diff --git a/3.16-rc/alpine3.23/Dockerfile b/3.16-rc/alpine3.23/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..cbdbab738
--- /dev/null
+++ b/3.16-rc/alpine3.23/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,139 @@
+#
+# NOTE: THIS DOCKERFILE IS GENERATED VIA "apply-templates.sh"
+#
+# PLEASE DO NOT EDIT IT DIRECTLY.
+#
+
+FROM alpine:3.23
+
+# ensure local python is preferred over distribution python
+ENV PATH /usr/local/bin:$PATH
+
+# runtime dependencies
+RUN set -eux; \
+	apk add --no-cache \
+		ca-certificates \
+		tzdata \
+	;
+
+ENV PYTHON_VERSION 3.16.0a1
+ENV PYTHON_SHA256 dcaa9029436b723e33412c68ca17f0130be73058e47a3a7c049cb8cdf6034ee9
+
+RUN set -eux; \
+	\
+	apk add --no-cache --virtual .build-deps \
+		bluez-dev \
+		bzip2-dev \
+		dpkg-dev dpkg \
+		findutils \
+		g++ \
+		gcc \
+		gdbm-dev \
+		gnupg \
+		libc-dev \
+		libffi-dev \
+		libnsl-dev \
+		libtirpc-dev \
+		linux-headers \
+		make \
+		ncurses-dev \
+		openssl-dev \
+		pax-utils \
+		readline-dev \
+		sqlite-dev \
+		tar \
+		tcl-dev \
+		tk \
+		tk-dev \
+		util-linux-dev \
+		xz \
+		xz-dev \
+		zlib-dev \
+		zstd-dev \
+	; \
+	\
+	wget -O python.tar.xz "https://www.python.org/ftp/python/${PYTHON_VERSION%%[a-z]*}/Python-$PYTHON_VERSION.tar.xz"; \
+	echo "$PYTHON_SHA256 *python.tar.xz" | sha256sum -c -; \
+	mkdir -p /usr/src/python; \
+	tar --extract --directory /usr/src/python --strip-components=1 --file python.tar.xz; \
+	rm python.tar.xz; \
+	\
+	cd /usr/src/python; \
+	gnuArch="$(dpkg-architecture --query DEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE)"; \
+	./configure \
+		--build="$gnuArch" \
+		--enable-loadable-sqlite-extensions \
+		--enable-option-checking=fatal \
+		--enable-shared \
+		$(test "${gnuArch%%-*}" != 'riscv64' && echo '--with-lto') \
+		--with-ensurepip \
+	; \
+	nproc="$(nproc)"; \
+# set thread stack size to 1MB so we don't segfault before we hit sys.getrecursionlimit()
+# https://github.com/alpinelinux/aports/commit/2026e1259422d4e0cf92391ca2d3844356c649d0
+	EXTRA_CFLAGS="-DTHREAD_STACK_SIZE=0x100000"; \
+	LDFLAGS="${LDFLAGS:-} -Wl,--strip-all"; \
+	arch="$(apk --print-arch)"; \
+# https://docs.python.org/3.12/howto/perf_profiling.html
+# https://github.com/docker-library/python/pull/1000#issuecomment-2597021615
+	case "$arch" in \
+		x86_64|aarch64) \
+			# only add "-mno-omit-leaf" on arches that support it
+			# https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-14.2.0/gcc/x86-Options.html#index-momit-leaf-frame-pointer-2
+			# https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-14.2.0/gcc/AArch64-Options.html#index-momit-leaf-frame-pointer
+			EXTRA_CFLAGS="${EXTRA_CFLAGS:-} -fno-omit-frame-pointer -mno-omit-leaf-frame-pointer"; \
+			;; \
+		x86) \
+			# don't enable frame-pointers on 32bit x86 due to performance drop.
