Job artifacts

DETAILS: Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate Offering: SaaS, self-managed

Jobs can output an archive of files and directories. This output is known as a job artifact.

You can download job artifacts by using the GitLab UI or the API.

For an overview of job artifacts, watch the video GitLab CI pipelines, artifacts, and environments. Or, for an introduction, watch GitLab CI pipeline tutorial for beginners.

For administrator information about job artifact storage, see administering job artifacts.

Create job artifacts

To create job artifacts, use the artifacts keyword in your .gitlab-ci.yml file:

pdf:
  script: xelatex mycv.tex
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - mycv.pdf

In this example, a job named pdf calls the xelatex command to build a PDF file from the LaTeX source file, mycv.tex.

The paths keyword determines which files to add to the job artifacts. All paths to files and directories are relative to the repository where the job was created.

With wildcards

You can use wildcards for paths and directories. For example, to create an artifact with all the files inside the directories that end with xyz:

job:
  script: echo "build xyz project"
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - path/*xyz/*

With an expiry

The expire_in keyword determines how long GitLab keeps the job artifacts. For example:

pdf:
  script: xelatex mycv.tex
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - mycv.pdf
    expire_in: 1 week

If expire_in is not defined, the instance-wide setting is used.

To prevent artifacts from expiring, you can select Keep from the job details page. The option is not available when an artifact has no expiry set.

By default, the latest artifacts are always kept.

With a dynamically defined name

You can use CI/CD variables to dynamically define the artifacts file's name.

For example, to create an archive with a name of the current job:

job:
  artifacts:
    name: "$CI_JOB_NAME"
    paths:
      - binaries/

To create an archive with a name of the current branch or tag including only the binaries directory:

job:
  artifacts:
    name: "$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME"
    paths:
      - binaries/

If your branch-name contains forward slashes (for example feature/my-feature) use $CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG instead of $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME for proper naming of the artifact.

With a Windows runner or shell executor

If you use Windows Batch to run your shell scripts you must replace $ with %:

job:
  artifacts:
    name: "%CI_JOB_STAGE%-%CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME%"
    paths:
      - binaries/

If you use Windows PowerShell to run your shell scripts you must replace $ with $env::

job:
  artifacts:
    name: "$env:CI_JOB_STAGE-$env:CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME"
    paths:
      - binaries/

Without excluded files

Use artifacts:exclude to prevent files from being added to an artifacts archive.

For example, to store all files in binaries/, but not *.o files located in subdirectories of binaries/.

artifacts:
  paths:
    - binaries/
  exclude:
    - binaries/**/*.o

Unlike artifacts:paths, exclude paths are not recursive. To exclude all of the contents of a directory, match them explicitly rather than matching the directory itself.

For example, to store all files in binaries/ but nothing located in the temp/ subdirectory:

artifacts:
  paths:
    - binaries/
  exclude:
    - binaries/temp/**/*

With untracked files

Use artifacts:untracked to add all Git untracked files as artifacts (along with the paths defined in artifacts:paths). Untracked files are those that haven't been added to the repository but exist in the repository checkout.

For example, to save all Git untracked files and files in binaries:

artifacts:
  untracked: true
  paths:
    - binaries/

For example, to save all untracked files but exclude *.txt files:

artifacts:
  untracked: true
  exclude:
    - "*.txt"

Prevent a job from fetching artifacts

Jobs downloads all artifacts from the completed jobs in previous stages by default. To prevent a job from downloading any artifacts, set dependencies to an empty array ([]):

job:
  stage: test
  script: make build
  dependencies: []

View all job artifacts in a project

Introduced in GitLab 12.4 with a flag named artifacts_management_page. Disabled by default.

Improved look in GitLab 15.6.

Improved performance in GitLab 15.9.

Generally available in GitLab 16.0. Feature flag artifacts_management_page removed.

You can view all artifacts stored in a project from the Build > Artifacts page. This list displays all jobs and their associated artifacts. Expand an entry to access all artifacts associated with a job, including:

Artifacts created with the artifacts: keyword.
Report artifacts.
Job logs and metadata, which are stored internally as separate artifacts.

You can download or delete individual artifacts from this list.

Download job artifacts

You can download job artifacts from:

Any Pipelines list. On the right of the pipeline, select Download artifacts ({download}).
Any Jobs list. On the right of the job, select Download artifacts ({download}).
A job's detail page. On the right of the page, select Download.
A merge request Overview page. On the right of the latest pipeline, select Artifacts ({download}).
The Artifacts page. On the right of the job, select Download ({download}).
The artifacts browser. On the top of the page, select Download artifacts archive ({download}).

Report artifacts can only be downloaded from the Pipelines list or Artifacts page.

You can download job artifacts from the latest successful pipeline by using the job artifacts API. You cannot download artifact reports with the job artifacts API, unless the report is added as a regular artifact with artifacts:paths.

From a URL

You can download the artifacts archive for a specific job with a publicly accessible URL for the job artifacts API.

