diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 1e207f4..654e1b9 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -1879,7 +1879,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "norgolith"
-version = "0.4.0"
+version = "0.5.0"
 dependencies = [
  "blake3",
  "chrono",
diff --git a/core/CHANGELOG.md b/core/CHANGELOG.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b56b88e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+# Changelog
+
+All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
+
+This project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html).
+## [0.5.0](https://github.com/norgolith/core/releases/tag/norgolith-v0.5.0) `norgolith` - 2026-06-30
+
+### Added
+- add SEO (sitemap.xml, robots.txt) and OpenGraph meta tags
+- *(sdk)* implement bridge functions and working register_plugin! macro
+
+### Fixed
+- rewrite plugin list output with vertical per-plugin layout
+- *(plugin)* harden plugin system
+- *(plugin)* remove double JSON extraction in hook handlers
+
+### Other
+- bump core to 0.5
+- small readme updates
+- ditch `optimized` Cargo profile
+- [**breaking**] rename binary from `norgolith` to `lith`
+- move to GPLv2 from GPLv3
+- Initial commit
diff --git a/core/Cargo.toml b/core/Cargo.toml
index b223259..7432ce8 100644
--- a/core/Cargo.toml
+++ b/core/Cargo.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [package]
 name = "norgolith"
-version = "0.4.0"
+version = "0.5.0"
 edition = "2021"
 authors = ["NTBBloodbath <bloodbathalchemist@protonmail.com"]
 license = "GPL-2.0"