+			;; \
+		*) \
+			# other arches don't support "-mno-omit-leaf"
+			EXTRA_CFLAGS="${EXTRA_CFLAGS:-} -fno-omit-frame-pointer"; \
+			;; \
+	esac; \
+	make -j "$nproc" \
+		"EXTRA_CFLAGS=${EXTRA_CFLAGS:-}" \
+		"LDFLAGS=${LDFLAGS:-}" \
+	; \
+# https://github.com/docker-library/python/issues/784
+# prevent accidental usage of a system installed libpython of the same version
+	rm python; \
+	make -j "$nproc" \
+		"EXTRA_CFLAGS=${EXTRA_CFLAGS:-}" \
+		"LDFLAGS=${LDFLAGS:-} -Wl,-rpath='\$\$ORIGIN/../lib'" \
+		python \
+	; \
+	make install; \
+	\
+	cd /; \
+	rm -rf /usr/src/python; \
+	\
+	find /usr/local -depth \
+		\( \
+			\( -type d -a \( -name test -o -name tests -o -name idle_test \) \) \
+			-o \( -type f -a \( -name '*.pyc' -o -name '*.pyo' -o -name 'libpython*.a' \) \) \
+		\) -exec rm -rf '{}' + \
+	; \
+	\
+	find /usr/local -type f -executable -not \( -name '*tkinter*' \) -exec scanelf --needed --nobanner --format '%n#p' '{}' ';' \
+		| tr ',' '\n' \
+		| sort -u \
+		| awk 'system("[ -e /usr/local/lib/" $1 " ]") == 0 { next } { print "so:" $1 }' \
+		| xargs -rt apk add --no-network --virtual .python-rundeps \
+	; \
+	apk del --no-network .build-deps; \
+	\
+	export PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1; \
+	python3 --version; \
+	pip3 --version
+
+# make some useful symlinks that are expected to exist ("/usr/local/bin/python" and friends)
+RUN set -eux; \
+	for src in idle3 pip3 pydoc3 python3 python3-config; do \
+		dst="$(echo "$src" | tr -d 3)"; \
+		[ -s "/usr/local/bin/$src" ]; \
+		[ ! -e "/usr/local/bin/$dst" ]; \
+		ln -svT "$src" "/usr/local/bin/$dst"; \
+	done
+
+CMD ["python3"]
diff --git a/3.16-rc/alpine3.24/Dockerfile b/3.16-rc/alpine3.24/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e187aa140
--- /dev/null
+++ b/3.16-rc/alpine3.24/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,139 @@
+#
+# NOTE: THIS DOCKERFILE IS GENERATED VIA "apply-templates.sh"
+#
+# PLEASE DO NOT EDIT IT DIRECTLY.
+#
+
+FROM alpine:3.24
+
+# ensure local python is preferred over distribution python
+ENV PATH /usr/local/bin:$PATH
+
+# runtime dependencies
+RUN set -eux; \
+	apk add --no-cache \
+		ca-certificates \
+		tzdata \
+	;
+
+ENV PYTHON_VERSION 3.16.0a1
+ENV PYTHON_SHA256 dcaa9029436b723e33412c68ca17f0130be73058e47a3a7c049cb8cdf6034ee9
+
+RUN set -eux; \
+	\
+	apk add --no-cache --virtual .build-deps \
+		bluez-dev \
+		bzip2-dev \
+		dpkg-dev dpkg \
+		findutils \
+		g++ \
+		gcc \
+		gdbm-dev \
+		gnupg \
+		libc-dev \
+		libffi-dev \
+		libnsl-dev \
+		libtirpc-dev \
+		linux-headers \
+		make \
+		ncurses-dev \
+		openssl-dev \
+		pax-utils \
+		readline-dev \
+		sqlite-dev \
+		tar \
+		tcl-dev \
+		tk \
+		tk-dev \
+		util-linux-dev \
+		xz \
+		xz-dev \
+		zlib-dev \
+		zstd-dev \
+	; \
+	\
+	wget -O python.tar.xz "https://www.python.org/ftp/python/${PYTHON_VERSION%%[a-z]*}/Python-$PYTHON_VERSION.tar.xz"; \
+	echo "$PYTHON_SHA256 *python.tar.xz" | sha256sum -c -; \
+	mkdir -p /usr/src/python; \
+	tar --extract --directory /usr/src/python --strip-components=1 --file python.tar.xz; \
+	rm python.tar.xz; \
+	\
+	cd /usr/src/python; \
+	gnuArch="$(dpkg-architecture --query DEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE)"; \
+	./configure \
+		--build="$gnuArch" \
+		--enable-loadable-sqlite-extensions \
+		--enable-option-checking=fatal \
+		--enable-shared \
+		$(test "${gnuArch%%-*}" != 'riscv64' && echo '--with-lto') \
+		--with-ensurepip \
+	; \
+	nproc="$(nproc)"; \
+# set thread stack size to 1MB so we don't segfault before we hit sys.getrecursionlimit()
+# https://github.com/alpinelinux/aports/commit/2026e1259422d4e0cf92391ca2d3844356c649d0
+	EXTRA_CFLAGS="-DTHREAD_STACK_SIZE=0x100000"; \
+	LDFLAGS="${LDFLAGS:-} -Wl,--strip-all"; \
+	arch="$(apk --print-arch)"; \
+# https://docs.python.org/3.12/howto/perf_profiling.html
+# https://github.com/docker-library/python/pull/1000#issuecomment-2597021615
+	case "$arch" in \
+		x86_64|aarch64) \
+			# only add "-mno-omit-leaf" on arches that support it
+			# https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-14.2.0/gcc/x86-Options.html#index-momit-leaf-frame-pointer-2
+			# https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-14.2.0/gcc/AArch64-Options.html#index-momit-leaf-frame-pointer
+			EXTRA_CFLAGS="${EXTRA_CFLAGS:-} -fno-omit-frame-pointer -mno-omit-leaf-frame-pointer"; \
+			;; \
+		x86) \
+			# don't enable frame-pointers on 32bit x86 due to performance drop.
