When CI workflows mix multiple uv steps (e.g., install built wheels, then run tests/lint), make dependency installation deterministic and prevent later steps from overwriting earlier artifact installs.

Apply these rules:

• Validate lock consistency in CI: run uv lock --check (or equivalent in your uv_setup).
• Use uv groups for scoped installs: uv sync --group <name> ....
• Remember uv sync is subtractive: it can remove deps not in the selected group(s) (so expect functional differences vs non-sync installs).
• If a workflow installs an artifact (wheel) and subsequent steps might “sync” (directly or via uv run), stop uv from resynchronizing that environment.
  • Prefer restricting sync to the needed groups (e.g., uv sync --only-group test ...).
  • Or set UV_NO_SYNC=true when using uv run/test commands that would otherwise sync and replace the wheel with the local project.

Example pattern (wheel install + tests without overwriting):

# Install built wheel artifacts
uv pip install dist/*.whl

# Prevent later uv operations (including under uv run) from syncing/overwriting
export UV_NO_SYNC=true

# Run tests (may internally call uv run)
make tests  # should behave like: uv run --group test pytest ...

For group-scoped test deps, prefer:

uv sync --only-group test
# then run tests
uv run pytest

This avoids the common CI failure mode where a built wheel install is replaced by the local project (or where earlier dependency changes vanish after a later uv run).