diff --git a/releases/v2.0.0-beta.toml b/releases/v2.0.0-beta.toml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..67dc87b30
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releases/v2.0.0-beta.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+# commit to be tagged for new release
+commit = "HEAD"
+
+project_name = "containerd"
+github_repo = "containerd/containerd"
+match_deps = "^github.com/(containerd/[a-zA-Z0-9-]+)$"
+
+# previous release
+previous = "v1.7.0"
+
+pre_release = true
+
+preface = """\
+The first major release of containerd 2.x focuses on the continued stability of
+containerd's core feature set with an easy upgrade from containerd 1.x. This
+release includes the stabilization of new features added in the last 1.x release
+as well as the removal of features which were deprecated in 1.x. The goal is to
+support the vast community of containerd users well into the future along with
+their ever increasing deployment footprints and variety of use cases.
+"""
+
+postface = """\
+### Which file should I download?
+* `containerd-<VERSION>-<OS>-<ARCH>.tar.gz`:         ✅Recommended. Dynamically linked with glibc 2.31 (Ubuntu 20.04).
+* `containerd-static-<VERSION>-<OS>-<ARCH>.tar.gz`:  Statically linked. Expected to be used on non-glibc Linux distributions. Not position-independent.
+
+In addition to containerd, typically you will have to install [runc](https://github.com/opencontainers/runc/releases)
+and [CNI plugins](https://github.com/containernetworking/plugins/releases) from their official sites too.
+
+See also the [Getting Started](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/blob/main/docs/getting-started.md) documentation.
+"""
+
+override_deps."github.com/containerd/log".previous = "cf9777876edf6a4aa230c739bc7eec5ab8349e9c"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/version/version.go b/version/version.go
index c9f9dd55e..f35f66c64 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 = "1.7.0+unknown"
+	Version = "2.0.0-beta.0+unknown"
 
 	// Revision is filled with the VCS (e.g. git) revision being used to build
 	// the program at linking time.