Run pre-built artefact in azure yaml pipeline

We have a azure Yaml pipeline which builds a test app and stores this with dependencies in a zip file.

The final command in the process is

- powershell: Get-ChildItem -Path '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)' -recurse

to confirm the zip has been located and where it is stored, in this case we see location of:

Directory: D:\a\1\a\Output

and file details of

-a----        12/12/2024  11:40 AM       36585678 RegressionTestSuite.zip   

So that all looks good but now come my questions:

1. Will this file persist?
2. How do I execute this in a totally sperate Yaml file as part of a release pipeline?

Thanks in advance for any advice/help

Kev

Will this file persist?

How do I execute this in a totally sperate Yaml file as part of a release pipeline?

TL;DR: Publish and download pipeline artifacts

More details

You can download artifacts from earlier stages in your pipeline or from another pipeline. You can also publish your artifact to a file share or make it available as a pipeline artifact.

In the pipeline that builds the test app add the following task:

steps:
- task: PublishPipelineArtifact@1
  inputs:
    targetPath: $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)
    artifactName: myApp

You can confirm the artifact is published correctly in the portal:

You can download the artifacts in the same pipeline like this:

steps:
- task: DownloadPipelineArtifact@2
  inputs:
    artifact: myApp

Or, as an alternative, download a specific artifact from a specific build:

steps:
- task: DownloadPipelineArtifact@2
  displayName: 'Download Pipeline Artifact'
  inputs:
    buildType: specific
    project: 'xxxxxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx'
    definition: 79
    buildVersionToDownload: specific
    pipelineId: 597
    artifactName: myApp

See the documentation for more details.

Finally, to set how long to keep artifacts see Set retention policies for builds, releases, and tests.