diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 38abd2a..6d0b4d1 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,45 @@
 
 All notable changes to this project are documented in this file.
 
+## 2.1.0
+
+**Release date:** 2026-02-17
+
+This minor release comes with new ArtifactGenerator sources and various
+improvements.
+
+### ArtifactGenerator
+
+The `ArtifactGenerator` now supports `HelmChart` and `ExternalArtifact`
+as source kinds, and copy operations have been extended with tarball
+extraction capabilities.
+
+A `DirectSourceFetch` feature gate has been added to bypass cache for
+source objects.
+
+The reconciler now emits GitOps Toolkit events for artifact changes.
+
+### General updates
+
+In addition, the Kubernetes dependencies have been updated to v1.35.0 and
+the controller is now built with Go 1.26.
+
+Improvements:
+- Add HelmChart support
+  [#297](https://github.com/fluxcd/source-watcher/pull/297)
+- Add support for using ExternalArtifact as an ArtifactGenerator source
+  [#300](https://github.com/fluxcd/source-watcher/pull/300)
+- Extend copy operations with tarball extraction capabilities
+  [#302](https://github.com/fluxcd/source-watcher/pull/302)
+- Adds GitOps Toolkit EventRecorder to ArtifactGenerator reconciler
+  [#310](https://github.com/fluxcd/source-watcher/pull/310)
+- Add `DirectSourceFetch` feature gate to bypass cache for source objects
+  [#314](https://github.com/fluxcd/source-watcher/pull/314)
+- Various dependency updates
+  [#308](https://github.com/fluxcd/source-watcher/pull/308)
+  [#313](https://github.com/fluxcd/source-watcher/pull/313)
+  [#315](https://github.com/fluxcd/source-watcher/pull/315)
+
 ## 2.0.3
 
 **Release date:** 2025-11-19
diff --git a/config/default/kustomization.yaml b/config/default/kustomization.yaml
index acf3b41..b5db31b 100644
--- a/config/default/kustomization.yaml
+++ b/config/default/kustomization.yaml
@@ -2,8 +2,8 @@ apiVersion: kustomize.config.k8s.io/v1beta1
 kind: Kustomization
 namespace: source-system
 resources:
-  - https://github.com/fluxcd/source-controller/releases/download/v1.7.2/source-controller.crds.yaml
-  - https://github.com/fluxcd/source-controller/releases/download/v1.7.2/source-controller.deployment.yaml
+  - https://github.com/fluxcd/source-controller/releases/download/v1.8.0/source-controller.crds.yaml
+  - https://github.com/fluxcd/source-controller/releases/download/v1.8.0/source-controller.deployment.yaml
   - ../crd
   - ../manager
   - rbac.yaml
diff --git a/config/manager/kustomization.yaml b/config/manager/kustomization.yaml
index 6033889..13ed1cb 100644
--- a/config/manager/kustomization.yaml
+++ b/config/manager/kustomization.yaml
@@ -6,4 +6,4 @@ resources:
 images:
   - name: fluxcd/source-watcher
     newName: fluxcd/source-watcher
-    newTag: v2.0.0
+    newTag: v2.1.0
diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index 7c5225a..d12c5c0 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -17,8 +17,8 @@ require (
 	github.com/fluxcd/pkg/runtime v0.100.1
 	github.com/fluxcd/pkg/tar v0.17.0
 	github.com/fluxcd/pkg/testserver v0.13.0
-	github.com/fluxcd/source-controller/api v1.7.2
-	github.com/fluxcd/source-watcher/api/v2 v2.0.0
+	github.com/fluxcd/source-controller/api v1.8.0
+	github.com/fluxcd/source-watcher/api/v2 v2.1.0
 	github.com/onsi/gomega v1.39.1
 	github.com/opencontainers/go-digest v1.0.0
 	github.com/spf13/pflag v1.0.10
diff --git a/go.sum b/go.sum
index 4f3257b..0d671d6 100644
--- a/go.sum
+++ b/go.sum
@@ -87,8 +87,8 @@ github.com/fluxcd/pkg/testserver v0.13.0 h1:xEpBcEYtD7bwvZ+i0ZmChxKkDo/wfQEV3xmn
 github.com/fluxcd/pkg/testserver v0.13.0/go.mod h1:akRYv3FLQUsme15na9ihECRG6hBuqni4XEY9W8kzs8E=
 github.com/fluxcd/pkg/version v0.12.0 h1:MGbdbNf2D5wazMqAkNPn+Lh5j+oY0gxQJFTGyet5Hfc=
 github.com/fluxcd/pkg/version v0.12.0/go.mod h1:YHdg/78kzf+kCqS+SqSOiUxum5AjxlixiqwpX6AUZB8=
-github.com/fluxcd/source-controller/api v1.7.2 h1:/lg/xoyRjxwdhHKqjTxQS2o1cp+DMKJ8W4rpm+ZLemQ=
-github.com/fluxcd/source-controller/api v1.7.2/go.mod h1:2JtCeUVpl0aqKImS19jUz9EEnMdzgqNWHkllrIhV004=
+github.com/fluxcd/source-controller/api v1.8.0 h1:ndrYmcv6ZMcdQHFSUkOrFVDO7h16SfDBSw/DOqf/LPo=
+github.com/fluxcd/source-controller/api v1.8.0/go.mod h1:1O7+sMbqc1+3tPvjmtgFz+bASTl794Y9SxpebHDDSGA=
 github.com/fsnotify/fsnotify v1.9.0 h1:2Ml+OJNzbYCTzsxtv8vKSFD9PbJjmhYF14k/jKC7S9k=
 github.com/fsnotify/fsnotify v1.9.0/go.mod h1:8jBTzvmWwFyi3Pb8djgCCO5IBqzKJ/Jwo8TRcHyHii0=
 github.com/fxamacker/cbor/v2 v2.9.0 h1:NpKPmjDBgUfBms6tr6JZkTHtfFGcMKsw3eGcmD/sapM=