diff --git a/.env b/.env
index 6be0991516..7cbb56bc79 100644
--- a/.env
+++ b/.env
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 
 
 # Images
-IMAGE_VERSION=0.0.1
+IMAGE_VERSION=1.0.0
 IMAGE_NAME=718306648796.dkr.ecr.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/opentelemetry-demo
 TRACETEST_IMAGE_VERSION=v0.14.5
 
diff --git a/.github/actions/deploy-demo/action.yaml b/.github/actions/deploy-demo/action.yaml
index b839298b81..bcbbf9fbff 100644
--- a/.github/actions/deploy-demo/action.yaml
+++ b/.github/actions/deploy-demo/action.yaml
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ inputs:
   containerImageVersion:
     description: 'version tag of the Dash0 OTel Demo container images, e.g. 1.1.0'
     required: true
+
 runs:
   using: "composite"
   steps:
@@ -27,8 +28,8 @@ runs:
       shell: bash
       run: |
         cd dash0-configuration
-        git add demo/environments/aws/demo-eu-west-1-demo.yaml
         git config user.name "github-actions[bot]"
         git config user.email "41898282+github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com"
-        git commit -am "chore(otel-demo): update otel-demo image version to ${{ inputs.containerImageVersion }}"
+        git add demo/environments/aws/demo-eu-west-1-demo.yaml
+        git commit -m"chore(otel-demo): update otel-demo image version to ${{ inputs.containerImageVersion }}"
         git push
diff --git a/.github/actions/update-env-file/action.yaml b/.github/actions/update-env-file/action.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4fc93d682a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/actions/update-env-file/action.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+# Copyright 2024 Dash0 Inc.
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+name: Deploy Dash0 OTel Demo
+description: deploy a release of the Dash0 fork of the OpenTelemetry demo
+inputs:
+  containerImageVersion:
+    description: 'version tag of the Dash0 OTel Demo container images, e.g. 1.1.0'
+    required: true
+
+runs:
+  using: "composite"
+  steps:
+    - name: check out code
+      uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      with:
+        ref: main
+
+    - name: update version in .env file
+      shell: bash
+      run: |
+        sed -i "s/^IMAGE_VERSION=[[:digit:]][[:digit:]]*\.[[:digit:]][[:digit:]]*\.[[:digit:]][[:digit:]]*$/IMAGE_VERSION=1.0.0/" .env
+        git --no-pager diff .env
+        git config user.name "github-actions[bot]"
+        git config user.email "41898282+github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com"
+        git add .env
+        git commit -m"[dash0] update image version in .env to ${{ inputs.containerImageVersion }}"
+        git push
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 55c311ff34..a85b6b1e66 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -27,3 +27,12 @@ jobs:
         with:
           token: ${{ secrets.REPOSITORY_FULL_ACCESS_GITHUB_TOKEN }}
           containerImageVersion: ${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}
+
+  update-release-in-env-file:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    concurrency: update-env-file
+    steps:
+      - name: update .env file
+        uses: ./.github/actions/update-env-file
+        with:
+          containerImageVersion: ${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}
diff --git a/.licenserc.json b/.licenserc.json
index 4d3095fd9b..f0bf0914dc 100644
--- a/.licenserc.json
+++ b/.licenserc.json
@@ -46,6 +46,6 @@
         "src/featureflagservice/priv/",
         "src/productcatalogservice/genproto/",
         "internal/tools/",
-        ".github/actions/deploy-demo/action.yaml"
+        ".github/actions/**"
     ]
   }
\ No newline at end of file