What Is a Workflow Command?
A workflow command is a control instruction a step communicates to the runner by writing a specially formatted line to stdout. The runner interprets these lines to set step outputs, mask secrets, group log sections, or create annotations. It is the lightweight protocol scripts use to talk back to the CI engine.
Why it matters
Workflow commands let any script, in any language, drive CI features without a special SDK. A shell one-liner can mask a token or emit an error annotation just by printing the right line. Knowing them helps debug why a value did not propagate or a secret leaked into logs.
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