diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index 811ff14b..cf41185d 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@
 
 - Bump the `ocamlformat` dev dependency to 0.28.1 so that the contributor setup
   documented in `CONTRIBUTING.md` can be installed again. (#520, @alexleighton)
+- `dune-release publish` now respects the `--dev-repo` or `DUNE_RELEASE_DEV_REPO`
+  CLI inputs. (#522, @shonfeder)
 
 ## 2.2.0
 
diff --git a/lib/github.ml b/lib/github.ml
index 5316098c..4088ba28 100644
--- a/lib/github.ml
+++ b/lib/github.ml
@@ -312,20 +312,28 @@ let create_release ~dry_run ~yes ~dev_repo ~token ~msg ~tag ~version ~user ~repo
       App_log.status (fun l -> l "Release with id %d already exists" id);
       Ok id
 
+let repo_info ~dev_repo pkg =
+  match dev_repo with
+  | None ->
+      pkg_dev_repo pkg >>= fun dev_url ->
+      Pkg.infer_github_repo pkg >>| fun repo -> (dev_url, repo)
+  | Some dev_url -> (
+      match Github_repo.from_uri dev_url with
+      | None ->
+          R.error_msgf "the supplied dev-repo %s is not a valid repo URI"
+            dev_url
+      | Some repo -> Ok (dev_url, repo))
+
 let publish_distrib ~token ?dev_repo ~dry_run ~msg ~archive ~yes ~draft
     ~prerelease p =
-  Pkg.infer_github_repo p >>= fun { owner; repo } ->
   Pkg.tag p >>= fun tag ->
   assert_tag_exists ~dry_run tag >>= fun () ->
   Vcs.get () >>= fun vcs ->
   check_tag ~dry_run vcs tag >>= fun () ->
-  let dev_repo =
-    match dev_repo with Some d -> Ok d | None -> pkg_dev_repo p
-  in
-  dev_repo >>= fun dev_repo ->
   Pkg.build_dir p >>= fun build_dir ->
   Pkg.name p >>= fun name ->
   Pkg.version p >>= fun version ->
+  repo_info ~dev_repo p >>= fun (dev_repo, { owner; repo }) ->
   push_tag ~dry_run ~yes ~dev_repo vcs tag >>= fun () ->
   create_release ~dry_run ~yes ~dev_repo ~token ~version ~msg ~tag ~user:owner
     ~repo ~draft ~prerelease