diff --git a/.release-please-manifest.json b/.release-please-manifest.json
index 466df71..2be9c43 100644
--- a/.release-please-manifest.json
+++ b/.release-please-manifest.json
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 {
-  ".": "0.1.0"
+  ".": "0.2.0"
 }
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0ff9bba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+# Changelog
+
+## [0.2.0](https://github.com/copick/copick-cpp/compare/v0.1.0...v0.2.0) (2026-07-15)
+
+
+### Features
+
+* core copick C++ API with local filesystem backend ([25f238e](https://github.com/copick/copick-cpp/commit/25f238e5d76b88a85a817bdd6ff366a81fd03f50))
+* cut first tagged release (0.2.0) ([49d661b](https://github.com/copick/copick-cpp/commit/49d661bf1e65eed20bcaeea8dd6b7bb19f4bf813))
+* Release build config + AreTomo integration guide ([9658a23](https://github.com/copick/copick-cpp/commit/9658a23fce116d867c4529f0e4019c9bf2e9c6c5))
+* rename array accessors numpy/from_numpy to to_array/from_array ([de484b9](https://github.com/copick/copick-cpp/commit/de484b9a2ee098cb249456b79a35e393d9d72f60))
+
+
+### Bug Fixes
+
+* make version smoke test resilient to release-please bumps ([7902f7c](https://github.com/copick/copick-cpp/commit/7902f7c1ab28387ba66085506d6072786e4d37b3))
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 88333be..9d4246b 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.24)  # tensorstore requires >= 3.24
-project(copick_cpp VERSION 0.1.0 LANGUAGES CXX)  # x-release-please-version
+project(copick_cpp VERSION 0.2.0 LANGUAGES CXX)  # x-release-please-version
 
 # --- Options ------------------------------------------------------------------
 option(COPICK_BUILD_TESTS "Build the C++ test suite" ON)
diff --git a/include/copick/version.h b/include/copick/version.h
index 36271c8..3bc461d 100644
--- a/include/copick/version.h
+++ b/include/copick/version.h
@@ -10,9 +10,9 @@
 
 // Version numbers are maintained by release-please (do not edit the values by hand).
 #define COPICK_VERSION_MAJOR 0         // x-release-please-major
-#define COPICK_VERSION_MINOR 1         // x-release-please-minor
+#define COPICK_VERSION_MINOR 2         // x-release-please-minor
 #define COPICK_VERSION_PATCH 0         // x-release-please-patch
-#define COPICK_VERSION_STRING "0.1.0"  // x-release-please-version
+#define COPICK_VERSION_STRING "0.2.0"  // x-release-please-version
 
 namespace copick {
 
diff --git a/version.txt b/version.txt
index 6e8bf73..0ea3a94 100644
--- a/version.txt
+++ b/version.txt
@@ -1 +1 @@
-0.1.0
+0.2.0