+			;; \
+		*) \
+			# other arches don't support "-mno-omit-leaf"
+			EXTRA_CFLAGS="${EXTRA_CFLAGS:-} -fno-omit-frame-pointer"; \
+			;; \
+	esac; \
+	make -j "$nproc" \
+		"EXTRA_CFLAGS=${EXTRA_CFLAGS:-}" \
+		"LDFLAGS=${LDFLAGS:-}" \
+	; \
+# https://github.com/docker-library/python/issues/784
+# prevent accidental usage of a system installed libpython of the same version
+	rm python; \
+	make -j "$nproc" \
+		"EXTRA_CFLAGS=${EXTRA_CFLAGS:-}" \
+		"LDFLAGS=${LDFLAGS:-} -Wl,-rpath='\$\$ORIGIN/../lib'" \
+		python \
+	; \
+	make install; \
+	\
+	cd /; \
+	rm -rf /usr/src/python; \
+	\
+	find /usr/local -depth \
+		\( \
+			\( -type d -a \( -name test -o -name tests -o -name idle_test \) \) \
+			-o \( -type f -a \( -name '*.pyc' -o -name '*.pyo' -o -name 'libpython*.a' \) \) \
+		\) -exec rm -rf '{}' + \
+	; \
+	\
+	find /usr/local -type f -executable -not \( -name '*tkinter*' \) -exec scanelf --needed --nobanner --format '%n#p' '{}' ';' \
+		| tr ',' '\n' \
+		| sort -u \
+		| awk 'system("[ -e /usr/local/lib/" $1 " ]") == 0 { next } { print "so:" $1 }' \
+		| xargs -rt apk add --no-network --virtual .python-rundeps \
+	; \
+	apk del --no-network .build-deps; \
+	\
+	export PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1; \
+	python3 --version; \
+	pip3 --version
+
+# make some useful symlinks that are expected to exist ("/usr/local/bin/python" and friends)
+RUN set -eux; \
+	for src in idle3 pip3 pydoc3 python3 python3-config; do \
+		dst="$(echo "$src" | tr -d 3)"; \
+		[ -s "/usr/local/bin/$src" ]; \
+		[ ! -e "/usr/local/bin/$dst" ]; \
+		ln -svT "$src" "/usr/local/bin/$dst"; \
+	done
+
+CMD ["python3"]
diff --git a/3.16-rc/bookworm/Dockerfile b/3.16-rc/bookworm/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3241c347a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/3.16-rc/bookworm/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,130 @@
+#
+# NOTE: THIS DOCKERFILE IS GENERATED VIA "apply-templates.sh"
+#
+# PLEASE DO NOT EDIT IT DIRECTLY.
+#
+
+FROM buildpack-deps:bookworm
+
+# ensure local python is preferred over distribution python
+ENV PATH /usr/local/bin:$PATH
+
+# runtime dependencies
+RUN set -eux; \
+	apt-get update; \
+	apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+		libbluetooth-dev \
+		tk-dev \
+		uuid-dev \
+	; \
+	rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+
+ENV PYTHON_VERSION 3.16.0a1
+ENV PYTHON_SHA256 dcaa9029436b723e33412c68ca17f0130be73058e47a3a7c049cb8cdf6034ee9
+
+RUN set -eux; \
+	\
+	savedAptMark="$(apt-mark showmanual)"; \
+	apt-get update; \
+	apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+		libzstd-dev \
+	; \
+	\
+	wget -O python.tar.xz "https://www.python.org/ftp/python/${PYTHON_VERSION%%[a-z]*}/Python-$PYTHON_VERSION.tar.xz"; \
+	echo "$PYTHON_SHA256 *python.tar.xz" | sha256sum -c -; \
+	mkdir -p /usr/src/python; \
+	tar --extract --directory /usr/src/python --strip-components=1 --file python.tar.xz; \
+	rm python.tar.xz; \
+	\
+	cd /usr/src/python; \
+	gnuArch="$(dpkg-architecture --query DEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE)"; \
+	./configure \
+		--build="$gnuArch" \
+		--enable-loadable-sqlite-extensions \
+		--enable-optimizations \
+		--enable-option-checking=fatal \
+		--enable-shared \
+		$(test "${gnuArch%%-*}" != 'riscv64' && echo '--with-lto') \
+		--with-ensurepip \
+	; \
+	nproc="$(nproc)"; \
+	EXTRA_CFLAGS="$(dpkg-buildflags --get CFLAGS)"; \
+	LDFLAGS="$(dpkg-buildflags --get LDFLAGS)"; \
+	arch="$(dpkg --print-architecture)"; arch="${arch##*-}"; \
+# https://docs.python.org/3.12/howto/perf_profiling.html
+# https://github.com/docker-library/python/pull/1000#issuecomment-2597021615
+	case "$arch" in \
+		amd64|arm64) \
+			# only add "-mno-omit-leaf" on arches that support it
+			# https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-14.2.0/gcc/x86-Options.html#index-momit-leaf-frame-pointer-2
+			# https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-14.2.0/gcc/AArch64-Options.html#index-momit-leaf-frame-pointer
+			EXTRA_CFLAGS="${EXTRA_CFLAGS:-} -fno-omit-frame-pointer -mno-omit-leaf-frame-pointer"; \
+			;; \
+		i386) \
+			# don't enable frame-pointers on 32bit x86 due to performance drop.
