diff --git a/.release-please-manifest.json b/.release-please-manifest.json
index ff500aa57..ef13a496c 100644
--- a/.release-please-manifest.json
+++ b/.release-please-manifest.json
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 {
-  "dwctl": "8.44.3"
+  "dwctl": "8.45.0"
 }
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 1be5acd44..b06b779ff 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,12 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## [8.45.0](https://github.com/doublewordai/control-layer/compare/v8.44.3...v8.45.0) (2026-04-30)
+
+
+### Features
+
+* dwctl migration for multi-step response analytics linkage ([#1036](https://github.com/doublewordai/control-layer/issues/1036)) ([d9eb4bd](https://github.com/doublewordai/control-layer/commit/d9eb4bd562b507183cf8cb2dc6f64fab78b7bff9))
+
 ## [8.44.3](https://github.com/doublewordai/control-layer/compare/v8.44.2...v8.44.3) (2026-04-28)
 
 
diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 913009bbf..622ce3bd4 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -1871,7 +1871,7 @@ checksum = "92773504d58c093f6de2459af4af33faa518c13451eb8f2b5698ed3d36e7c813"
 
 [[package]]
 name = "dwctl"
-version = "8.44.3"
+version = "8.45.0"
 dependencies = [
  "aes-gcm",
  "anyhow",
diff --git a/dwctl/Cargo.lock b/dwctl/Cargo.lock
index 5963088ad..477991eda 100644
--- a/dwctl/Cargo.lock
+++ b/dwctl/Cargo.lock
@@ -1178,7 +1178,7 @@ checksum = "1aaf95b3e5c8f23aa320147307562d361db0ae0d51242340f558153b4eb2439b"
 
 [[package]]
 name = "dwctl"
-version = "8.44.3"
+version = "8.45.0"
 dependencies = [
  "aes-gcm",
  "anyhow",
diff --git a/dwctl/Cargo.toml b/dwctl/Cargo.toml
index 8724c1828..6784853e1 100644
--- a/dwctl/Cargo.toml
+++ b/dwctl/Cargo.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [package]
 name = "dwctl"
-version = "8.44.3"
+version = "8.45.0"
 edition = "2024"
 description = "The Doubleword Control Layer - A self-hostable observability and analytics platform for LLM applications"
 license = "MIT OR Apache-2.0"