diff --git a/.github/workflows/cut_release_branch.yml b/.github/workflows/cut_release_branch.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..9ef5cd5f56f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/cut_release_branch.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,123 @@
+# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+# or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+# distributed with this work for additional information
+# regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+# to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+# "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+# with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+# software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+# "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+# KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+# specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+
+# This workflow will update apache beam master branch with next release version
+# and cut release branch for current development version.
+
+# To learn more about GitHub Actions in Apache Beam check the CI.md
+
+name: Cut Release Branch
+on:
+  workflow_dispatch:
+    inputs:
+      RELEASE_VERSION:
+        description: Beam version of current release
+        required: true
+      NEXT_VERSION:
+        description: Next release version
+        required: true
+
+jobs:
+  update_master:
+    runs-on: [self-hosted, ubuntu-20.04]
+    env:
+      MASTER_BRANCH: master
+      NEXT_RELEASE: ${{ github.event.inputs.NEXT_VERSION }}
+      SCRIPT_DIR: ./release/src/main/scripts
+    steps:
+      - name: Validate Next Version
+        run: |
+          if [[ $NEXT_RELEASE =~ ([0-9]\.[0-9]*\.[0-9]) ]]; then
+            NEXT_VERSION_IN_BASE_BRANCH=${BASH_REMATCH[1]}
+          fi
+          if [[ -z "$NEXT_VERSION_IN_BASE_BRANCH" ]]; then
+            echo "The input for NEXT_RELEASE does not match a valid format [0-9].[0-9].[0-9]"
+            exit 1
+          fi
+          echo "NEXT_VERSION_IN_BASE_BRANCH=${NEXT_VERSION_IN_BASE_BRANCH}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+      - name: Echo value
+        run: |
+          echo "NEXT_VERSION_IN_BASE_BRANCH: $NEXT_VERSION_IN_BASE_BRANCH"
+      - name: Check out code
+        uses: actions/checkout@v3
+      - name: Set git config
+        run: |
+          git config user.name $GITHUB_ACTOR
+          git config user.email actions@"$RUNNER_NAME".local
+      - name: Update master branch
+        run: |
+          bash "${SCRIPT_DIR}/set_version.sh" "${NEXT_VERSION_IN_BASE_BRANCH}"
+          echo "==============Update master branch as following================"
+          git diff
+          echo "==============================================================="
+      - name: Commit and Push to master branch files with Next Version
+        run: |
+          git add buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/apache/beam/gradle/BeamModulePlugin.groovy
+          git add gradle.properties
+          git add sdks/python/apache_beam/version.py
+          git add sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/core.go
+          git commit -m "Moving to ${NEXT_VERSION_IN_BASE_BRANCH}-SNAPSHOT on master branch."
+          git push origin ${MASTER_BRANCH}
+
+  update_release_branch:
+    runs-on: [self-hosted, ubuntu-20.04]
+    env:
+      RELEASE: ${{ github.event.inputs.RELEASE_VERSION }}
+    steps:
+      - name: Validate Release Version
+        run: |
+          if [[ ${RELEASE} =~ ([0-9]\.[0-9]*\.[0-9]) ]]; then
+            RELEASE_VERSION=${BASH_REMATCH[1]}
+          fi
+          if [[ -z "$RELEASE_VERSION" ]]; then
+            echo "The input for RELEASE does not match a valid format [0-9].[0-9].[0-9]"
+            exit 1
+          fi
+          echo "RELEASE_VERSION=${RELEASE_VERSION}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+          echo "RELEASE_BRANCH=release-${RELEASE}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+      - name: Echo value
+        run: |
+          echo "RELEASE_VERSION: ${RELEASE_VERSION}"
+      - name: Check out code
+        uses: actions/checkout@v3
+      - name: Set git config
+        run: |
+          git config user.name $GITHUB_ACTOR
+          git config user.email actions@"$RUNNER_NAME".local
+      - name: Checkout to release branch
+        run: |
+          git checkout -b ${RELEASE_BRANCH}
+          echo "==================Current working branch======================="
+          echo ${RELEASE_BRANCH}
+          echo "==============================================================="
+      - name: Update release version for dataflow runner
+        run: |
+          sed -i -e "s/'beam-master-.*'/'${RELEASE}'/g" \
+          runners/google-cloud-dataflow-java/build.gradle
+          echo "===============Update release branch as following=============="
+          git diff
+          echo "==============================================================="
+      - name: Commit and Push to release branch
+        run: |
+          git add runners/google-cloud-dataflow-java/build.gradle
+          git commit -m "Set Dataflow container to release version."
+          git push --set-upstream origin ${RELEASE_BRANCH}
+
+
+
+
+
diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/apache/beam/gradle/BeamModulePlugin.groovy b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/apache/beam/gradle/BeamModulePlugin.groovy
index 6aa2e4859c59..f8cec4b212d5 100644
--- a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/apache/beam/gradle/BeamModulePlugin.groovy
+++ b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/apache/beam/gradle/BeamModulePlugin.groovy
@@ -390,7 +390,7 @@ class BeamModulePlugin implements Plugin<Project> {
 
     // Automatically use the official release version if we are performing a release
     // otherwise append '-SNAPSHOT'
-    project.version = '2.44.0'
+    project.version = '2.45.0'
     if (!isRelease(project)) {
       project.version += '-SNAPSHOT'
     }
diff --git a/gradle.properties b/gradle.properties
index d6dd324049b8..3f53986ce100 100644
--- a/gradle.properties
+++ b/gradle.properties
@@ -29,8 +29,8 @@ signing.gnupg.useLegacyGpg=true
 # buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/apache/beam/gradle/BeamModulePlugin.groovy.
 # To build a custom Beam version make sure you change it in both places, see
 # https://github.com/apache/beam/issues/21302.
-version=2.44.0-SNAPSHOT
-sdk_version=2.44.0.dev
+version=2.45.0-SNAPSHOT
+sdk_version=2.45.0.dev
 
 javaVersion=1.8
 
diff --git a/sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/core.go b/sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/core.go
index bec6071baba5..8dbab406f2c4 100644
--- a/sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/core.go
+++ b/sdks/go/pkg/beam/core/core.go
@@ -27,5 +27,5 @@ const (
 	// SdkName is the human readable name of the SDK for UserAgents.
 	SdkName = "Apache Beam SDK for Go"
 	// SdkVersion is the current version of the SDK.
-	SdkVersion = "2.44.0.dev"
+	SdkVersion = "2.45.0.dev"
 )
diff --git a/sdks/python/apache_beam/version.py b/sdks/python/apache_beam/version.py
index 383050895938..4d21e456ce60 100644
--- a/sdks/python/apache_beam/version.py
+++ b/sdks/python/apache_beam/version.py
@@ -17,4 +17,4 @@
 
 """Apache Beam SDK version information and utilities."""
 
-__version__ = '2.44.0.dev'
+__version__ = '2.45.0.dev'
diff --git a/sdks/python/setup.py b/sdks/python/setup.py
index 61858fa5d978..55bc89145a3f 100644
--- a/sdks/python/setup.py
+++ b/sdks/python/setup.py
@@ -285,7 +285,7 @@ def get_portability_package_data():
             'requests_mock>=1.7,<2.0',
             'tenacity>=5.0.2,<6.0',
             'pytest>=7.1.2,<8.0',
-            'pytest-xdist>=2.5.0,<3',
+            'pytest-xdist>=2.5.0,<4',
             'pytest-timeout>=2.1.0,<3',
             'scikit-learn>=0.20.0',
             'sqlalchemy>=1.3,<2.0',