+			;; \
+		*) \
+			# other arches don't support "-mno-omit-leaf"
+			EXTRA_CFLAGS="${EXTRA_CFLAGS:-} -fno-omit-frame-pointer"; \
+			;; \
+	esac; \
+	make -j "$nproc" \
+		"EXTRA_CFLAGS=${EXTRA_CFLAGS:-}" \
+		"LDFLAGS=${LDFLAGS:-}" \
+	; \
+# https://github.com/docker-library/python/issues/784
+# prevent accidental usage of a system installed libpython of the same version
+	rm python; \
+	make -j "$nproc" \
+		"EXTRA_CFLAGS=${EXTRA_CFLAGS:-}" \
+		"LDFLAGS=${LDFLAGS:-} -Wl,-rpath='\$\$ORIGIN/../lib'" \
+		python \
+	; \
+	make install; \
+	\
+# enable GDB to load debugging data: https://github.com/docker-library/python/pull/701
+	bin="$(readlink -ve /usr/local/bin/python3)"; \
+	dir="$(dirname "$bin")"; \
+	mkdir -p "/usr/share/gdb/auto-load/$dir"; \
+	cp -vL Tools/gdb/libpython.py "/usr/share/gdb/auto-load/$bin-gdb.py"; \
+	\
+	cd /; \
+	rm -rf /usr/src/python; \
+	\
+	find /usr/local -depth \
+		\( \
+			\( -type d -a \( -name test -o -name tests -o -name idle_test \) \) \
+			-o \( -type f -a \( -name '*.pyc' -o -name '*.pyo' -o -name 'libpython*.a' \) \) \
+		\) -exec rm -rf '{}' + \
+	; \
+	\
+	ldconfig; \
+	\
+	apt-mark auto '.*' > /dev/null; \
+	apt-mark manual $savedAptMark; \
+	find /usr/local -type f -executable -not \( -name '*tkinter*' \) -exec ldd '{}' ';' \
+		| awk '/=>/ { so = $(NF-1); if (index(so, "/usr/local/") == 1) { next }; gsub("^/(usr/)?", "", so); printf "*%s\n", so }' \
+		| sort -u \
+		| xargs -rt dpkg-query --search \
+# https://manpages.debian.org/bookworm/dpkg/dpkg-query.1.en.html#S (we ignore diversions and it'll be really unusual for more than one package to provide any given .so file)
+		| awk 'sub(":$", "", $1) { print $1 }' \
+		| sort -u \
+		| xargs -r apt-mark manual \
+	; \
+	apt-get purge -y --auto-remove -o APT::AutoRemove::RecommendsImportant=false; \
+	rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*; \
+	\
+	export PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1; \
+	python3 --version; \
+	pip3 --version
+
+# make some useful symlinks that are expected to exist ("/usr/local/bin/python" and friends)
+RUN set -eux; \
+	for src in idle3 pip3 pydoc3 python3 python3-config; do \
+		dst="$(echo "$src" | tr -d 3)"; \
+		[ -s "/usr/local/bin/$src" ]; \
+		[ ! -e "/usr/local/bin/$dst" ]; \
+		ln -svT "$src" "/usr/local/bin/$dst"; \
+	done
+
+CMD ["python3"]
diff --git a/3.16-rc/slim-bookworm/Dockerfile b/3.16-rc/slim-bookworm/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..56009c04c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/3.16-rc/slim-bookworm/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,146 @@
+#
+# NOTE: THIS DOCKERFILE IS GENERATED VIA "apply-templates.sh"
+#
+# PLEASE DO NOT EDIT IT DIRECTLY.
