diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index a4d71455a4..5a405139a6 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2.3.5 to 2.3.6rc1:
+  - skip possible JVM msg in voms-proxy-info output. Fix #12075 (Stefano Belforte) #12076
+  - Fix patchComponent logic to find the correct python lib && Add logic to zero the codebase before every patch to the version/tag deployed at the host (Todor Ivanov) #12074
+  - Catch exit code for the xrdcp command and use it to generate the exit code of the script (Andrea Piccinelli) #12058
+
+
 2.3.5rc3 to 2.3.5:
   - Just cutting the final stable release
 
diff --git a/src/python/WMCore/__init__.py b/src/python/WMCore/__init__.py
index 86d7bc04f4..7b98ef0ea4 100644
--- a/src/python/WMCore/__init__.py
+++ b/src/python/WMCore/__init__.py
@@ -6,5 +6,5 @@
 
 """
 
-__version__ = '2.3.5'
+__version__ = '2.3.6rc1'
 __all__ = []