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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