+#
+
+FROM debian:bookworm-slim
+
+# ensure local python is preferred over distribution python
+ENV PATH /usr/local/bin:$PATH
+
+# runtime dependencies
+RUN set -eux; \
+	apt-get update; \
+	apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+		ca-certificates \
+		netbase \
+		tzdata \
+	; \
+	rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+
+ENV PYTHON_VERSION 3.16.0a1
+ENV PYTHON_SHA256 dcaa9029436b723e33412c68ca17f0130be73058e47a3a7c049cb8cdf6034ee9
+
+RUN set -eux; \
+	\
+	savedAptMark="$(apt-mark showmanual)"; \
+	apt-get update; \
+	apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+		dpkg-dev \
+		g++ \
+		gcc \
+		gnupg \
+		libbluetooth-dev \
+		libbz2-dev \
+		libc6-dev \
+		libdb-dev \
+		libffi-dev \
+		libgdbm-dev \
+		liblzma-dev \
+		libncursesw5-dev \
+		libreadline-dev \
+		libsqlite3-dev \
+		libssl-dev \
+		libzstd-dev \
+		make \
+		tk-dev \
+		uuid-dev \
+		wget \
+		xz-utils \
+		zlib1g-dev \
+	; \
+	\
+	wget -O python.tar.xz "https://www.python.org/ftp/python/${PYTHON_VERSION%%[a-z]*}/Python-$PYTHON_VERSION.tar.xz"; \
+	echo "$PYTHON_SHA256 *python.tar.xz" | sha256sum -c -; \
+	mkdir -p /usr/src/python; \
+	tar --extract --directory /usr/src/python --strip-components=1 --file python.tar.xz; \
+	rm python.tar.xz; \
+	\
+	cd /usr/src/python; \
+	gnuArch="$(dpkg-architecture --query DEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE)"; \
+	./configure \
+		--build="$gnuArch" \
+		--enable-loadable-sqlite-extensions \
+		--enable-optimizations \
+		--enable-option-checking=fatal \
+		--enable-shared \
+		$(test "${gnuArch%%-*}" != 'riscv64' && echo '--with-lto') \
+		--with-ensurepip \
+	; \
+	nproc="$(nproc)"; \
+	EXTRA_CFLAGS="$(dpkg-buildflags --get CFLAGS)"; \
+	LDFLAGS="$(dpkg-buildflags --get LDFLAGS)"; \
+	LDFLAGS="${LDFLAGS:-} -Wl,--strip-all"; \
+	arch="$(dpkg --print-architecture)"; arch="${arch##*-}"; \
+# https://docs.python.org/3.12/howto/perf_profiling.html
+# https://github.com/docker-library/python/pull/1000#issuecomment-2597021615
+	case "$arch" in \
+		amd64|arm64) \
+			# only add "-mno-omit-leaf" on arches that support it
+			# https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-14.2.0/gcc/x86-Options.html#index-momit-leaf-frame-pointer-2
+			# https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-14.2.0/gcc/AArch64-Options.html#index-momit-leaf-frame-pointer
+			EXTRA_CFLAGS="${EXTRA_CFLAGS:-} -fno-omit-frame-pointer -mno-omit-leaf-frame-pointer"; \
+			;; \
+		i386) \
+			# don't enable frame-pointers on 32bit x86 due to performance drop.
+			;; \
+		*) \
+			# other arches don't support "-mno-omit-leaf"
+			EXTRA_CFLAGS="${EXTRA_CFLAGS:-} -fno-omit-frame-pointer"; \
+			;; \
+	esac; \
+	make -j "$nproc" \
+		"EXTRA_CFLAGS=${EXTRA_CFLAGS:-}" \
+		"LDFLAGS=${LDFLAGS:-}" \
+	; \
+# https://github.com/docker-library/python/issues/784
+# prevent accidental usage of a system installed libpython of the same version
+	rm python; \
+	make -j "$nproc" \
+		"EXTRA_CFLAGS=${EXTRA_CFLAGS:-}" \
+		"LDFLAGS=${LDFLAGS:-} -Wl,-rpath='\$\$ORIGIN/../lib'" \
+		python \
+	; \
+	make install; \
+	\
+	cd /; \
+	rm -rf /usr/src/python; \
+	\
+	find /usr/local -depth \
+		\( \
+			\( -type d -a \( -name test -o -name tests -o -name idle_test \) \) \
+			-o \( -type f -a \( -name '*.pyc' -o -name '*.pyo' -o -name 'libpython*.a' \) \) \
+		\) -exec rm -rf '{}' + \
+	; \
+	\
+	ldconfig; \
+	\
+	apt-mark auto '.*' > /dev/null; \
+	apt-mark manual $savedAptMark; \
+	find /usr/local -type f -executable -not \( -name '*tkinter*' \) -exec ldd '{}' ';' \
+		| awk '/=>/ { so = $(NF-1); if (index(so, "/usr/local/") == 1) { next }; gsub("^/(usr/)?", "", so); printf "*%s\n", so }' \
+		| sort -u \
+		| xargs -rt dpkg-query --search \
+# https://manpages.debian.org/bookworm/dpkg/dpkg-query.1.en.html#S (we ignore diversions and it'll be really unusual for more than one package to provide any given .so file)
+		| awk 'sub(":$", "", $1) { print $1 }' \
+		| sort -u \
+		| xargs -r apt-mark manual \
+	; \
+	apt-get purge -y --auto-remove -o APT::AutoRemove::RecommendsImportant=false; \
+	rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*; \
+	\
+	export PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1; \
+	python3 --version; \
+	pip3 --version
+
+# make some useful symlinks that are expected to exist ("/usr/local/bin/python" and friends)
+RUN set -eux; \
+	for src in idle3 pip3 pydoc3 python3 python3-config; do \
+		dst="$(echo "$src" | tr -d 3)"; \
+		[ -s "/usr/local/bin/$src" ]; \
+		[ ! -e "/usr/local/bin/$dst" ]; \
+		ln -svT "$src" "/usr/local/bin/$dst"; \
+	done
+
+CMD ["python3"]
diff --git a/3.16-rc/slim-trixie/Dockerfile b/3.16-rc/slim-trixie/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f660c47c2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/3.16-rc/slim-trixie/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,146 @@
+#
+# NOTE: THIS DOCKERFILE IS GENERATED VIA "apply-templates.sh"
+#
+# PLEASE DO NOT EDIT IT DIRECTLY.
