Question

I'm trying to understand if it's possible to use python-semantic-release in a way that ONLY creates GitHub releases, version tags, and release notes WITHOUT requiring commits/pushes to the main branch.

My use case: I have a protected main branch with required status checks (Codacy). I want semantic-release to run AFTER a PR is merged (meaning all checks have passed), but ONLY to create the release artifacts without modifying the repository.
Current behavior: The tool attempts to commit and push changes even when I think I've configured it not to, causing failures due to branch protection rules.

Is there a way to achieve this, or is committing/pushing an essential part of semantic-release's workflow that cannot be bypassed?

The original authors of the semantic-release project strongly recommend against altering project state during a release and I'm trying to heed their advice.

Configuration

• pyproject.toml
• release.yml

Additional context

I've tried various combinations of the GitHub Action configuration, including removing explicit commit: false and push: false settings, but python-semantic-release still attempts to push changes. My GitHub workflow is configured to run on PR merge to main (see Configuration above).

Here's a full log with -vv active. It shows that version detection is working perfectly but it never creates a Github release with release notes and a version bump.

I was able to get the desired outcome once earlier but that was before I added a branch protection ruleset to protect the main branch:

• Release 0.1.0 was created on: 2025-01-20T09:58:01Z
• The ruleset was created on: 2025-01-20T12:38:33.202+01:00 (about 2.5 hours after the release)

The ruleset "Protect main" includes:

• Protection against branch deletion
• Required status checks from Codacy Static Code Analysis
• Nothing else

But since it was created after release 0.1.0, it wasn't enforcing any protection at the time of the release.
Adding branch protection for the main branch broke things.