diff --git a/.release-please-manifest.json b/.release-please-manifest.json
index 0d1bebe..093be7e 100644
--- a/.release-please-manifest.json
+++ b/.release-please-manifest.json
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 {
-  ".": "1.6.0"
+  ".": "1.6.1"
 }
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 73df260..36870db 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,23 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## [1.6.1](https://github.com/runpod-workers/flash/compare/v1.6.0...v1.6.1) (2026-10-23)
+
+
+### Bug Fixes
+
+* **deps:** bump hf_xet>=1.6.0 so HF_ENDPOINT proxying works for Xet downloads ([#110](https://github.com/runpod-workers/flash/issues/110)) ([f8ef245](https://github.com/runpod-workers/flash/commit/f8ef245b032cfedd4b0d15111899f2ec3209fe1a))
+
+
+### Performance Improvements
+
+* **docker:** precompile Python bytecode in worker images ([#114](https://github.com/runpod-workers/flash/issues/114)) ([4ddd481](https://github.com/runpod-workers/flash/commit/4ddd4810cf8130a4dc073cf26ec64620a6c5732c))
+* **unpack:** poll for the build artifact under a deadline ([#115](https://github.com/runpod-workers/flash/issues/115)) ([ef3f8ea](https://github.com/runpod-workers/flash/commit/ef3f8eaef84af945dce7974b3890e9b05950c8c0))
+
+
+### Documentation
+
+* spell Runpod with one capital letter in the README ([#111](https://github.com/runpod-workers/flash/issues/111)) ([f42dc25](https://github.com/runpod-workers/flash/commit/f42dc257d6ab77f184a2a90e8349a9dd37f92d1d))
+
 ## [1.6.0](https://github.com/runpod-workers/flash/compare/v1.5.0...v1.6.0) (2026-08-20)
 
 
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index e49b709..6b0c590 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [project]
 name = "worker-flash"
-version = "1.6.0"
+version = "1.6.1"
 description = "Dynamic GPU provisioning for ML workloads with transparent execution"
 readme = "README.md"
 requires-python = ">=3.10,<3.14"
diff --git a/src/version.py b/src/version.py
index 17c7386..fc3ce56 100644
--- a/src/version.py
+++ b/src/version.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 import sys
 from importlib.metadata import PackageNotFoundError, version
 
-__version__ = "1.6.0"  # x-release-please-version
+__version__ = "1.6.1"  # x-release-please-version
 
 
 class PythonVersionMismatchError(RuntimeError):