+#
+
+FROM debian:trixie-slim
+
+# ensure local python is preferred over distribution python
+ENV PATH /usr/local/bin:$PATH
+
+# runtime dependencies
+RUN set -eux; \
+	apt-get update; \
+	apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+		ca-certificates \
+		netbase \
+		tzdata \
+	; \
+	apt-get dist-clean
+
+ENV PYTHON_VERSION 3.16.0a1
+ENV PYTHON_SHA256 dcaa9029436b723e33412c68ca17f0130be73058e47a3a7c049cb8cdf6034ee9
+
+RUN set -eux; \
+	\
+	savedAptMark="$(apt-mark showmanual)"; \
+	apt-get update; \
+	apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+		dpkg-dev \
+		g++ \
+		gcc \
+		gnupg \
+		libbluetooth-dev \
+		libbz2-dev \
+		libc6-dev \
+		libdb-dev \
+		libffi-dev \
+		libgdbm-dev \
+		liblzma-dev \
+		libncursesw5-dev \
+		libreadline-dev \
+		libsqlite3-dev \
+		libssl-dev \
+		libzstd-dev \
+		make \
+		tk-dev \
+		uuid-dev \
+		wget \
+		xz-utils \
+		zlib1g-dev \
+	; \
+	\
+	wget -O python.tar.xz "https://www.python.org/ftp/python/${PYTHON_VERSION%%[a-z]*}/Python-$PYTHON_VERSION.tar.xz"; \
+	echo "$PYTHON_SHA256 *python.tar.xz" | sha256sum -c -; \
+	mkdir -p /usr/src/python; \
+	tar --extract --directory /usr/src/python --strip-components=1 --file python.tar.xz; \
+	rm python.tar.xz; \
+	\
+	cd /usr/src/python; \
+	gnuArch="$(dpkg-architecture --query DEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE)"; \
+	./configure \
+		--build="$gnuArch" \
+		--enable-loadable-sqlite-extensions \
+		--enable-optimizations \
+		--enable-option-checking=fatal \
+		--enable-shared \
+		$(test "${gnuArch%%-*}" != 'riscv64' && echo '--with-lto') \
+		--with-ensurepip \
+	; \
+	nproc="$(nproc)"; \
+	EXTRA_CFLAGS="$(dpkg-buildflags --get CFLAGS)"; \
+	LDFLAGS="$(dpkg-buildflags --get LDFLAGS)"; \
+	LDFLAGS="${LDFLAGS:-} -Wl,--strip-all"; \
+	arch="$(dpkg --print-architecture)"; arch="${arch##*-}"; \
+# https://docs.python.org/3.12/howto/perf_profiling.html
+# https://github.com/docker-library/python/pull/1000#issuecomment-2597021615
+	case "$arch" in \
+		amd64|arm64) \
+			# only add "-mno-omit-leaf" on arches that support it
+			# https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-14.2.0/gcc/x86-Options.html#index-momit-leaf-frame-pointer-2
+			# https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-14.2.0/gcc/AArch64-Options.html#index-momit-leaf-frame-pointer
+			EXTRA_CFLAGS="${EXTRA_CFLAGS:-} -fno-omit-frame-pointer -mno-omit-leaf-frame-pointer"; \
+			;; \
+		i386) \
+			# don't enable frame-pointers on 32bit x86 due to performance drop.
