diff --git a/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/release-checklist.md b/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/release-checklist.md
index 762954bc..80a98f83 100644
--- a/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/release-checklist.md
+++ b/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/release-checklist.md
@@ -20,3 +20,8 @@ Full release instructions are at: [RELEASING.md](/sigstore/sigstore-java/blob/ma
 - [ ] [sigstore-java](https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/dev/sigstore/sigstore-java)
 - [ ] [sigstore-maven-plugin](https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/dev/sigstore/sigstore-maven-plugin)
 - [ ] sigstore-gradle-plugin [[base](https://plugins.gradle.org/plugin/dev.sigstore.sign-base)], [[sign](https://plugins.gradle.org/plugin/dev.sigstore.sign)]
+
+## Post Release
+- [ ] Update README if required
+- [ ] Update versions (`./scripts/update_version.sh`)
+- [ ] Update CHANGELOG.md
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index d30d2c17..9d2c7859 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,10 +1,15 @@
 .gradle
 /build
-/*/build
+/**/build
 /out
-/*/out
+/**/out
 /http
 
+/target
+/**/target
+.mvn/timing.properties
+.mvn/wrapper/maven-wrapper.jar
+
 # For occasional use of https://github.com/melix/includegit-gradle-plugin
 /checkouts
 
@@ -20,6 +25,9 @@
 .classpath
 .project
 .DS_Store
+.vscode
+.factorypath
 
 # except this icon
 !/.idea/icon.png
+
diff --git a/RELEASING.md b/RELEASING.md
index 2328fda8..3ed296a4 100644
--- a/RELEASING.md
+++ b/RELEASING.md
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 
 Release is done on github. Do not release from your local machine.
 
+## Create an issue
+
+Create a release issue using the release template
+
 ## Create a tag
 
 Tag the release at the version you wish (ex `v0.5.3`), this *MUST* match the project version (`0.5.3`). See version info in [gradle.properties](gradle.properties).
diff --git a/gradle.properties b/gradle.properties
index cf80046d..585f21d9 100644
--- a/gradle.properties
+++ b/gradle.properties
@@ -4,7 +4,5 @@ systemProp.org.gradle.kotlin.dsl.precompiled.accessors.strict=true
 