For example:

To download the latest artifacts of a job named build in the main branch of a project on GitLab.com:
```
https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/<project-id>/jobs/artifacts/main/download?job=build
```
To download the file review/index.html from the latest job named build in the main branch of a project on GitLab.com:
```
https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/<project-id>/jobs/artifacts/main/raw/review/index.html?job=build
```
Files returned by this endpoint always have the plain/text content type.

In both examples, replace <project-id> with a valid project ID. You can find the project ID on the, project overview page.

Artifacts for parent and child pipelines are searched in hierarchical order from parent to child. For example, if both parent and child pipelines have a job with the same name, the job artifacts from the parent pipeline are returned.

With a CI/CD job token

DETAILS: Tier: Premium, Ultimate Offering: SaaS, self-managed

You can use a CI/CD job token to authenticate with the jobs artifacts API endpoint and fetch artifacts from a different pipeline. You must specify which job to retrieve artifacts from, for example:

build_submodule:
  stage: test
  script:
    - apt update && apt install -y unzip
    - curl --location --output artifacts.zip "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/1/jobs/artifacts/main/download?job=test&job_token=$CI_JOB_TOKEN"
    - unzip artifacts.zip

Browse the contents of the artifacts archive

You can browse the contents of the artifacts from the UI without downloading the artifact locally, from:

Any Jobs list. On the right of the job, select Browse ({folder-open}).
A job's detail page. On the right of the page, select Browse.
The Artifacts page. On the right of the job, select Browse ({folder-open}).

If GitLab Pages is enabled in the project, you can preview some artifacts file extensions directly in your browser. If the project is internal or private, you must enable GitLab Pages access control to enable the preview.

The following extensions are supported:

File extension	GitLab.com	Linux package with built-in NGINX
`.html`	{check-circle} Yes	{check-circle} Yes
`.json`	{check-circle} Yes	{check-circle} Yes
`.xml`	{check-circle} Yes	{check-circle} Yes
`.txt`	{dotted-circle} No	{check-circle} Yes
`.log`	{dotted-circle} No	{check-circle} Yes

From a URL

You can browse the job artifacts of the latest successful pipeline for a specific job with a publicly accessible URL.

For example, to browse the latest artifacts of a job named build in the main branch of a project on GitLab.com:

https://gitlab.com/<full-project-path>/-/jobs/artifacts/main/browse?job=build

Replace <full-project-path> with a valid project path, you can find it in the URL for your project.

Delete job log and artifacts

WARNING: Deleting the job log and artifacts is a destructive action that cannot be reverted. Use with caution. Deleting certain files, including report artifacts, job logs, and metadata files, affects GitLab features that use these files as data sources.

You can delete a job's artifacts and log.

Prerequisites:

You must be the owner of the job or a user with at least the Maintainer role for the project.

To delete a job:

Go to a job's detail page.
In the upper-right corner of the job's log, select Erase job log and artifacts ({remove}).

You can also delete individual artifacts from the Artifacts page.

Bulk delete artifacts

Introduced in GitLab 15.10 with a flag named ci_job_artifact_bulk_destroy. Disabled by default.

Feature flag removed in GitLab 16.1.

You can delete multiple artifacts at the same time:

On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
Select Build > Artifacts.
Select the checkboxes next to the artifacts you want to delete. You can select up to 50 artifacts.
Select Delete selected.

Link to job artifacts in the merge request UI

Use the artifacts:expose_as keyword to display a link to job artifacts in the merge request UI.

For example, for an artifact with a single file:

test:
  script: ["echo 'test' > file.txt"]
  artifacts:
    expose_as: 'artifact 1'
    paths: ['file.txt']

With this configuration, GitLab adds artifact 1 as a link to file.txt to the View exposed artifact section of the relevant merge request.

Keep artifacts from most recent successful jobs

Introduced in GitLab 13.0.

Feature flag removed in GitLab 13.4.

Made optional with a CI/CD setting in GitLab 13.8.

Artifacts for blocked or failed pipelines no longer kept indefinitely in GitLab 16.7.

By default artifacts are always kept for successful pipelines for the most recent commit on each ref. Any expire_in configuration does not apply to the most recent artifacts.

A pipeline's artifacts are only deleted according to the expire_in configuration if a new pipeline runs for the same ref and:

Succeeds.
Fails.
Stops running due to being blocked by a manual job.

Additionally, artifacts are kept for the ref's last successful pipeline even if it is not the latest pipeline. As a result, if a new pipeline run fails, the last successful pipeline's artifacts are still kept.

Keeping the latest artifacts can use a large amount of storage space in projects with a lot of jobs or large artifacts. If the latest artifacts are not needed in a project, you can disable this behavior to save space:

On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
Select Settings > CI/CD.
Expand Artifacts.
Clear the Keep artifacts from most recent successful jobs checkbox.

After disabling this setting, all new artifacts expire according to the expire_in configuration. Artifacts in old pipelines continue to be kept until a new pipeline runs for the same ref. Then the artifacts in the earlier pipeline for that ref are allowed to expire too.

You can disable this behavior for all projects on a self-managed instance in the instance's CI/CD settings.