+			;; \
+		*) \
+			# other arches don't support "-mno-omit-leaf"
+			EXTRA_CFLAGS="${EXTRA_CFLAGS:-} -fno-omit-frame-pointer"; \
+			;; \
+	esac; \
+	make -j "$nproc" \
+		"EXTRA_CFLAGS=${EXTRA_CFLAGS:-}" \
+		"LDFLAGS=${LDFLAGS:-}" \
+	; \
+# https://github.com/docker-library/python/issues/784
+# prevent accidental usage of a system installed libpython of the same version
+	rm python; \
+	make -j "$nproc" \
+		"EXTRA_CFLAGS=${EXTRA_CFLAGS:-}" \
+		"LDFLAGS=${LDFLAGS:-} -Wl,-rpath='\$\$ORIGIN/../lib'" \
+		python \
+	; \
+	make install; \
+	\
+	cd /; \
+	rm -rf /usr/src/python; \
+	\
+	find /usr/local -depth \
+		\( \
+			\( -type d -a \( -name test -o -name tests -o -name idle_test \) \) \
+			-o \( -type f -a \( -name '*.pyc' -o -name '*.pyo' -o -name 'libpython*.a' \) \) \
+		\) -exec rm -rf '{}' + \
+	; \
+	\
+	ldconfig; \
+	\
+	apt-mark auto '.*' > /dev/null; \
+	apt-mark manual $savedAptMark; \
+	find /usr/local -type f -executable -not \( -name '*tkinter*' \) -exec ldd '{}' ';' \
+		| awk '/=>/ { so = $(NF-1); if (index(so, "/usr/local/") == 1) { next }; gsub("^/(usr/)?", "", so); printf "*%s\n", so }' \
+		| sort -u \
+		| xargs -rt dpkg-query --search \
+# https://manpages.debian.org/bookworm/dpkg/dpkg-query.1.en.html#S (we ignore diversions and it'll be really unusual for more than one package to provide any given .so file)
+		| awk 'sub(":$", "", $1) { print $1 }' \
+		| sort -u \
+		| xargs -r apt-mark manual \
+	; \
+	apt-get purge -y --auto-remove -o APT::AutoRemove::RecommendsImportant=false; \
+	apt-get dist-clean; \
+	\
+	export PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1; \
+	python3 --version; \
+	pip3 --version
+
+# make some useful symlinks that are expected to exist ("/usr/local/bin/python" and friends)
+RUN set -eux; \
+	for src in idle3 pip3 pydoc3 python3 python3-config; do \
+		dst="$(echo "$src" | tr -d 3)"; \
+		[ -s "/usr/local/bin/$src" ]; \
+		[ ! -e "/usr/local/bin/$dst" ]; \
+		ln -svT "$src" "/usr/local/bin/$dst"; \
+	done
+
+CMD ["python3"]
diff --git a/3.16-rc/trixie/Dockerfile b/3.16-rc/trixie/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b924fa30f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/3.16-rc/trixie/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,130 @@
+#
+# NOTE: THIS DOCKERFILE IS GENERATED VIA "apply-templates.sh"
+#
+# PLEASE DO NOT EDIT IT DIRECTLY.
+#
+
+FROM buildpack-deps:trixie
+
+# ensure local python is preferred over distribution python
+ENV PATH /usr/local/bin:$PATH
+
+# runtime dependencies
+RUN set -eux; \
+	apt-get update; \
+	apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+		libbluetooth-dev \
+		tk-dev \
+		uuid-dev \
+	; \
+	apt-get dist-clean
+
+ENV PYTHON_VERSION 3.16.0a1
+ENV PYTHON_SHA256 dcaa9029436b723e33412c68ca17f0130be73058e47a3a7c049cb8cdf6034ee9
+
+RUN set -eux; \
+	\
+	savedAptMark="$(apt-mark showmanual)"; \
+	apt-get update; \
+	apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+		libzstd-dev \
+	; \
+	\
+	wget -O python.tar.xz "https://www.python.org/ftp/python/${PYTHON_VERSION%%[a-z]*}/Python-$PYTHON_VERSION.tar.xz"; \
+	echo "$PYTHON_SHA256 *python.tar.xz" | sha256sum -c -; \
+	mkdir -p /usr/src/python; \
+	tar --extract --directory /usr/src/python --strip-components=1 --file python.tar.xz; \
+	rm python.tar.xz; \
+	\
+	cd /usr/src/python; \
+	gnuArch="$(dpkg-architecture --query DEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE)"; \
+	./configure \
+		--build="$gnuArch" \
+		--enable-loadable-sqlite-extensions \
+		--enable-optimizations \
+		--enable-option-checking=fatal \
+		--enable-shared \
+		$(test "${gnuArch%%-*}" != 'riscv64' && echo '--with-lto') \
+		--with-ensurepip \
+	; \
+	nproc="$(nproc)"; \
+	EXTRA_CFLAGS="$(dpkg-buildflags --get CFLAGS)"; \
+	LDFLAGS="$(dpkg-buildflags --get LDFLAGS)"; \
+	arch="$(dpkg --print-architecture)"; arch="${arch##*-}"; \
+# https://docs.python.org/3.12/howto/perf_profiling.html
+# https://github.com/docker-library/python/pull/1000#issuecomment-2597021615
+	case "$arch" in \
+		amd64|arm64) \
+			# only add "-mno-omit-leaf" on arches that support it
+			# https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-14.2.0/gcc/x86-Options.html#index-momit-leaf-frame-pointer-2
+			# https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-14.2.0/gcc/AArch64-Options.html#index-momit-leaf-frame-pointer
+			EXTRA_CFLAGS="${EXTRA_CFLAGS:-} -fno-omit-frame-pointer -mno-omit-leaf-frame-pointer"; \
+			;; \
+		i386) \
+			# don't enable frame-pointers on 32bit x86 due to performance drop.