 group=dev.sigstore
 
-# remember to also update version in
-# - SigstoreSignExtension.kt
-# - build-logic/publishing/build.gradle.kts 
+# use the ./scripts/update_version.sh script to update all versions
 version=0.12.0
diff --git a/scripts/.gitignore b/scripts/.gitignore
deleted file mode 100644
index 94e33d94..00000000
--- a/scripts/.gitignore
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-release_*/
diff --git a/scripts/sign_and_bundle_release.sh b/scripts/sign_and_bundle_release.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index f64305e7..00000000
--- a/scripts/sign_and_bundle_release.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,57 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-set -e
-
-# ask github for the latest release
-# todo: maybe change to take an input
-echo "downloading latest release from github"
-RELEASE_INFO=$(curl -s -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" https://api.github.com/repos/sigstore/sigstore-java/releases/latest)
-RELEASE_VERSION="$(echo "$RELEASE_INFO" | jq -r '.tag_name')"
-RELEASE_DIR="release_${RELEASE_VERSION}"
-
-echo "release version is: ${RELEASE_VERSION}"
-
-if [ -d "$RELEASE_DIR" ]; then
-  echo "Directory '$RELEASE_DIR' already exists"
-  exit 1
-fi
-
-# query the json for all the release assets
-readarray -t ASSET_URLS < <(echo "$RELEASE_INFO" | jq -r '.assets[].browser_download_url')
-
-echo "downloading release artifacts"
-for i in "${ASSET_URLS[@]}"
-do
-  echo "$i"
-  wget -q --directory-prefix "$RELEASE_DIR" "$i"
-done
-cd "$RELEASE_DIR"
-
-# cosign sign all the files
-echo "signing with sigstore-java cli"
-for file in *; do
-  # skip intoto attestations, they are already signed
-  if [[ $file == *.intoto.jsonl ]] ; then
-    continue;
-  fi
-  fileabs=$(realpath "$file")
-  # gradle doesn't like running from the "release dir"
-  (cd ../../ && ./gradlew :sigstore-cli:run --args "sign --bundle $fileabs.sigstore $fileabs")
-done
-
-# then gpg sign all the files (including sigstore files)
-# this command uses gpgs default password acceptance mechansim accept a passcode
-echo "signing with gpg"
-for file in *; do
-  if [[ $file == *.sigstore ]]; then
-    continue;
-  fi
-  gpg --batch --detach-sign --armor -o "$file".asc "$file"
-done
-
-# create a maven central compatible bundle jar
-echo "creating maven bundle"
-POM=$(ls ./*.pom)
-BUNDLE_NAME=${POM%.pom}-bundle.jar
-jar -cvf "${BUNDLE_NAME}" ./*
-
-echo "Upload $(realpath "$BUNDLE_NAME") to maven central (https://s01.oss.sonatype.org)"
diff --git a/scripts/update_versions.sh b/scripts/update_versions.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..9ecd369a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/update_versions.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# this script is simple and should work for most usecases, but it may break if we do weird things
+set -Eeo pipefail
+
+calculated_release_version=$(grep "^version=" gradle.properties | cut -d'=' -f2)
+read -r -p "Enter released version [${calculated_release_version}]: " vin
+release_version=${vin:-${calculated_release_version}}
+
+calculated_previous_version=$(grep "sigstore-gradle-sign-plugin" build-logic/publishing/build.gradle.kts | cut -d':' -f3 | cut -d'"' -f1)
+read -r -p "Enter previous version [${calculated_previous_version}]: " pvin
+previous_version=${pvin:-${calculated_previous_version}}
+
+calculated_next_version=$(echo "$release_version" | awk -F. -v OFS=. '{$2 += 1 ; print}')
+read -r -p "Enter next version [${calculated_next_version}]: " nvin
+next_version=${nvin:-${calculated_next_version}}
+
+echo ""
+echo "previous: $previous_version"
+echo "latest  : $release_version"
+echo "next    : $next_version"
+read -r -p "Run update? [y/N]: " yn
+go=${yn:-"n"}
+if [ "${go,,}" != "y" ]; then
+  echo "aborting"
+  exit
+fi
+
+# sed below is probably accepting .'s in versions as regex any chars, but this works for our purposes
+
+# updates to new release version
+sed -i "s/\(sigstore-gradle-sign-plugin:\)$previous_version/\1$release_version/" build-logic/publishing/build.gradle.kts
+sed -i "s/\(<version>\)$previous_version/\1$release_version/" sigstore-maven-plugin/README.md
+sed -i "s/\(dev.sigstore.sign\") version \"\)$previous_version/\1$release_version/" sigstore-gradle/README.md
+
+# update to latest dev version
+sed -i "s/\(sigstoreJavaVersion.convention(\"\)$release_version/\1$next_version/" sigstore-gradle/sigstore-gradle-sign-base-plugin/src/main/kotlin/dev/sigstore/sign/SigstoreSignExtension.kt
+sed -i "s/version=$release_version/version=$next_version/" gradle.properties
diff --git a/sigstore-gradle/README.md b/sigstore-gradle/README.md
index 5248ee31..02026eaa 100644
--- a/sigstore-gradle/README.md
+++ b/sigstore-gradle/README.md
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ Signature format uses [Sigstore bundle](https://github.com/sigstore/protobuf-spe
 
 ```kotlin
 plugins {
-    id("dev.sigstore.sign")
+    id("dev.sigstore.sign") version "0.11.0"
 }
 
 // Automatically sign all Maven publications, using GitHub Actions OIDC when available,
diff --git a/sigstore-maven-plugin/.gitignore b/sigstore-maven-plugin/.gitignore
deleted file mode 100644
index 605bac49..00000000
--- a/sigstore-maven-plugin/.gitignore
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,24 +0,0 @@
-.vscode
-.factorypath
-.project
-.classpath
-.settings/
-*.iml
-*.ipr
-.idea
-*.class
-*.jar
-target/
-pom.xml.tag
-pom.xml.releaseBackup
-pom.xml.versionsBackup
-pom.xml.next
-pom.xml.bak
-release.properties
-dependency-reduced-pom.xml
-buildNumber.properties
-.mvn/timing.properties
-.mvn/wrapper/maven-wrapper.jar
-.apt_generated/
-.apt_generated_tests/
-bin/