How do you pass a value from one job to a dependent job in GitHub Actions?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation and Infographic
Jobs run on separate runners, so workflow-level env vars don't persist. Job outputs are the clean, built-in way to pass data between jobs.
Full explanation below image
![Educational infographic 1024x768 showing job output flow. Job A: step writes to GITHUBOUTPUT, job outputs block references it. Arrow to Job B with needs: [job-a]. Job B accesses needs.job-a.outputs.version. Show the three YAML snippets connected by arrows. Label each step of the flow.](/media/github/gh-200/GH-200-q015-infographic.webp)
Full Explanation
Each job runs on a fresh runner, so environment variables set in one job are not available in another. The correct pattern is: (1) in a step, write to $GITHUB_OUTPUT using 'echo name=value >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT'; (2) define the job-level 'outputs:' block mapping names to '${{ steps.step_id.outputs.name }}'; (3) in the downstream job, access via '${{ needs.upstream_job.outputs.name }}'. Workflow-level env: blocks can define static values but cannot receive dynamic values from job steps. Artifacts work for files but not lightweight string values.