GitHub Actions "cannot find artifact across workflow runs"

By default download-artifact only sees artifacts from the same run. Pulling one from another run requires the run-id and a token, and the source artifact must still exist. A misconfigured cross-run download fails to find it.

What this error means

A download-artifact step that should fetch from a prior or upstream run reports the artifact cannot be found.

github-actions

Error: Unable to find any artifacts for the associated workflow run
(run-id: 1234567890, name: build-output)

Common causes

run-id and token not provided

Cross-run downloads need github-token and run-id inputs; without them v4 only searches the current run.

Source artifact expired or never uploaded

The artifact retention elapsed, or the upstream run did not upload under the expected name.

How to fix it

Provide run-id and token for cross-run download

Pass github-token and the producing run-id to actions/download-artifact.
Match the artifact name exactly to the upstream upload.
Confirm the artifact still exists within its retention window.

.github/workflows/consume.yml

- uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
  with:
    name: build-output
    github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    run-id: ${{ github.event.workflow_run.id }}

How to prevent it

Always set run-id and github-token when downloading from another run.
On Latchkey managed runners, transient artifact-service lookups during cross-run downloads are retried automatically, so flaky fetches do not fail the run.