If there are no downstream steps in your pipeline, how would you handle the next layer?

When a pipeline has no downstream consumers, you still need to decide what to do with the data. One common approach is to write the output to a staging or archival location, such as an S3 bucket or a data lake, so it can be accessed later. You can also add a no‑op or dummy sink that satisfies the pipeline framework’s contract. If the next layer is optional, use branching logic to skip it when downstream steps are absent. Additionally, you can emit metrics or logs to indicate that the data was produced but not consumed, which helps with monitoring and troubleshooting.