diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 5e41dc447..a07533369 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ endif()
 find_package( ecbuild 3.4 REQUIRED HINTS ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR} ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/../ecbuild ) # Before project()  
 
 # this will generate variables, see ACore/ecflow_version.h.in
-project( ecflow LANGUAGES CXX VERSION 5.11.4 )
+project( ecflow LANGUAGES CXX VERSION 5.12.0 )
 
 set(CMAKE_MODULE_PATH ${CMAKE_MODULE_PATH} ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake)
 
diff --git a/Pyext/ecflow/__init__.py b/Pyext/ecflow/__init__.py
index ae1dcd762..3cc27fd48 100644
--- a/Pyext/ecflow/__init__.py
+++ b/Pyext/ecflow/__init__.py
@@ -15,6 +15,6 @@
 The ecFlow python module
 """
 
-__version__ = '5.11.4'
+__version__ = '5.12.0'
 
 # http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13040646/how-do-i-create-documentation-with-pydoc
diff --git a/docs/conf.py b/docs/conf.py
index 1a90920ba..1fa215288 100644
--- a/docs/conf.py
+++ b/docs/conf.py
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@
 
 
 def get_ecflow_version():
-    version = "5.11.0"
+    version = "5.12.0"
     ecflow_version = version.split(".")
     print("Extracted ecflow version '" + str(ecflow_version))
     return ecflow_version
diff --git a/docs/release_notes/index.rst b/docs/release_notes/index.rst
index 22ba0a329..7cf45ca5f 100644
--- a/docs/release_notes/index.rst
+++ b/docs/release_notes/index.rst
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ Release notes
 .. toctree::
     :maxdepth: 1
 
+    version_5.12
     version_5.11.4
     version_5.11.3
     version_5.11.2
diff --git a/docs/release_notes/version_5.12.rst b/docs/release_notes/version_5.12.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..7ca139bf7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/release_notes/version_5.12.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+.. _version_5.12:
+
+Version 5.12 updates
+////////////////////
+
+.. role:: jiraissue
+   :class: hidden
+
+Version 5.12.0
+==============
+
+* `Released <https://confluence.ecmwf.int/display/ECFLOW/Releases>`__\  on 2024-02-13
+
+ecFlow Server
+-------------
+
+- **New Feature**: enabled hourly iteration (i.e. :code:`Repeat` based on yyyymmddTHHMMSS) :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1900`
+- **Improvement**: enabled the use of other ecFlow variables to define :code:`ECF_INCLUDE` :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1920`
+- **Improvement**: enabled atomic replacement of checkpoint file :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1925`
+- **Improvement**: improved indentation performance for checkpoint/definitions file storage :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1928`
+- **Bug** corrected logging of suite nodes changing state to *queued* :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1914`
+
+ecFlow Client
+-------------
+
+- **Bug** corrected handling of :code:`--debug` option on :code:`ecflow_client` :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1885`
+- **Bug** corrected handling of short form options (:code:`-d`, :code:`-v`, :code:`-h`) on :code:`ecflow_client` :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1884`
+- **Bug** corrected handling of Alter command with attribute value starting with :code:`--` (dashes) :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1883`
+- **Bug** removed options reported as commands in :code:`ecflow_client --help` output :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1874`
+
+ecFlow UI
+---------
+
+- **Improvement** enabled scrollable widget to display errors in timeline view :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1896`
+- **Improvement** corrected handling of commands tokens before executed in client :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1887`
+
+ecFlow HTTP
+-----------
+
+- **Improvement** enabled authentication for Task requests :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1921`
+- **Improvement** enabled compression of response payload :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1940`
+- **Improvement** enabled :code:`/<path>/tree` endpoint to access tree including node status information :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1939`
+- **Bug** updated :code:`/<path>/tree` endpoint response to preserve node order :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1910`
+- **Bug** updated :code:`/<path>/attributes` endpoint response to include generated variables :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1909`
+- **Bug** corrected handling of *queue* child command :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1937`
+- **Bug** corrected failing tests when using AOCC compiler on Atos HPC :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1882`
+
+General
+-------
+
+- **Improvement** reviewed project source code/include structure :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1932`
+- **Improvement** reviewed the unit/integration/system tests structure :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1934`
+- **Improvement** modernized/clean up of CMakeLists.txt :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1923`
+- **Improvement** silenced project configuration warnings when using CMake 3.27+ :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1936`
+- **Improvement** clean up of unused artefacts/documentation :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1929`
+- **Improvement** disabled ecflow_start/stop.sh execution on the Atos HPC :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1899`
+- **Bug** corrected compilation/linkage issue with Intel C++ compiler :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1913`
+- **Bug** corrected CMake configuration without HTTP support when a recent OpenSSL is not found :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1912`
+- **Bug** corrected failing builds of ecFlow on conda-forge :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1881`
+- **Bug** silenced compilation warnings :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1878`
+- **Documentation** clarified minimum SSL key size used by ecflow_server :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1907,ECFLOW-1904`
+- **Documentation** clarified "Build from source" instructions :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1930`
+- **Documentation** clarified Cron dependency description :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1903`
+- **Documentation** updated documentation dependencies at readthedocs :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1897`
+- **Documentation** corrected Python API documentation formatting :jiraissue:`ECFLOW-1886`