diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index a224d60..66441b2 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -25,6 +25,14 @@ Gradle itself is included via the wrapper — no separate installation needed.
 
 Formatting is enforced in CI. Always run `spotlessApply` before pushing.
 
+When working on Java-only changes in the dashboard module, pass `-PskipFrontend` to skip the
+Node/npm frontend build steps (requires Node to be available otherwise):
+
+```shell
+./gradlew :git-proxy-java-dashboard:compileJava -PskipFrontend
+./gradlew :git-proxy-java-dashboard:build -PskipFrontend
+```
+
 ## Running the server locally
 
 ### Proxy only (no dashboard)
diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index ac5875a..09c1ad7 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ ext {
 
 allprojects {
     group = 'org.finos.gitproxy'
-    version = '1.0.0-beta.4'
+    version = '1.0.0-rc.1'
     
     repositories {
         mavenCentral()