diff --git a/RELEASES.md b/RELEASES.md
index 8f30cd3b5..1af283b8a 100644
--- a/RELEASES.md
+++ b/RELEASES.md
@@ -92,8 +92,9 @@ The current state is available in the following table:
 |---------|-------------|------------------|-------------------|
 | [0.0](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/releases/tag/0.0.5)  | End of Life | Dec 4, 2015  | - |
 | [0.1](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/releases/tag/v0.1.0) | End of Life | Mar 21, 2016 | - |
-| [0.2](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/tree/v0.2.x)         | Active | Apr 21, 2016      | Upon 1.0 release |
-| 1.0     | Next   | TBD  | max(TBD+1 year, release of 1.1.0) |
+| [0.2](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/tree/v0.2.x)         | End of Life | Apr 21, 2016      | December 5, 2017 |
+| [1.0](https://github.com/containerd/contaienrd/releases/tag/v1.0.0) | Active   | December 5, 2017  | max(December 5, 2018, release of 1.1.0) |
+| [1.1](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/milestone/15)     | Next   | TBD  | max(TBD+1 year, release of 1.2.0) |
 
 Note that branches and release from before 1.0 may not follow these rules.
 
diff --git a/cmd/containerd-release/template.go b/cmd/containerd-release/template.go
index 7db710510..33bbd89e8 100644
--- a/cmd/containerd-release/template.go
+++ b/cmd/containerd-release/template.go
@@ -2,8 +2,8 @@ package main
 
 const (
 	defaultTemplateFile = "TEMPLATE"
-	releaseNotes        = `Welcome to the release of {{.ProjectName}} {{.Version}}!
-{{if .PreRelease}}
+	releaseNotes        = `Welcome to the {{.Version}} release of {{.ProjectName}}!
+{{if .PreRelease -}}
 *This is a pre-release of {{.ProjectName}}*
 {{- end}}
 
diff --git a/releases/v1.0.0.toml b/releases/v1.0.0.toml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..05867d604
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releases/v1.0.0.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+# commit to be tagged for new release
+commit = "HEAD"
+
+project_name = "containerd"
+github_repo = "containerd/containerd"
+
+# previous release
+previous = "v1.0.0-rc.0"
+
+pre_release = false
+
+preface = """\
+`containerd` provides a daemon for managing running containers. 
+
+The new containerd is designed for use designed for use in container-based
+systems, like Docker and Kubernetes. It provides minimal abstractions over the
+operating system that gets out of the way.
+
+A short list of differences from the 0.2 version of containerd follow:
+
+- New runtime model based on tasks and containers
+- Client-defined image push/pull, allows fully replaceable image distribution
+- End-to-end event system
+- Snapshot-based container storage system
+- Content-addressed image storage system
+- Arbitrary metadata storage for association with containerd objects
+- Extensive, namespaced [GRPC API](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/tree/master/api/services)
+- Rich API Client ([getting started](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/blob/master/docs/getting-started.md) and [godoc](https://godoc.org/github.com/containerd/containerd)).
+
+You can read about the full details of the project in the [README](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/blob/v1.0.0/README.md).
+
+If you would like to try containerd, please download the binaries included on
+this release. If you are using Docker, you have already been using containerd
+since Docker 1.11. The next release of Docker, 17.12 CE Edge, will include this
+version of containerd. If you would like to use it with Kubernetes, a CRI
+implementation against containerd is available at
+[cri-containerd](https://github.com/kubernetes-incubator/cri-containerd).
+
+The 1.0 release has been reached after 7 alphas, 4 betas, and 1 release
+candidate full of stability fixes, hardening, and API improvements. If you run
+into a new problems, please file an
+[issue](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/issues).
+
+The [_support horizon_](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/blob/master/RELEASES.md#support-horizon)
+for containerd has been updated to include the 1.0 release. With this release,
+the 0.2 release line is now moved to the "End of Life" state. No new releases
+on that branch will be made. The 1.0 release train will be considered an active
+branch with new patches until December 5, 2018 or when 1.1 is released.
+
+As part the release of containerd 1.0, the governance model has been updated.
+The day to day management of the project is taken care of by the maintainers.
+The roles of chief maintainer and BDFL have been removed and a technical
+steering committee has been added as an escalation point when consensus cannot
+be reached among maintainers. See https://github.com/moby/tsc for details."""
+
+# notable prs to include in the release notes, 1234 is the pr number
+[notes]
+
+[breaking]
diff --git a/version/version.go b/version/version.go
index 8356b9f40..dd55c40fc 100644
--- a/version/version.go
+++ b/version/version.go
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ var (
 	Package = "github.com/containerd/containerd"
 
 	// Version holds the complete version number. Filled in at linking time.
-	Version = "1.0.0-rc.0+unknown"
+	Version = "1.0.0+unknown"
 
 	// Revision is filled with the VCS (e.g. git) revision being used to build
 	// the program at linking time.