What Is Artifact Retention?
Artifact retention is the configured period for which a CI system keeps build outputs, logs, coverage reports, and other artifacts before deleting them automatically. Shorter retention saves storage and cost; longer retention preserves history for debugging, audits, and reproducing past releases. Most platforms let you set a default and override it per artifact.
Why it matters
Artifacts accumulate fast and storage is not free, so unbounded retention quietly inflates costs. Too-short retention, though, means a failed release can no longer be inspected. The right policy balances debuggability and compliance against storage spend.
Related concepts
- Distinct from cache, which is for speeding builds, not archival
- Release artifacts often need longer retention for rollbacks
- Provenance and SBOMs may have regulatory retention requirements
Related guides
What Is a Build Cache?A build cache stores intermediate build outputs so unchanged work can be reused across runs instead of recomp…
What Is Build Provenance?Build provenance is signed metadata describing how an artifact was built, including its source, inputs, and b…
What Is an SBOM (Software Bill of Materials)?A software bill of materials (SBOM) is a complete inventory of the components and dependencies that make up a…