Artifact

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Discussion

An Artifact is an identifiable work product created, acquired, used, modified, generated, exchanged, delivered, or preserved during an engineering, development, integration, deployment, operational, assurance, or governance activity.

An Artifact may be atomic or composite. A composite Artifact may contain, reference, package, or organize other Artifacts.

An Artifact may contain information, source content, compiled content, executable content, configuration content, model content, policy content, metadata, or evidence. Examples include:

Source codeExecutable filesBinary filesSoftware librariesSoftware dependenciesPackagesArchivesConfiguration filesInfrastructure ConfigurationsInfrastructure BlueprintsModelsSchemasScriptsPolicy filesBuild specificationsContainer ImagesMachine ImagesManifestsSoftware Bills of MaterialsReportsLogsTest resultsEvidenceAn Artifact remains distinct from the physical, logical, or conceptual subject that it describes, configures, instantiates, evaluates, or records. For example:

An Infrastructure Configuration is an Artifact that represents the desired state of an Infrastructure EnvironmentA Machine Image is an Artifact used to instantiate a computing environmentA software library is an Artifact that provides reusable executable or linkable functionalityA package is an Artifact that organizes one or more related Artifacts for identification, versioning, distribution, installation, or useA report is an Artifact that communicates selected informationA test result is an Artifact that records the outcome of a verification activityEvidence is an Artifact retained to support an assertion, decision, or determinationAn Artifact may be:

Human-readableMachine-readableExecutableAtomicCompositeVersion-controlledGeneratedDerivedSignedApprovedReleasedDeliveredArchivedThese characteristics do not apply to every Artifact and require a separate specification where relevant.

Definition

identifiable work product created, acquired, used, modified, generated, exchanged, delivered, or preserved during an activity

Source

Dido Solutions, Inc. and Jackrabbit Consulting, Inc.

Note

An Artifact may exist in physical, digital, or conceptual form.

An Artifact may contain or reference other Artifacts. A package, archive, container image, Machine Image, or bundle may therefore constitute a composite Artifact.

Identification of an Artifact does not by itself establish its revision, approval status, release status, provenance, authenticity, integrity, suitability, or retention status.

A Version-Controlled Artifact is an Artifact managed through a Version Control system.

The term does not require a particular file format, repository, storage medium, packaging mechanism, tool, or implementation technology.

Example

A third-party software package containing an executable, software libraries, configuration files, dependency metadata, and a manifest is a composite Artifact.

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© 2026 Dido Solutions, Inc. and Jackrabbit Consulting, Inc.