What is the difference between the state.json files found at

.meltano/run/{extractor}/state.json

and the local filesystem

MELTANO_STATE_BACKEND_URI=file://...

? Are both important? Does one supersede the other?

Meltano provides the

state

to the taps. State is sent to taps via a cli argument

tap-name --config config.json --state state.json --catalog catalog.json

state.json

is built via a number of methods with Meltano. State backend_uri is one of the possibilities!

I'll add that

.meltano/run/{extractor}/state.json

is a temporary file created so it can be passed as a CLI argument as Derek mentioned, while the local filesystem state backend is where the state is retrieved and from which the file mentioned before is created.

Thanks for that, knowing that those

/run/...

files are only temporary is what I was after.