diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-please.yml b/.github/workflows/release-please.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5dd0b20
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/release-please.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+name: release-please
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches:
+      - main
+
+permissions:
+  contents: write
+  pull-requests: write
+
+jobs:
+  release-please:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - uses: googleapis/release-please-action@v4
+        id: release
+        with:
+          token: ${{ secrets.RELEASE_PLEASE_TOKEN }}
+          config-file: release-please-config.json
+          manifest-file: .release-please-manifest.json
diff --git a/.release-please-manifest.json b/.release-please-manifest.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9965a34
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.release-please-manifest.json
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+{
+  ".": "2.3.0"
+}
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index c9157e7..5f88f03 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -7,6 +7,9 @@ API for accessing the gendercomics.net database
 Documentation: https://api.gendercomics.net/swagger-ui.html
 
 ## Release Notes
+
+Release notes for 2.3.0 and earlier are recorded here manually. Starting with the next release, see [CHANGELOG.md](CHANGELOG.md), generated automatically by release-please.
+
 ---
 ### gendercomics-api-2.3.0
 - new endpoint for downloading search results as txt file
diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 1351669..87e5733 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ plugins {
 }
 
 group = 'net.gendercomics.api'
-version = '2.3.0'
+version = '2.3.0' // x-release-please-version
 
 java {
     toolchain {
diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
index 3994438..81aa1c0 100644
--- a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
+++ b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 distributionPath=wrapper/dists
-distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-7.6.4-bin.zip
+distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.11.1-bin.zip
 zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
diff --git a/release-please-config.json b/release-please-config.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cccd514
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release-please-config.json
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+{
+  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/googleapis/release-please/main/schemas/config.json",
+  "release-type": "simple",
+  "include-component-in-tag": false,
+  "packages": {
+    ".": {
+      "release-type": "simple",
+      "include-component-in-tag": false,
+      "changelog-path": "CHANGELOG.md",
+      "extra-files": [
+        { "type": "generic", "path": "build.gradle" }
+      ]
+    }
+  }
+}