diff --git a/.zenodo.json b/.zenodo.json
index 086c732a3a8..69cf838ad33 100644
--- a/.zenodo.json
+++ b/.zenodo.json
@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 {
     "description": "Mirror of the Sage https://sagemath.org/ source tree", 
     "license": "other-open", 
-    "title": "sagemath/sage: 9.5", 
-    "version": "9.5", 
+    "title": "sagemath/sage: 9.6.beta0", 
+    "version": "9.6.beta0", 
     "upload_type": "software", 
-    "publication_date": "2022-01-30", 
+    "publication_date": "2022-02-06", 
     "creators": [
         {
             "affiliation": "SageMath.org", 
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
     "related_identifiers": [
         {
             "scheme": "url", 
-            "identifier": "https://github.com/sagemath/sage/tree/9.5", 
+            "identifier": "https://github.com/sagemath/sage/tree/9.6.beta0", 
             "relation": "isSupplementTo"
         }, 
         {
diff --git a/VERSION.txt b/VERSION.txt
index 827f1d6e33c..cff01409a82 100644
--- a/VERSION.txt
+++ b/VERSION.txt
@@ -1 +1 @@
-SageMath version 9.5, Release Date: 2022-01-30
+SageMath version 9.6.beta0, Release Date: 2022-02-06
diff --git a/build/pkgs/configure/checksums.ini b/build/pkgs/configure/checksums.ini
index 22c2d567889..b63fee268ff 100644
--- a/build/pkgs/configure/checksums.ini
+++ b/build/pkgs/configure/checksums.ini
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 tarball=configure-VERSION.tar.gz
-sha1=7ec1064ce4cb90e8371ac32e3a8c714894349dc6
-md5=c40e4cf73141e24bdbdc7afed003f68d
-cksum=1692160962
+sha1=345924fc41ea858557c397fb38060606c868b0bd
+md5=2e5d32301a1c1debf4ec508ebc157ec2
+cksum=1618326589
diff --git a/build/pkgs/configure/package-version.txt b/build/pkgs/configure/package-version.txt
index 8534a5b4f36..ab3c5791e4a 100644
--- a/build/pkgs/configure/package-version.txt
+++ b/build/pkgs/configure/package-version.txt
@@ -1 +1 @@
-1438b18c19fcba77d503f66374d843b92fdc1793
+f0df3d8b40169709426fd20a9f71cdcb30851c90
diff --git a/build/pkgs/sagelib/package-version.txt b/build/pkgs/sagelib/package-version.txt
index 592f36ef3a9..84891528bce 100644
--- a/build/pkgs/sagelib/package-version.txt
+++ b/build/pkgs/sagelib/package-version.txt
@@ -1 +1 @@
-9.5
+9.6.beta0
diff --git a/src/VERSION.txt b/src/VERSION.txt
index 592f36ef3a9..84891528bce 100644
--- a/src/VERSION.txt
+++ b/src/VERSION.txt
@@ -1 +1 @@
-9.5
+9.6.beta0
diff --git a/src/bin/sage-version.sh b/src/bin/sage-version.sh
index f87efdc9e13..dd91a5f5d2c 100644
--- a/src/bin/sage-version.sh
+++ b/src/bin/sage-version.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # Sage version information for shell scripts
 # This file is auto-generated by the sage-update-version script, do not edit!
-SAGE_VERSION='9.5'
-SAGE_RELEASE_DATE='2022-01-30'
-SAGE_VERSION_BANNER='SageMath version 9.5, Release Date: 2022-01-30'
+SAGE_VERSION='9.6.beta0'
+SAGE_RELEASE_DATE='2022-02-06'
+SAGE_VERSION_BANNER='SageMath version 9.6.beta0, Release Date: 2022-02-06'
diff --git a/src/sage/version.py b/src/sage/version.py
index f390b8bc900..9df213893d6 100644
--- a/src/sage/version.py
+++ b/src/sage/version.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # Sage version information for Python scripts
 # This file is auto-generated by the sage-update-version script, do not edit!
-version = '9.5'
-date = '2022-01-30'
-banner = 'SageMath version 9.5, Release Date: 2022-01-30'
+version = '9.6.beta0'
+date = '2022-02-06'
+banner = 'SageMath version 9.6.beta0, Release Date: 2022-02-06'