diff --git a/.github/workflows/publish_to_pypi.yaml b/.github/workflows/publish_to_pypi.yaml
index a48320e2a..d73aeccb1 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/publish_to_pypi.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/publish_to_pypi.yaml
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ on:
       - master
     tags:
       - '*'
+  # Release Please dispatches this at the new tag; a tag it pushes starts no run by itself.
+  workflow_dispatch:
 
 concurrency:
   group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.event.pull_request.number || github.ref }}
@@ -73,7 +75,7 @@ jobs:
   publish-testpypi:
     name: Publish wheels and source distribution to Test PyPI
     runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
-    if: github.event_name == 'push'
+    if: github.event_name == 'push' || github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch'
     permissions:
       id-token: write
     needs:
@@ -97,7 +99,7 @@ jobs:
   publish-pypi:
     name: Publish wheels and source distribution to PyPI
     runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
-    if: github.event_name == 'push' && startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags') && !contains(github.ref, '-rc')
+    if: (github.event_name == 'push' || github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch') && startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags') && !contains(github.ref, '-rc')
     permissions:
       id-token: write
     needs:
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-please.yaml b/.github/workflows/release-please.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d71b21c09
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/release-please.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Institute for Automation of Complex Power Systems, EONERC, RWTH Aachen University
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: MPL-2.0
+
+name: Release Please
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches: [master]
+  workflow_dispatch:
+
+permissions:
+  actions: write
+  contents: write
+  pull-requests: write
+
+jobs:
+  release-please:
+    name: Prepare Release
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - id: release
+        uses: googleapis/release-please-action@v4
+        with:
+          token: ${{ secrets.RELEASE_PLEASE_TOKEN || secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+          target-branch: master
+
+      # A tag pushed with GITHUB_TOKEN starts no workflow, but a dispatch always does.
+      - name: Start the publish pipeline
+        if: steps.release.outputs.release_created == 'true'
+        env:
+          GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+          TAG: ${{ steps.release.outputs.tag_name }}
+        run: gh workflow run publish_to_pypi.yaml --repo "${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}" --ref "${TAG}"
diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
index 2163547fc..2014377fa 100644
--- a/.pre-commit-config.yaml
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -47,4 +47,6 @@ repos:
     rev: "v0.13.0"
     hooks:
       - id: markdownlint
+        # CHANGELOG.md is generated by Release Please and trips MD012.
+        exclude: ^CHANGELOG\.md$
         args: [-r, "~MD013,~MD033,~MD024"]
diff --git a/.release-please-manifest.json b/.release-please-manifest.json
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..41ea87d76
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.release-please-manifest.json
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+{
+  ".": "1.2.1"
+}
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 1bf0b1246..6089525d8 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # Please keep 3.14 as minimum requirement for building on OPAL-RT targets
 cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.14...3.23)
 project(DPsim
-		VERSION 1.2.1
+		VERSION 1.2.1 # x-release-please-version
 		DESCRIPTION "C++ Power System Simulation Library"
 		LANGUAGES CXX
 		HOMEPAGE_URL "https://dpsim.fein-aachen.org/")
diff --git a/release-please-config.json b/release-please-config.json
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bb9e7fb82
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release-please-config.json
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+{
+  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/googleapis/release-please/main/schemas/config.json",
+  "release-type": "simple",
+  "changelog-sections": [
+    {
+      "type": "feat",
+      "section": "Added"
+    },
+    {
+      "type": "fix",
+      "section": "Fixed"
+    },
+    {
+      "type": "perf",
+      "section": "Changed"
+    },
+    {
+      "type": "refactor",
+      "section": "Changed"
+    },
+    {
+      "type": "revert",
+      "section": "Removed"
+    },
+    {
+      "type": "security",
+      "section": "Security"
+    },
+    {
+      "type": "docs",
+      "section": "Documentation"
+    },
+    {
+      "type": "build",
+      "section": "Changed",
+      "hidden": true
+    },
+    {
+      "type": "chore",
+      "section": "Changed",
+      "hidden": true
+    },
+    {
+      "type": "ci",
+      "section": "Changed",
+      "hidden": true
+    },
+    {
+      "type": "style",
+      "section": "Changed",
+      "hidden": true
+    },
+    {
+      "type": "test",
+      "section": "Changed",
+      "hidden": true
+    }
+  ],
+  "packages": {
+    ".": {
+      "extra-files": [
+        "CMakeLists.txt",
+        {
+          "type": "toml",
+          "path": "pyproject.toml",
+          "jsonpath": "$.project.version"
+        }
+      ]
+    }
+  }
+}