diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 30f4267..688f392 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 09/10/2026
+- release 1.8.1
 - coalesce concurrent introspection cache misses for the same token, allowing
   waiting requests to share successful and failed results
 - make introspection coordination honor explicit cache bypass and isolate
diff --git a/lib/resty/openidc.lua b/lib/resty/openidc.lua
index 838ce94..0bcfe76 100644
--- a/lib/resty/openidc.lua
+++ b/lib/resty/openidc.lua
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ local supported_token_auth_methods = {
 }
 
 local openidc = {
-  _VERSION = "1.8.0"
+  _VERSION = "1.8.1"
 }
 openidc.__index = openidc
 
diff --git a/rockspec/api7-lua-resty-openidc-1.8.1-0.rockspec b/rockspec/api7-lua-resty-openidc-1.8.1-0.rockspec
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a37f430
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rockspec/api7-lua-resty-openidc-1.8.1-0.rockspec
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+package = "api7-lua-resty-openidc"
+version = "1.8.1-0"
+source = {
+    url = "git://github.com/api7/lua-resty-openidc",
+    tag = "v1.8.1"
+}
+description = {
+    summary = "A library for NGINX implementing OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.0",
+    detailed = [[
+        lua-resty-openidc is a library for NGINX implementing the OpenID Connect Relying Party (RP) and the OAuth 2.0 Resource Server (RS) functionality.
+
+        When used as an OpenID Connect Relying Party it authenticates users against an OpenID Connect Provider using OpenID Connect Discovery and the Basic Client Profile (i.e. the Authorization Code flow). When used as an OAuth 2.0 Resource Server it can validate OAuth 2.0 Bearer Access Tokens against an Authorization Server or, in case a JSON Web Token is used for an Access Token, verification can happen against a pre-configured secret/key.
+
+        It maintains sessions for authenticated users by leveraging lua-resty-session, offering a configurable choice between storing the session state in a client-side browser cookie or using shared-memory, memcache, or Redis server-side storage.
+
+        It supports server-wide caching of resolved Discovery documents and validated Access Tokens.
+    ]],
+    homepage = "https://github.com/api7/lua-resty-openidc",
+    license = "Apache 2.0"
+}
+dependencies = {
+    "lua >= 5.1",
+    "lua-resty-http >= 0.08",
+    "lua-resty-session >= 4.0.3",
+    "lua-resty-jwt >= 0.2.0"
+}
+build = {
+    type = "builtin",
+    modules = {
+        ["resty.openidc"] = "lib/resty/openidc.lua"
+    }
+}