Version 2.17.0-254.0.dev

Merge commit '248b27c37f2cb5c70d22c961bb412f3c25da4fc2' into 'dev'
diff --git a/tools/VERSION b/tools/VERSION
index a01ba5f..08e93be 100644
--- a/tools/VERSION
+++ b/tools/VERSION
@@ -23,9 +23,9 @@
 #  * Making cherry-picks to stable channel
 #     - increase PATCH by 1
 #
-CHANNEL be
+CHANNEL dev
 MAJOR 2
 MINOR 17
 PATCH 0
-PRERELEASE 0
-PRERELEASE_PATCH 0
+PRERELEASE 254
+PRERELEASE_PATCH 0
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