diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index c32d304..02890a4 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -2,3 +2,4 @@
 *.egg-info/
 __pycache__
 sandbox/
+dist/
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..480763c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+# Change Log
+
+All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
+
+The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/),
+and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html).
+
+
+## [0.1.1] 2025-05-30
+
+### Changed
+- Updated Python API to return copier object from `ezfastq.api.copy` function (#3)
+
+
+## [0.1] 2025-05-27
+
+Initial release!
diff --git a/ezfastq/api.py b/ezfastq/api.py
index 57ebc68..6c0d354 100644
--- a/ezfastq/api.py
+++ b/ezfastq/api.py
@@ -23,3 +23,4 @@ def copy(sample_names, seq_path, pair_mode=PairMode.Unspecified, prefix="", work
     added_samples = sorted(added_samples)
     with open(workdir / "samples.txt", "a") as fh:
         print(*added_samples, sep="\n", file=fh)
+    return copier
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 45872a9..a7f24e3 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [project]
 name = "ezfastq"
-version = "0.1"
+version = "0.1.1"
 description = "Scan directories for FASTQ files and associate with sample names"
 readme = "README.md"
 requires-python = ">=3.10"