CI = false & dryrun = true does not result in prelease build

[greenkiwi]

Describe the bug
We would like to generate next release version in pull request.

Workflow
Prerelease action

      - name: Release check
        id: release-check
        uses: cycjimmy/semantic-release-action@v3
        with:
          dry_run: true
          ci: false
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.PAT_GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          DEBUG: "semantic-release:*"

Action output:

Run cycjimmy/semantic-release-action@v3
  with:
    dry_run: true
    ci: false
  env:
    SDKMAN_DIR: /home/runners/.sdkman
    JAVA_HOME: /home/runners/.sdkman/candidates/java/current
    NODENV_ROOT: /home/runners/.nodenv
    GITHUB_TOKEN: ***
    DEBUG: semantic-release:*

[4:52:08 PM] [semantic-release] › ℹ  Running semantic-release version 19.0.5
2023-08-04T16:52:08.375Z semantic-release:config load config from: /opt/actions-runner/_work/dunlop/dunlop/.releaserc.json
2023-08-04T16:52:08.378Z semantic-release:config options values: {
  branches: [
    'master',
    '+([0-9])?(.{+([0-9]),x}).x',
    {
      name: 'refs/pull/**',
      channel: 'next',
      prerelease: "pr-${(/^[a-zA-Z]+-[0-9]+/.exec(name.substr(10)) || [name.replace(/[_/.]/g, '-')])[0]}-${Date.now()}"
    }
  ],
  repositoryUrl: 'https://github.com/t/d.git',
  tagFormat: 'v${version}',
  plugins: [
    '@semantic-release/commit-analyzer',
    '@semantic-release/release-notes-generator',
    '@semantic-release/github'
  ],
  dryRun: true,
  ci: false,
  noCi: true
}

Error message

[4:52:21 PM] [semantic-release] › ℹ  This test run was triggered on the branch refs/pull/32277/merge, while semantic-release is configured to only publish from master, therefore a new version won’t be published.

Expected behavior

That with CI set to false and dry_run set to true, we should get a "next release" version.

[davidspek]

dry_run will disable it from creating anything. I think if you remove dry_run it will create a release from a PR.

[adrianschmidt]

dry_run will disable it from creating anything.

Correct.

I think if you remove dry_run it will create a release from a PR.

Not correct. The error stems from the semantic-release config only allowing releases from master. Regardless of whether you are creating a pre-release or not, you can only release from a configured release branch. The way to create pre-releases is not to release them from the PR branch, but to merge them to a configured pre-release branch. See the semantic-release docs on publishing pre-releases.