diff --git a/Help/release/dev.txt b/Help/release/dev.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2cf9193e1c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Help/release/dev.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+..
+  This file should be included by the adjacent "index.rst"
+  in development versions but not in release versions.
+
+Changes Since Release
+=====================
+
+The following noteworthy changes have been made in this development
+version since the preceding release but have not yet been consolidated
+into notes for a specific release version:
+
+.. toctree::
+   :maxdepth: 1
+   :glob:
+
+   dev/*
diff --git a/Help/release/dev/0-sample-topic.rst b/Help/release/dev/0-sample-topic.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e4cc01e23f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Help/release/dev/0-sample-topic.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+0-sample-topic
+--------------
+
+* This is a sample release note for the change in a topic.
+  Developers should add similar notes for each topic branch
+  making a noteworthy change.  Each document should be named
+  and titled to match the topic name to avoid merge conflicts.
diff --git a/Help/release/index.rst b/Help/release/index.rst
index 52fedc1e61..f8367d7b76 100644
--- a/Help/release/index.rst
+++ b/Help/release/index.rst
@@ -1,6 +1,12 @@
 CMake Release Notes
 *******************
 
+..
+  This file should include the adjacent "dev.txt" file
+  in development versions but not in release versions.
+
+.. include:: dev.txt
+
 Releases
 ========