Artifact Upload
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
Artifact Upload saves files from your CI job so other jobs (or humans) can download them later. Built your app? Upload the bundle. Ran tests? Upload the coverage report. It's like putting your homework in a shared locker so the next person can grab it.
Real Talk
The actions/upload-artifact action in GitHub Actions persists files between workflow jobs and makes them available for download. Artifacts are retained for a configurable period (default 90 days) and can be downloaded via the UI, API, or subsequent jobs using download-artifact.
Show Me The Code
steps:
- run: npm run build
- uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
with:
name: build-output
path: dist/
retention-days: 7
When You'll Hear This
"The build job uploads artifacts and the deploy job downloads them." / "Test coverage reports are uploaded as artifacts for every PR."
Related Terms
Cache Action
Cache Action saves your node_modules (or pip packages, or whatever) between CI runs so you don't reinstall everything from scratch every time.
GitHub Actions
GitHub Actions is CI/CD built right into GitHub. Push code, run tests, deploy — all from YAML files in your repo. No separate CI server needed.
Job Dependencies
Job Dependencies tell GitHub Actions 'don't start job B until job A finishes.' Build before test. Test before deploy.