woohooo lets try this one

Author: petesramek

.github/workflows/release.yml

@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@ jobs:
   versioning:
     name: 'Extract version from branch'
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    needs: [workflow-variables]
     outputs:
         friendly-version: ${{ steps.format-version.outputs.friendly-version }}
         assembly-version: ${{ steps.format-version.outputs.assembly-version }}
@@ -80,23 +81,28 @@ jobs:
         uses: './.github/actions/versioning/extract-version'
         with:
           branch-name: ${{ github.ref_name }}
+      - name: 'Create build number'
+        shell: bash
+        id: create-build-number
+        run: |
+          git fetch --unshallow --filter=tree:0
+          build_number=$(git rev-list --count origin/${{ github.base_ref }} ^origin/main)
+          echo "build-number=$build_number" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
       - name: 'Create pre-release tag'
         shell: bash
         id: create-pre-release-tag
+        env:
+          build-number: ${{ steps.create-build-number.outputs.build-number }}
         run: |
           if [[ '${{ needs.workflow-variables.outputs.is-release }}' == 'true' ]]; then
             echo "pre-release-tag=" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
+          elif [[ '${{ needs.workflow-variables.outputs.is-preview }}' == 'true' ]]; then
+            pre_release_tag='preview'
+            echo "pre-release-tag=$pre_release_tag" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
           else
-            pre_release_tag=$(echo ${{ github.ref_name }} | tr '/' '.' | tr '-' '.'| tr '_' '.')
+            pre_release_tag=$(echo ${{ github.base_ref }} | tr '/' '-' | tr '.' '-'| tr '_' '-')
             echo "pre-release-tag=$pre_release_tag" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
           fi
-      - name: 'Create build number'
-        shell: bash
-        id: create-build-number
-        run: |
-          git fetch --unshallow --filter=tree:0
-          build_number=$(git rev-list --count origin/${{ github.ref_name }} ^origin/main)
-          echo "build-number=$build_number" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
       - name: 'Format version'
         id: format-version
         uses: ./.github/actions/versioning/format-version