Workflow artifacts provide an explicit mechanism for transferring serialized agent state between jobs. The producing job writes the required state to files and uploads those files as an artifact. Subsequent jobs download the artifact and load the state before continuing the integration-test workflow.

This is necessary because jobs do not automatically share process memory or a common workspace. They may execute on different runners, and even jobs assigned to similar runner types must not depend on incidental machine reuse. Uploading the state establishes a deliberate persistence boundary rather than relying on temporary execution infrastructure.

Committing state after every job introduces repository mutations merely to transport workflow data. Environment variables are also unsuitable as a general cross-job state store: setting a variable in one job does not automatically expose it in another, and complex state is better represented in structured files.

The application must serialize the information needed for continuation, such as completed steps, relevant decisions, and test progress. Uploading an arbitrary directory does not automatically restore a running agent process.

Relevant curriculum topics are durable state, cross-environment continuity, and resuming work without repeating completed steps.

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