diff --git a/c2pa-native-version.txt b/c2pa-native-version.txt
index 3868092e..73475c1a 100644
--- a/c2pa-native-version.txt
+++ b/c2pa-native-version.txt
@@ -1 +1 @@
-c2pa-v0.89.0
+0.90.0-rc.1
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 518d1de5..0ea21bd4 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 
 [project]
 name = "c2pa-python"
-version = "0.36.0"
+version = "0.37.0"
 requires-python = ">=3.10"
 description = "Python bindings for the C2PA Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) library"
 readme = { file = "README.md", content-type = "text/markdown" }
diff --git a/src/c2pa/c2pa.py b/src/c2pa/c2pa.py
index 07f12ed4..5c3301e0 100644
--- a/src/c2pa/c2pa.py
+++ b/src/c2pa/c2pa.py
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@
 # specific language governing permissions and limitations under
 # each license.
 
+# c2pa-python v0.37.0
+
 import ctypes
 import enum
 import json