Catalog
concept#Software Engineering#DevOps#Platform#Security

Artifact Management

Management, versioning and traceability of build artifacts and binary packages across the software supply chain.

Artifact Management covers practices for storing, versioning, signed provenance and access control of build artifacts.
Established
Medium

Classification

  • Medium
  • Technical
  • Architectural
  • Intermediate

Technical context

Jenkins / GitHub Actions / GitLab CIMaven Central / npm Registry / Docker RegistryArtifact repositories like Nexus or Artifactory

Principles & goals

Clear versioning and immutable artifactsSigning and provenance for integrity verificationCentral policies, decentralized consumption
Build
Enterprise, Domain, Team

Use cases & scenarios

Compromises

  • Uncontrolled retention of old artifacts increases attack surface
  • Missing signatures allow tampering
  • Single point of failure in improperly secured central infrastructure
  • Immutable artifacts: do not overwrite released artifacts.
  • Standardize signing and provenance (e.g. SLSA).
  • Grant access rights based on least privilege.

I/O & resources

  • CI build artifacts and metadata
  • Authentication and access policies
  • Storage and retention configuration
  • Versioned artifact repositories
  • Audit logs and provenance reports
  • Deployable packages with integrity proof

Description

Artifact Management covers practices for storing, versioning, signed provenance and access control of build artifacts. It ties CI/CD, repository services and governance to ensure consistency, reproducibility and security across the software supply chain.

✔

  • Improved reproducibility of builds
  • Faster CI/CD runs via caching
  • Increased transparency and compliance

✖

  • Additional operational overhead for repository services
  • Storage and cost growth without cleanup
  • Complexity when supporting multiple formats

  • Artifact access time

    Average time to download an artifact.

  • Storage consumption per month

    Total storage used by all repositories per month.

  • Dependency hit rate

    Share of builds using artifacts from the internal cache.

Maven Central as central dependency source

Projects publish artifacts centrally; dependency management via group and version conventions.

Docker registry for container images

Container images are versioned, signed and assigned lifecycle policies in registries.

Internal Nexus for proprietary artifacts

Organizations operate internal repositories for protected packages and control access via LDAP/SSO.

1

Define requirements and formats (artifact types, retention, signatures).

2

Select and deploy suitable repository software.

3

Configure authentication, authorization and network security.

4

Integrate CI/CD pipelines with repositories and signing.

5

Automate retention and archival policies.

6

Introduce monitoring, backups and regular audits.

⚠️ Technical debt & bottlenecks

  • Outdated repository versions without upgrade plan.
  • Missing automation for cleanup and archiving.
  • Manual signing processes instead of integrated build signing.
Network throughputRepository indexingStorage lifecycle management
  • Storing sensitive configuration as artifacts without encryption.
  • Relying on external registries without a local cache for critical builds.
  • Missing traceability of who/what produced releases.
  • Unclear naming and version conventions lead to duplicates.
  • Ignoring license and IP checks for published artifacts.
  • Too short retention periods destroy necessary reproducibility.
Knowledge of CI/CD and repository managementUnderstanding of signing and provenance proceduresOperational skills for storage and backup systems
Reproducibility of buildsSecurity and provenanceOperational availability and scalability
  • • Corporate data storage policies
  • • Compatibility with existing format specifications
  • • Budget for infrastructure and operations