diff --git a/CHANGELOG.v2.alpha.md b/CHANGELOG.v2.alpha.md
index afc9d44d8dfaa..06f4c22fb8660 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.v2.alpha.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.v2.alpha.md
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 
 All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file. See [standard-version](https://github.com/conventional-changelog/standard-version) for commit guidelines.
 
+## [2.116.1-alpha.0](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/compare/v2.116.0-alpha.0...v2.116.1-alpha.0) (2023-12-22)
+
 ## [2.116.0-alpha.0](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/compare/v2.115.0-alpha.0...v2.116.0-alpha.0) (2023-12-21)
 
 
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.v2.md b/CHANGELOG.v2.md
index 455f61f07757b..d73963e702114 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.v2.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.v2.md
@@ -2,6 +2,13 @@
 
 All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file. See [standard-version](https://github.com/conventional-changelog/standard-version) for commit guidelines.
 
+## [2.116.1](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/compare/v2.116.0...v2.116.1) (2023-12-22)
+
+
+### Bug Fixes
+
+* **core:** core constructs fail with `Error: Cannot find module '../dist/core/<file>.generated'` ([#28467](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/28467)) ([e8be128](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/commit/e8be12836cdb73b74cd36e19e5cec52258304933)), closes [#28251](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/28251) [#28465](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/28465)
+
 ## [2.116.0](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/compare/v2.115.0...v2.116.0) (2023-12-21)
 
 
diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk-lib/.npmignore b/packages/aws-cdk-lib/.npmignore
index 60e48f52cdd0f..04bd4687b89d0 100644
--- a/packages/aws-cdk-lib/.npmignore
+++ b/packages/aws-cdk-lib/.npmignore
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ coverage
 build-tools
 dist
 !custom-resource-handlers/dist/
+!core/lib/dist/
 scripts
 .LAST_BUILD
 .LAST_PACKAGE
@@ -30,9 +31,11 @@ tsconfig.json
 # exclude cdk artifacts
 **/cdk.out
 junit.xml
-
 !*.lit.ts
 
+# exclude additional documention
+core/adr/
+
 # keep class map for cloudformation-include
 !cloudformation-include/cfn-types-2-classes.json
 
diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk-lib/core/lib/adr/acknowledge-warnings.md b/packages/aws-cdk-lib/core/adr/acknowledge-warnings.md
similarity index 100%
rename from packages/aws-cdk-lib/core/lib/adr/acknowledge-warnings.md
rename to packages/aws-cdk-lib/core/adr/acknowledge-warnings.md
diff --git a/version.v2.json b/version.v2.json
index fc6404509b98e..036be73a62de9 100644
--- a/version.v2.json
+++ b/version.v2.json
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 {
-  "version": "2.116.0",
-  "alphaVersion": "2.116.0-alpha.0"
+  "version": "2.116.1",
+  "alphaVersion": "2.116.1-alpha.0"
 }
\ No newline at end of file