DevOps Beginner

What is Artifact?

A packaged, versioned output of a build process — such as a Docker image, JAR file, or compiled binary — ready for deployment.

Build artifacts are the deployable outputs of CI/CD pipelines. They are versioned, immutable, and stored in artifact repositories (Docker Hub, AWS ECR, Nexus, Artifactory, GitHub Packages). A single artifact is built once and promoted through environments (dev to staging to production) ensuring consistency. Artifacts include Docker images, language-specific packages (JAR, wheel, gem), compiled binaries, and infrastructure templates. Proper artifact management with version tagging, retention policies, and vulnerability scanning is essential for reliable software delivery.

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Related Terms

Artifact Repository

A centralized storage system for build artifacts like compiled binaries, packages, and container images used in CI/CD pipelines.

A CI/CD platform integrated into GitHub that automates build, test, and deployment workflows using YAML configuration.

Canary Deployment

A deployment strategy that gradually rolls out changes to a small subset of users before deploying to the entire infrastructure.

Pipeline as Code

Defining CI/CD pipeline configurations as version-controlled code files rather than through UI-based pipeline builders.

Container Registry

A storage and distribution service for container images, similar to a package repository but for Docker images.

A practice where Git repositories serve as the single source of truth for both application code and infrastructure configuration.

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