You cannot use `branches` and `branches-ignore` to filter the same event in a single workflow. If you want to both include and exclude branch patterns for a single event, use the `branches` filter along with the `!` character to indicate which branches should be excluded.

If you define a branch with the `!` character, you must also define at least one branch without the `!` character. If you only want to exclude branches, use `branches-ignore` instead.

The order that you define patterns matters.

* A matching negative pattern (prefixed with `!`) after a positive match will exclude the Git ref.
* A matching positive pattern after a negative match will include the Git ref again.

The following workflow will run on `pull_request` events for pull requests that target `releases/10` or `releases/beta/mona`, but not for pull requests that target `releases/10-alpha` or `releases/beta/3-alpha` because the negative pattern `!releases/**-alpha` follows the positive pattern.

```yaml
on:
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - 'releases/**'
      - '!releases/**-alpha'
```