Sharing Data Between Steps

Workflow steps run sequentially in the same pod, so they share a filesystem (see Content for volume-based sharing). But when you want to explicitly pass a value or a file from one step to another, Testkube provides two dedicated mechanisms: output values and step results directories.

tip

Give your steps an explicit id so you can reference them by name. Without an id, you'd have to use the auto-generated step identifier, which is harder to read.

Output Values

Write a value to /testkube/outputs/<key> in any step. Later steps can read it with {{step.<id>.outputs.<key>}}.

steps:
  - name: Setup
    id: setup
    shell: |
      echo "my-generated-token" > /testkube/outputs/token
  - name: Test
    id: test
    shell: |
      echo "Using token: {{step.setup.outputs.token}}"

One file per key — the entire file content becomes the string value of the expression.

Step Results Directories

Each step has a results directory at {{step.results}}. Files written there are accessible to later steps at {{step.<id>.results}}/.

steps:
  - name: Build
    id: build
    shell: |
      echo '#!/bin/sh' > {{step.results}}/app
      echo 'echo "running"' >> {{step.results}}/app
      chmod +x {{step.results}}/app
  - name: Run
    id: run
    shell: |
      {{step.build.results}}/app

Use this for larger data — binaries, config files, test fixtures.

Full Example

A step can use both mechanisms at once, and any later step can read from any earlier step.

steps:
  - name: Produce
    id: produce
    shell: |
      echo "my_token" > /testkube/outputs/token
      echo '#!/bin/sh' > {{step.results}}/app
      echo 'echo "running"' >> {{step.results}}/app
      chmod +x {{step.results}}/app
  - name: Consume
    id: consume
    shell: |
      test "{{step.produce.outputs.token}}" = "my_token"
      {{step.produce.results}}/app
      echo "consumed" > /testkube/outputs/status
  - name: Verify
    id: verify
    shell: |
      test "{{step.consume.outputs.status}}" = "consumed"
      test "{{step.produce.outputs.token}}" = "my_token"
      {{step.produce.results}}/app

Notes

• Output values are strings. Write JSON if you need structured data and parse it in the consuming step.
• Both mechanisms work within a single pod. They are not available across parallel workers in separate pods — use the transfer property for that (see Parallelization).