Build Artifact - CI/CD Glossary Definition

A build artifact is a file or package produced by compiling or assembling source code, such as a JAR, wheel, Docker image, or zipped binary, that downstream pipeline stages deploy or test.

In CI

Artifacts are usually built once in an early job and passed to later jobs (test, deploy) so the same bits that were tested are the ones that ship. Avoid rebuilding per stage.

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