diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 3006e3bb7f32d..ddd74d7d6a255 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,57 @@
 
 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.
 
+## [1.27.0](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/compare/v1.26.0...v1.27.0) (2020-03-03)
+
+
+### ⚠ BREAKING CHANGES
+
+* **cognito:** `UserPool.fromUserPoolAttributes()` has been replaced
+  by `fromUserPoolId()` and `fromUserPoolArn()`.
+* **cognito:** `IUserPool` no longer contains `userPoolProviderName`
+  and `userPoolProviderUrl`.
+* **cognito:** The property `signInType` of `UserPool` has been
+  renamed to `signInAliases` and given a new type `SignInAliases`. The
+  list of sign in types are now specified via boolean properties.
+* **cognito:** The property `usernameAliasAttributes` of `UserPool` has
+  been dropped and its functionality merged with the `signInAliases`
+  property.
+* **cognito:** The property `autoVerifiedAttributes` for `UserPool` is
+  now renamed to `autoVerify` and its default has now changed. The new
+  default is now determined by the value of `signInAliases`.
+* **appsync:** Configuration the user pool authorization is now done through the
+  authorizationConfig property. This allows us to specify a default
+  authorization mode out of the supported ones, currently limited to
+  Cognito user pools and API keys.
+* **custom-resources:** `physicalResourceId` and `physicalResourceIdPath`
+  were unified to a concrete type under the `physicalResourceId` property.
+  Use `PhysicalResourceId.fromResponse` and `PhysicalResourceId.of` factory
+  functions to specify it.
+
+### Features
+
+* **appsync:** extend authorization configuration ([#6260](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6260)) ([948881a](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/commit/948881a242053aad221487c6ca537145230de87f)), closes [#6246](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6246) [#6247](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6247)
+* **aws-ec2:** signal, download and execute helpers for UserData ([#6029](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6029)) ([ee8f169](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/commit/ee8f16936c0e5cb412fbdd0f210045261374dac9)), closes [#623](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/623)
+* **cognito:** refresh modeling of import APIs, sign in & autoverified attrs ([#6422](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6422)) ([c02e852](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/commit/c02e8528ac12ff8eb2b5ded7695b544c379e51e2))
+* **contributors:** use 0.0.0 as a version marker ([#6463](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6463)) ([d5f88c7](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/commit/d5f88c7b3a01e20c202bcb1a5f7baf6c72949b86)), closes [/github.com/aws/aws-cdk/pull/6463/files#diff-6a3371457528722a734f3c51d9238c13](https://github.com/aws//github.com/aws/aws-cdk/pull/6463/files/issues/diff-6a3371457528722a734f3c51d9238c13)
+* **custom-resources:** physical resource id union type ([#6518](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6518)) ([d5000bc](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/commit/d5000bc1182efb4b218510a2ae211f5362f806d1))
+* **lambda-event-sources:** expose `eventSourceMappingId` ([#5689](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/5689)) ([5ea2679](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/commit/5ea2679c00f706c04ed8cb14f59746475f31e7db)), closes [#5430](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/5430)
+* **rds:** master secret in DatabaseSecret ([#6415](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6415)) ([a9e5b60](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/commit/a9e5b609b20eff9edaf5775cfbe0802177852475)), closes [#6358](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6358)
+* **stepfunctions-tasks:** add step functions task to run glue job ([#6258](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6258)) ([15d9bd7](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/commit/15d9bd79690c2cb86c541dcb16c9dc88d8e338ad)), closes [#5266](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/5266)
+
+
+### Bug Fixes
+
+* **assert:** `haveResourceLike` and `countResourcesLike` compatibility ([#6202](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6202)) ([86c04f3](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/commit/86c04f354b472e6ff0c4af2cb8235ea9017d1c00))
+* **cli:** fast "no-op" deploys do not consider tags ([#6472](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6472)) ([5de87c1](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/commit/5de87c18b554b0cb903c7d0a68cf75ae32d0eb71)), closes [#6463](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6463)
+* **codepipeline:** an action's role imported in a different stack adds a dependency to the CodePipeline stack ([#6458](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6458)) ([86ea564](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/commit/86ea564665cf0f90341193755233238e2fd46f54))
+* **codepipeline:** automatically named artifacts could contain illegal characters from stage/action names ([#6460](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6460)) ([34aaca4](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/commit/34aaca4150e0001b58e154e164be1bedf4ca7f31))
+* **core:** adds enableVersionUpgrade property to CfnUpdatePolicy ([#6434](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6434)) ([f8cacb9](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/commit/f8cacb9ae24ef7af45362a5212fddde351e67572)), closes [#6158](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6158)
+* **custom-resources:** AwsCustomResource with delete only action fails ([#6363](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6363)) ([61a99e7](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/commit/61a99e7145e43793f0a27b693a76d85dd2cb61aa)), closes [#6061](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6061)
+* **docker:** cannot use cdk docker assets as base image ([#6471](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6471)) ([983dd40](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/commit/983dd403d1293f7b1a01dd18f65d65cfee964eba)), closes [#6466](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6466)
+* **rds:** setting timezone on DatabaseInstance causes internal failure ([#6534](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6534)) ([9e2ac91](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/commit/9e2ac91b98540cc79550346f390eca1561c79744)), closes [#6439](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6439)
+* **stepfunctions:** valid reference path '$' fails with an error ([#6483](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6483)) ([221c83b](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/commit/221c83b470bb6b5de3df5aa62d8a55056aa6eb24)), closes [#6388](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/6388)
+
 ## [1.26.0](https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/compare/v1.25.0...v1.26.0) (2020-02-25)
 
