diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 7623f54..343fd6f 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+## [1.0.0-beta.1] - 2026-09-06
+
 ### Added
 - `AbstractApiClient` — fluent, driver-based outbound HTTP client with declarative
   endpoint definitions, path/query interpolation, per-endpoint mock/live switching,
@@ -22,3 +24,6 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
   `ExtractsTolerantFields` trait for casing-tolerant parsing of inconsistent third-party APIs.
 - Laravel 13 support (`illuminate/*` `^13.0`), tested in CI on PHP 8.3 and 8.4 against
   `orchestra/testbench` `^11.0`. Laravel 11 and 12 remain supported.
+
+[Unreleased]: https://github.com/IFDS-OSS/interchange/compare/v1.0.0-beta.1...HEAD
+[1.0.0-beta.1]: https://github.com/IFDS-OSS/interchange/releases/tag/v1.0.0-beta.1
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index e301220..d0c738d 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,11 +1,8 @@
 # Interchange
 
 [![Tests](https://github.com/IFDS-OSS/interchange/actions/workflows/tests.yml/badge.svg?branch=master)](https://github.com/IFDS-OSS/interchange/actions/workflows/tests.yml)
-[![License](https://img.shields.io/github/license/IFDS-OSS/interchange.svg)](LICENSE)
-
-<!-- Restore once the package is published on Packagist:
-[![Latest Version](https://img.shields.io/packagist/v/ifds-oss/interchange.svg)](https://packagist.org/packages/ifds-oss/interchange)
--->
+[![License](https://img.shields.io/badge/license-MIT-blue.svg)](LICENSE)
+[![Latest Version](https://img.shields.io/packagist/v/ifds-oss/interchange.svg?include_prereleases)](https://packagist.org/packages/ifds-oss/interchange)
 
 A driver-based outbound HTTP integration layer for Laravel. Define each third-party
 API as a small **client class** with declarative endpoints, then call it through a
@@ -37,9 +34,14 @@ package extracts that into a single abstraction:
 ## Installation
 
 ```bash
-composer require ifds-oss/interchange
+composer require ifds-oss/interchange:^1.0@beta
 ```
 
+The current release is a pre-release, so Composer needs to be told the beta is
+acceptable — either with the `@beta` suffix above, or by setting
+`"minimum-stability": "beta"` in your `composer.json`. Once 1.0.0 is tagged,
+plain `composer require ifds-oss/interchange` will work.
+
 The service provider and the `Interchange` facade alias are auto-discovered. Publish
 the config file if you want to customise it: