diff --git a/.release-please-manifest.json b/.release-please-manifest.json
index 448d10afc..9bf38528e 100644
--- a/.release-please-manifest.json
+++ b/.release-please-manifest.json
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 {
-  ".": "5.4.0"
+  ".": "5.5.0"
 }
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 8f7f79e4e..43ef9f301 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -9,6 +9,19 @@ This file is maintained by [release-please](https://github.com/googleapis/releas
 from Conventional Commit messages; release sections are generated on release,
 not hand-edited in PRs.
 
+## [5.5.0](https://github.com/Brad-Edwards/aptl/compare/v5.4.0...v5.5.0) (2026-09-17)
+
+
+### Features
+
+* enforce scope-aware TechVault evidence capture ([#1046](https://github.com/Brad-Edwards/aptl/issues/1046)) ([042be31](https://github.com/Brad-Edwards/aptl/commit/042be3176a63fda24eef9e8267e6fce5212eb6c0))
+* **mcp:** resolve MCP client host ports from the lab's remapped publications ([#1047](https://github.com/Brad-Edwards/aptl/issues/1047)) ([eb618a9](https://github.com/Brad-Edwards/aptl/commit/eb618a940aa242c29ffe5fa6c80d21ce268cc9c4))
+
+
+### Bug Fixes
+
+* **certs:** run the Wazuh cert generator as container-root under rootless Docker ([#1044](https://github.com/Brad-Edwards/aptl/issues/1044)) ([6b65e71](https://github.com/Brad-Edwards/aptl/commit/6b65e71421a032c9512ff195dd3aaa7c85f838e1))
+
 ## [5.4.0](https://github.com/Brad-Edwards/aptl/compare/v5.3.1...v5.4.0) (2026-09-16)
 
 
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 7fd5cab3e..0406c6baa 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ build-backend = "hatchling.build"
 
 [project]
 name = "aptl-labs"
-version = "5.4.0"
+version = "5.5.0"
 description = "Advanced Purple Team Lab CLI"
 readme = "README.md"
 requires-python = ">=3.11"
diff --git a/src/aptl/__init__.py b/src/aptl/__init__.py
index 8f8008ef2..4bf53b4e2 100644
--- a/src/aptl/__init__.py
+++ b/src/aptl/__init__.py
@@ -6,4 +6,4 @@
 # pyproject.toml, not this src-layout __init__.py). Keep the annotation comment
 # on the same line as the literal, and keep the literal equal to pyproject's
 # `version` — test_version_consistency.py enforces the latter.
-__version__ = "5.4.0"  # x-release-please-version
+__version__ = "5.5.0"  # x-release-please-version