+			;; \
+		*) \
+			# other arches don't support "-mno-omit-leaf"
+			EXTRA_CFLAGS="${EXTRA_CFLAGS:-} -fno-omit-frame-pointer"; \
+			;; \
+	esac; \
+	make -j "$nproc" \
+		"EXTRA_CFLAGS=${EXTRA_CFLAGS:-}" \
+		"LDFLAGS=${LDFLAGS:-}" \
+	; \
+# https://github.com/docker-library/python/issues/784
+# prevent accidental usage of a system installed libpython of the same version
+	rm python; \
+	make -j "$nproc" \
+		"EXTRA_CFLAGS=${EXTRA_CFLAGS:-}" \
+		"LDFLAGS=${LDFLAGS:-} -Wl,-rpath='\$\$ORIGIN/../lib'" \
+		python \
+	; \
+	make install; \
+	\
+# enable GDB to load debugging data: https://github.com/docker-library/python/pull/701
+	bin="$(readlink -ve /usr/local/bin/python3)"; \
+	dir="$(dirname "$bin")"; \
+	mkdir -p "/usr/share/gdb/auto-load/$dir"; \
+	cp -vL Tools/gdb/libpython.py "/usr/share/gdb/auto-load/$bin-gdb.py"; \
+	\
+	cd /; \
+	rm -rf /usr/src/python; \
+	\
+	find /usr/local -depth \
+		\( \
+			\( -type d -a \( -name test -o -name tests -o -name idle_test \) \) \
+			-o \( -type f -a \( -name '*.pyc' -o -name '*.pyo' -o -name 'libpython*.a' \) \) \
+		\) -exec rm -rf '{}' + \
+	; \
+	\
+	ldconfig; \
+	\
+	apt-mark auto '.*' > /dev/null; \
+	apt-mark manual $savedAptMark; \
+	find /usr/local -type f -executable -not \( -name '*tkinter*' \) -exec ldd '{}' ';' \
+		| awk '/=>/ { so = $(NF-1); if (index(so, "/usr/local/") == 1) { next }; gsub("^/(usr/)?", "", so); printf "*%s\n", so }' \
+		| sort -u \
+		| xargs -rt dpkg-query --search \
+# https://manpages.debian.org/bookworm/dpkg/dpkg-query.1.en.html#S (we ignore diversions and it'll be really unusual for more than one package to provide any given .so file)
+		| awk 'sub(":$", "", $1) { print $1 }' \
+		| sort -u \
+		| xargs -r apt-mark manual \
+	; \
+	apt-get purge -y --auto-remove -o APT::AutoRemove::RecommendsImportant=false; \
+	apt-get dist-clean; \
+	\
+	export PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1; \
+	python3 --version; \
+	pip3 --version
+
+# make some useful symlinks that are expected to exist ("/usr/local/bin/python" and friends)
+RUN set -eux; \
+	for src in idle3 pip3 pydoc3 python3 python3-config; do \
+		dst="$(echo "$src" | tr -d 3)"; \
+		[ -s "/usr/local/bin/$src" ]; \
+		[ ! -e "/usr/local/bin/$dst" ]; \
+		ln -svT "$src" "/usr/local/bin/$dst"; \
+	done
+
+CMD ["python3"]
diff --git a/versions.json b/versions.json
index 6aabbaac0..29f6731c9 100644
--- a/versions.json
+++ b/versions.json
@@ -96,5 +96,21 @@
       "windows/windowsservercore-ltsc2022"
     ],
     "version": "3.15.0"
+  },
+  "3.16-rc": {
+    "checksums": {
+      "source": {
+        "sha256": "dcaa9029436b723e33412c68ca17f0130be73058e47a3a7c049cb8cdf6034ee9"
+      }
+    },
+    "variants": [
+      "trixie",
+      "slim-trixie",
+      "bookworm",
+      "slim-bookworm",
+      "alpine3.24",
+      "alpine3.23"
+    ],
+    "version": "3.16.0a1"
   }
 }