diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index c0d4c1c4..ea9d29bd 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -3105,6 +3105,8 @@ permissions `wG` (write + upget) lets users upload files and receive their own f
 
 share specific folders in a volume  without giving away full read-access to the rest -- the visitor only needs the `g` (get) permission to view the link
 
+> ℹ️ a better alternative to this is [shares](#shares)
+
 volflag `dk` generates dirkeys (per-directory accesskeys) for all folders, granting read-access to that folder; by default only that folder itself, no subfolders
 
 volflag `dky` disables the actual key-check, meaning anyone can see the contents of a folder where they have `g` access, but not its subdirectories
diff --git a/copyparty/__version__.py b/copyparty/__version__.py
index a33ecb07..c53f5bf9 100644
--- a/copyparty/__version__.py
+++ b/copyparty/__version__.py
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 # coding: utf-8
 
-VERSION = (1, 20, 16)
+VERSION = (1, 20, 17)
 CODENAME = "sftp is fine too"
-BUILD_DT = (2026, 5, 26)
+BUILD_DT = (2026, 7, 6)
 
 S_VERSION = ".".join(map(str, VERSION))
 S_BUILD_DT = "{0:04d}-{1:02d}-{2:02d}".format(*BUILD_DT)
diff --git a/docs/changelog.md b/docs/changelog.md
index e2a25e8b..9ec6cbf2 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.md
+++ b/docs/changelog.md
@@ -1,3 +1,45 @@
+▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀  
+# 2026-0526-1845  `v1.20.16`  s6-ready
+
+## 🧪 new features
+
+* #1463 opds: improved compatibility with various clients (thx @kamaeff!) 9068ec6a
+* #1485 users with read-access can now create get-only shares (thx @Scotsguy!) 0bb80e92
+* #1466 support the s6 service notification protocol (thx @mobin-2008!) 8c201b84 ca406472
+* download-as-zip/tar: the toplevel folder can be renamed with url-param `&name=foo` or entirely removed with `&name` cc5420a3
+* #1487 option to generate music spectrograms with logarithmic frequency scale (thx @9hax!) 83dc20f3
+* option to set custom name/path for ffmpeg/ffprobe binaries 5e806ec1
+* #1489 audio playback of mka files
+
+## 🩹 bugfixes
+
+* #1480 #1482 fix get-only shares not expiring if the creator is removed (thx @celinke97 and @Scotsguy!) 3b53a228
+* #1474 toggling between cropped/fullsize coverart for music didn't work 926c6e81
+* #1470 files from the year 30828 would break file listing 27031f73
+* #1494 fix js-crash when dragging a pic from the gallery out of the browser (thx @icxes!) 7d81b9e8
+* "fancy markdown editor" didn't work on phones 6183540c
+* improve signal handling f4f97b6c
+  * if I messed something up then `--sig-thr` or send 7x sigterm
+
+## 🔧 other changes
+
+* docker: the arm32 build of the iv image has graduated 6e75faa6
+  * `copyparty/iv` is now only available for `i386` / `x86_64` / `aarch64`
+* docker: rawpy is no longer bundled; now using libraw directly 348b4bb5
+  * creating thumbnails of .raw photos is now MUCH slower but quality is also much better
+* partyfuse: switch to mfusepy; adds fuse3 support and improves performance b2401ff1
+* additional advisory tiers for use with the vulnerability-checker 4e9ad781
+* clarify behavior of `xvol` regarding permissions e3271830
+* packaging/docs:
+  * #1479 freebsd: fix deps in rc.d (thx @Kansattica!) f432ef6d
+  * #1458 macos docs (thx @ilotoki0804!) d7eb556c
+
+## 🌠 fun facts
+
+* there will be a tiny handful of copyparty stickers at dokomi this weekend
+
+
+
 ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀  
 # 2026-0424-2222  `v1.20.14`  autolocalization
 
diff --git a/docs/devnotes.md b/docs/devnotes.md
index a1d90d8c..b7b1c6cc 100644
--- a/docs/devnotes.md
+++ b/docs/devnotes.md
@@ -19,6 +19,9 @@
 * [assumptions](#assumptions)
     * [mdns](#mdns)
 * [sfx repack](#sfx-repack) - reduce the size of an sfx by removing features
+* [dependencies](#dependencies)
+    * [vendored dependencies](#vendored-dependencies) - some third-party code
+    * [optional dependencies](#optional-dependencies) - better explained in the main readme
 * [building](#building)
     * [dev env setup](#dev-env-setup)
     * [just the sfx](#just-the-sfx)
@@ -363,7 +366,7 @@ for the `re`pack to work, first run one of the sfx'es once to unpack it
 
 ## vendored dependencies
 
-some third-party code has been vendored into the git repo; some for convenience, some because they have been lightly hacked to fit copyparty's usecase better:
+some third-party code  has been vendored into the git repo; some for convenience, some because they have been lightly hacked to fit copyparty's usecase better:
 
 * inside the folder [/copyparty/stolen](https://github.com/9001/copyparty/tree/hovudstraum/copyparty/stolen) is python-libraries which runs on the serverside:
   * `surrogateescape.py` (BSD2) can be removed; only needed for python2 support
@@ -389,7 +392,7 @@ some third-party code has been vendored into the git repo; some for convenience,
 
 ## optional dependencies
 
-explained in the [main readme](https://github.com/9001/copyparty/tree/hovudstraum#optional-dependencies), but a quick recap:
+better explained in the main readme  -- [optional-dependencies](https://github.com/9001/copyparty/tree/hovudstraum#optional-dependencies) -- but a quick recap:
 
 * recommended python libraries: `argon2-cffi paramiko pyftpdlib pyopenssl pillow rawpy pyzmq` [python-magic](https://pypi.org/project/python-magic/)
   * only recommended on Windows: `psutil` (not very useful on Linux)