"
+	git merge --no-ff -s recursive -X ours -X no-renames stable -m "Merge branch 'stable' into next"
 else
 	git checkout next
 	git merge --no-ff release-${RELEASE_VERSION} -m "Merge branch 'release-${RELEASE_VERSION}'"
-	git checkout master
-	git merge --no-ff -s recursive -X theirs -X no-renames next -m "Merge branch 'next' into master"
+	git checkout stable
+	git merge --no-ff -s recursive -X theirs -X no-renames next -m "Merge branch 'next' into stable"
 fi
 
 git remote remove origin
 git remote add origin git@github.com:i3/i3.git
 git config --add remote.origin.push "+refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*"
 git config --add remote.origin.push "+refs/heads/next:refs/heads/next"
-git config --add remote.origin.push "+refs/heads/master:refs/heads/master"
+git config --add remote.origin.push "+refs/heads/stable:refs/heads/stable"
 
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 # Section 2: Debian packaging