diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..92189894
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# Version 0.0.1 (2016-07-14)
+
+Initial alpha release. At this stage, major backwards-incompatible API changes are expected to happen.
diff --git a/q2_types/__init__.py b/q2_types/__init__.py
index 001a1242..cef55dfb 100644
--- a/q2_types/__init__.py
+++ b/q2_types/__init__.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 # The full license is in the file LICENSE, distributed with this software.
 # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-__version__ = "0.0.0-dev"  # noqa
+__version__ = "0.0.1"  # noqa
 
 from ._feature_table import (FeatureTable, Frequency, RelativeFrequency,
                              PresenceAbsence)
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 52f55b75..269ace3c 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 setup(
     name="q2-types",
     # TODO stop duplicating version string
-    version="0.0.0-dev",
+    version="0.0.1",
     packages=find_packages(),
     install_requires=['scikit-bio', 'qiime >= 2.0.0', 'pandas',
                       'biom-format >= 2.1.5, < 2.2.0', 'ijson'],