diff --git a/.mailmap b/.mailmap
index 90c850eaa..5b67468a8 100644
--- a/.mailmap
+++ b/.mailmap
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ Cao Zhihao <caozhihao@163.com>
 Cao Zhihao <caozhihao@163.com> <caozhihao.xd@bytedance.com>
 Carlos Eduardo <me@carlosedp.com> <me@carlosedp.com>
 chenxiaoyu <weixian.cxy@alibaba-inc.com>
+Cory Bennett <cbennett@netflix.com>
 Cristian Staretu <cristian.staretu@gmail.com>
 Cristian Staretu <cristian.staretu@gmail.com> <unclejack@users.noreply.github.com>
 Daniel Dao <dqminh89@gmail.com>
@@ -32,9 +33,11 @@ Fahed Dorgaa <fahed.dorgaa@gmail.com>
 Frank Yang <yyb196@gmail.com>
 Fupan Li <lifupan@gmail.com>
 Fupan Li <lifupan@gmail.com> <fupan.lfp@antfin.com>
+Fupan Li <lifupan@gmail.com> <fupan.lfp@antgroup.com>
 Georgia Panoutsakopoulou <gpanoutsak@gmail.com>
 Guangming Wang <guangming.wang@daocloud.io>
 Haiyan Meng <haiyanmeng@google.com>
+haoyun <yun.hao@daocloud.io>
 Harry Zhang <harryz@hyper.sh> <harryzhang@zju.edu.cn>
 Hu Shuai <hus.fnst@cn.fujitsu.com>
 Hu Shuai <hus.fnst@cn.fujitsu.com> <hushuaiia@qq.com>
@@ -60,6 +63,7 @@ Justin Terry <juterry@microsoft.com> <jterry75@users.noreply.github.com>
 Kenfe-Mickaël Laventure <mickael.laventure@gmail.com>
 Kevin Kern <kaiwentan@harmonycloud.cn>
 Kevin Xu <cming.xu@gmail.com>
+Kitt Hsu <kitt.hsu@gmail.com>
 Kohei Tokunaga <ktokunaga.mail@gmail.com>
 Krasi Georgiev <krasi.root@gmail.com> <krasi@vip-consult.solutions>
 Lantao Liu <lantaol@google.com>
@@ -77,6 +81,7 @@ Michael Crosby <crosbymichael@gmail.com> <michael@thepasture.io>
 Michael Katsoulis <michaelkatsoulis88@gmail.com>
 Mike Brown <brownwm@us.ibm.com> <mikebrow@users.noreply.github.com>
 Mohammad Asif Siddiqui <mohammad.asif.siddiqui1@huawei.com>
+Ng Yang <wssccc@qq.com>
 Nishchay Kumar <mrawesomenix@gmail.com>
 Oliver Stenbom <oliver@stenbom.eu> <ostenbom@pivotal.io>
 Phil Estes <estesp@gmail.com> <estesp@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
@@ -107,10 +112,14 @@ Tõnis Tiigi <tonistiigi@gmail.com>
 Wade Lee <weidonglee27@gmail.com>
 Wade Lee <weidonglee27@gmail.com> <weidonglee29@gmail.com>
 Wade Lee <weidonglee27@gmail.com> <21621232@zju.edu.cn>
+wanglei <wllenyj@linux.alibaba.com>
+wanglei <wllenyj@linux.alibaba.com> <wanglei01@alibaba-inc.com>
+wangzhan <wang.zhan@smartx.com>
 Wei Fu <fuweid89@gmail.com>
 Wei Fu <fuweid89@gmail.com> <fhfuwei@163.com>
 Xiaodong Zhang <a4012017@sina.com>
 Xuean Yan <yan.xuean@zte.com.cn>
+Yang Yang <yang8518296@163.com>
 Yue Zhang <zy675793960@yeah.net>
 Yuxing Liu <starnop@163.com>
 Zhang Wei <zhangwei555@huawei.com>
diff --git a/releases/v1.6.0-beta.toml b/releases/v1.6.0-beta.toml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e66c9b53f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releases/v1.6.0-beta.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+# 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 = "v1.5.0"
+
+pre_release = false
+
+preface = """\
+The seventh major release of containerd includes many improvements and added
+support to increase overall compatibility and stability.
+
+### Highlights
+
+#### Runtime
+
+* **Add runtime label to metrics** [#5744](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/pull/5744)
+* **Cleanup task delete logic in v2 shim** [#5813](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/pull/5813)
+* **Add support for shim plugins** [#5817](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/pull/5817)
+* **Add runc shim support for core scheduling** [#6011](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/pull/6011)
+* **Update shim client connect attempt to fail fast when shim errors** [#6031](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/pull/6031)
+
+#### Windows
+
+* **Add support for Windows HostProcess containers** [#5131](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/pull/5131)
+
+#### CRI
+
+* **Add CNI configuration based on runtime class** [#4695](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/pull/4695)
+* **Add support for CRI v1 and v1alpha in parallel** [#5619](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/pull/5619)
+* **Add support for unified resources field for cgroups v2** [#5627](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/pull/5627)
+* **Add IP preference configuration for reporting pod IP** [#5964](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/pull/5964)
+
+#### Other
+
+* **Add a shared namespace label for cross-namespace content sharing** [#5043](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/pull/5043)
+* **Add support for client TLS Auth for grpc** [#5606](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/pull/5606)
+* **Add xfs support for devicemapper snapshotter** [#5610](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/pull/5610)
+* **Add metric exposing build version and revision** [#5965](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/pull/5965)
+
+#### Client
+
+* **Allow WithServices to use custom implementations** [#5709](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/pull/5709)
+* **Support custom compressor for walking differ** [#5735](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/pull/5735)
+
+See the changelog for complete list of changes"""
diff --git a/version/version.go b/version/version.go
index 2edefa3c7..83fb9313f 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 = "1.5.0+unknown"
+	Version = "1.6.0-beta.0+unknown"
 
 	// Revision is filled with the VCS (e.g. git) revision being used to build
 	// the program at linking time.