diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index 821125d..9c8220e 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ jobs:
       - run:
           name: go_test
           command: go test -v ./...
+      - run: make verify-licenses
 
   build:
     executor: linuxgo
diff --git a/.go-version b/.go-version
index f5b00dc..14bee92 100644
--- a/.go-version
+++ b/.go-version
@@ -1 +1 @@
-1.20.3
+1.23.2
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d4d7e71
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+MAKEFLAGS += --warn-undefined-variables
+MAKEFLAGS += --no-builtin-rules
+MAKEFLAGS += --no-builtin-variables
+
+GOTESTCMD = $(if $(shell command -v gotestsum),gotestsum --junitfile ./test_results/$(1).xml --format testname --,go test)
+
+.PHONY: test
+#: run all tests
+test: test_with_race test_all
+
+.PHONY: test_with_race
+#: run only tests tagged with potential race conditions
+test_with_race: test_results
+	@echo
+	@echo "+++ testing - race conditions?"
+	@echo
+	$(call GOTESTCMD,$@) -tags race --race --timeout 60s -v ./...
+
+.PHONY: test_all
+#: run all tests, but with no race condition detection
+test_all: test_results
+	@echo
+	@echo "+++ testing - all the tests"
+	@echo
+	$(call GOTESTCMD,$@) -tags all --timeout 60s -v ./...
+
+test_results:
+	@mkdir -p test_results
+
+.PHONY: install-tools
+install-tools:
+	go install github.com/google/go-licenses/v2@v2.0.0-alpha.1
+
+.PHONY: update-licenses
+update-licenses: install-tools
+	rm -rf LICENSES; \
+	#: We ignore the standard library (go list std) as a workaround for \
+	"https://github.com/google/go-licenses/issues/244." The awk script converts the output \
+  of `go list std` (line separated modules) to the input that `--ignore` expects (comma separated modules).
+	go-licenses save --save_path LICENSES --ignore "github.com/honeycombio/buildevents" \
+		--ignore $(shell go list std | awk 'NR > 1 { printf(",") } { printf("%s",$$0) } END { print "" }') ./;
+
+
+.PHONY: verify-licenses
+verify-licenses: install-tools
+	go-licenses save --save_path temp --ignore "github.com/honeycombio/buildevents" \
+		--ignore $(shell go list std | awk 'NR > 1 { printf(",") } { printf("%s",$$0) } END { print "" }') ./; \
+	chmod +r temp; \
+    if diff temp LICENSES; then \
+      echo "Passed"; \
+      rm -rf temp; \
+    else \
+      echo "LICENSES directory must be updated. Run make update-licenses"; \
+      rm -rf temp; \
+      exit 1; \
+    fi; \
diff --git a/RELEASING.md b/RELEASING.md
index 9bba5ac..3775496 100644
--- a/RELEASING.md
+++ b/RELEASING.md
@@ -1,13 +1,31 @@
 # Releasing
 
-- Use [go-licenses](https://github.com/google/go-licenses) to ensure all project dependency licenses are correctly represented in this repository:
-  - Install go-licenses (if not already installed) `go install github.com/google/go-licenses@latest`
-  - Run and save licenses `go-licenses save github.com/honeycombio/buildevents --save_path="./LICENSES"`
-  - If there are any changes, submit a separate PR to update licenses.
+- Check that licenses are current with `make verify-licenses`
+  - If there are any changes, submit a separate PR to update licenses using `make update-licenses`.
 - Prep update PR for the [orb](https://github.com/honeycombio/buildevents-orb) with the new version of buildevents.
-- Update `CHANGELOG.md` with the changes since the last release. Consider automating with a command such as these two:
-  - `git log $(git describe --tags --abbrev=0)..HEAD --no-merges --oneline > new-in-this-release.log`
-  - `git log --pretty='%C(green)%d%Creset- %s | [%an](https://github.com/)'`
+- Update `CHANGELOG.md` with the changes since the last release.
+  - Use below command to get a list of all commits since last release
+
+    ```sh
+    git log <last-release-tag>..HEAD --pretty='%Creset- %s | [%an](https://github.com/%an)'
+    ```
+
+  - Copy the output from the command above into the top of [changelog](./CHANGELOG.md)
+  - fix each `https://github.com/<author-name>` to point to the correct github username
+  (the `git log` command can't do this automatically)
+  - organize each commit based on their prefix into below three categories:
+
+    ```sh
+    ### Features
+      - <a-commit-with-feat-prefix>
+
+    ### Fixes
+      - <a-commit-with-fix-prefix>
+
+    ### Maintenance
+      - <a-commit-with-maintenance-prefix>
+    ```
+
 - Commit changes, push, and open a release preparation pull request for review.
 - Once the pull request is merged, fetch the updated `main` branch.
 - Apply a tag for the new version on the merged commit (e.g. `git tag -a v2.3.1 -m "v2.3.1"`)