 
diff --git a/lerna.json b/lerna.json
index 1797667ed0e64..04cf4f39a8ec6 100644
--- a/lerna.json
+++ b/lerna.json
@@ -10,5 +10,5 @@
     "tools/*"
   ],
   "rejectCycles": "true",
-  "version": "1.26.0"
+  "version": "1.27.0"
 }
diff --git a/packages/@aws-cdk/cfnspec/README.md b/packages/@aws-cdk/cfnspec/README.md
index 134405a180197..dcfe13e36de17 100644
--- a/packages/@aws-cdk/cfnspec/README.md
+++ b/packages/@aws-cdk/cfnspec/README.md
@@ -1,8 +1,15 @@
 # AWS CDK CloudFormation Tools
 
-To update the CloudFormation spec to the latest version, run:
+To update the CloudFormation spec, you can run `bump-cfnspec.sh` from a clean repo, as so -
 
-    npm run update
+```
+./scripts/bump-cfnspec.sh
+```
+
+If you wish to only update the CFN spec, make sure to install all dependencies and build the `cfnspec` module,
+and then you can just run:
+
+```
+yarn update
+```
 
-Any JSON hashes are alpha-sorted to make sure that only actual changes appear in
-diffs.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/packages/@aws-cdk/cfnspec/build-tools/update.sh b/packages/@aws-cdk/cfnspec/build-tools/update.sh
index 8aae06c822601..b2415c71a93c7 100755
--- a/packages/@aws-cdk/cfnspec/build-tools/update.sh
+++ b/packages/@aws-cdk/cfnspec/build-tools/update.sh
@@ -49,6 +49,10 @@ update-spec \
     spec-source/000_CloudFormationResourceSpecification.json \
     true
 
+echo >&2 "Recording new version..."
+rm -f cfn.version
+node -p "require('${scriptdir}/../spec-source/000_CloudFormationResourceSpecification.json').ResourceSpecificationVersion" > cfn.version
+
 update-spec \
     "Serverless Application Model (SAM) Resource Specification" \
     "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/awslabs/goformation/master/generate/sam-2016-10-31.json" \
@@ -70,7 +74,8 @@ node ${scriptdir}/create-missing-libraries.js || {
 (cd ${scriptdir}/../../../monocdk-experiment && node ./deps.js || true)
 
 # append old changelog after new and replace as the last step because otherwise we will not be idempotent
-cat CHANGELOG.md >> CHANGELOG.md.new
-cp CHANGELOG.md.new CHANGELOG.md
-
-
+_changelog_contents=$(cat CHANGELOG.md.new)
+if [ -n "${_changelog_contents}" ]; then
+    cat CHANGELOG.md >> CHANGELOG.md.new
+    cp CHANGELOG.md.new CHANGELOG.md
+fi
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/packages/@aws-cdk/cfnspec/cfn.version b/packages/@aws-cdk/cfnspec/cfn.version
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..68d8f15e23cf5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/@aws-cdk/cfnspec/cfn.version
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+11.1.0
diff --git a/scripts/bump-cfnspec.sh b/scripts/bump-cfnspec.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000..8e2bbab35c49a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/bump-cfnspec.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+set -euo pipefail
+
+if [ ! -f "lerna.json" ]; then
+  echo "This script should be run from the root of the CDK repository"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+./install.sh
+cd packages/@aws-cdk/cfnspec
+../../../scripts/buildup
+yarn update
+git commit -a -m "feat: cloudformation spec v$(cat cfn.version)" || true # don't fail if there are no updates