diff --git a/mycroft/configuration/mycroft.conf b/mycroft/configuration/mycroft.conf
index 02388be0d8..b07fe137e3 100644
--- a/mycroft/configuration/mycroft.conf
+++ b/mycroft/configuration/mycroft.conf
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@
         // Relative to "data_dir"
         "cache": ".skills-repo",
         "url": "https://github.com/MycroftAI/mycroft-skills",
-        "branch": "20.08"
+        "branch": "21.02"
       }
     },
     "upload_skill_manifest": true,
diff --git a/mycroft/version/__init__.py b/mycroft/version/__init__.py
index 0a577baa2e..251089122d 100644
--- a/mycroft/version/__init__.py
+++ b/mycroft/version/__init__.py
@@ -23,9 +23,9 @@ from mycroft.util.log import LOG
 
 # The following lines are replaced during the release process.
 # START_VERSION_BLOCK
-CORE_VERSION_MAJOR = 20
-CORE_VERSION_MINOR = 8
-CORE_VERSION_BUILD = 1
+CORE_VERSION_MAJOR = 21
+CORE_VERSION_MINOR = 2
+CORE_VERSION_BUILD = -1
 # END_VERSION_BLOCK
 
 CORE_VERSION_TUPLE = (CORE_VERSION_MAJOR,
diff --git a/requirements/requirements.txt b/requirements/requirements.txt
index 23dda369bb..c9ccedaf31 100644
--- a/requirements/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements/requirements.txt
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ fasteners==0.14.1
 PyYAML==5.4
 
 lingua-franca==0.4.1
-msm==0.8.8
+msm==0.8.9
 msk==0.3.16
 mycroft-messagebus-client==0.9.1
 adapt-parser==0.3.7