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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.

Related Terms

Configuration Management
The practice of systematically managing and maintaining consistent server configurations across infrastructure.
ELK Stack
A popular log management platform combining Elasticsearch (search), Logstash (processing), and Kibana (visualization).
CI/CD
Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment — automated practices for building, testing, and deploying code changes.
Packer
A tool for creating identical machine images for multiple platforms from a single configuration file.
Vault
A tool by HashiCorp for securely managing secrets, encryption keys, and certificates with dynamic secret generation.
Ansible
An agentless automation tool for configuration management, application deployment, and task automation using YAML playbooks.
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