There is a clean argument within the rmarkdown::render function that, when set to FALSE, will keep all the intermediate files created. Also, when you render the .Rmd file, objects should appear in your global environment (at least in RStudio 1.2.1206.2)
Here's my sample rmd_test.Rmd
---
title: "Test"
output: html_document
---
```{r setup, include=FALSE}
knitr::opts_chunk$set(echo = TRUE)
```
## R Markdown
This is an R Markdown document. Markdown is a simple formatting syntax for authoring HTML, PDF, and MS Word documents. For more details on using R Markdown see <http://rmarkdown.rstudio.com>.
When you click the **Knit** button a document will be generated that includes both content as well as the output of any embedded R code chunks within the document. You can embed an R code chunk like this:
```{r cars}
summary(cars)
```
```{r}
cars_test <- cars
```
## Including Plots
You can also embed plots, for example:
```{r pressure, echo=FALSE}
plot(pressure)
```
Note that the `echo = FALSE` parameter was added to the code chunk to prevent printing of the R code that generated the plot.
that when rendered in an R script via
rmarkdown::render("rmd_test.Rmd", clean = FALSE)
should return the cars_test object to the global environment and also some .md files and the rmd_test_files folder.