diff --git a/releases/v1.6.0-rc.toml b/releases/v1.6.0-rc.toml
index f8fd59bc5..c1c80adeb 100644
--- a/releases/v1.6.0-rc.toml
+++ b/releases/v1.6.0-rc.toml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ match_deps = "^github.com/(containerd/[a-zA-Z0-9-]+)$"
 # previous release
 previous = "v1.5.0"
 
-pre_release = false
+pre_release = true
 
 preface = """\
 The seventh major release of containerd includes many improvements and added
diff --git a/version/version.go b/version/version.go
index 0e0edf8d0..37de9f17f 100644
--- a/version/version.go
+++ b/version/version.go
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ var (
 	Package = "github.com/containerd/containerd"
 
 	// Version holds the complete version number. Filled in at linking time.
-	Version = "1.6.0-rc.3+unknown"
+	Version = "1.6.0-rc.4+unknown"
 
 	// Revision is filled with the VCS (e.g. git) revision being used to build
 	// the program at linking time.