Job artifacts

Introduced in GitLab 12.4, artifacts in internal and private projects can be previewed when GitLab Pages access control is enabled.

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
    expire_in: 1 week

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.

The expire_in keyword determines how long GitLab keeps the job artifacts. You can also use the UI to keep job artifacts from expiring. If expire_in is not defined, the instance-wide setting is used.

If you run two types of pipelines (like branch and scheduled) for the same ref, the pipeline that finishes later creates the job artifact.

To disable artifact passing, define the job with empty dependencies: 

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

You may want to create artifacts only for tagged releases to avoid filling the build server storage with temporary build artifacts. For example, use rules to create artifacts only for tags: 

default-job:
  script:
    - mvn test -U
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH

release-job:
  script:
    - mvn package -U
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - target/*.war
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG

You can use wildcards for directories too. For example, if you want to get all the files inside the directories that end with xyz: 

job:
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - path/*xyz/*

Use CI/CD variables to define the artifacts 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) it’s advised to use $CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG instead of $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME for proper naming of the artifact.

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

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

To create an archive with a name of the current stage and branch name: 

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

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/

Exclude files from job artifacts

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/**/*

Add untracked files to artifacts

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.

Save all Git untracked files and files in binaries: 

artifacts:
  untracked: true
  paths:
    - binaries/

Save all untracked files but exclude *.txt: 

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

Download job artifacts

You can download job artifacts or view the job archive:

  • On the Pipelines page, to the right of the pipeline:

    Job artifacts in Pipelines page

  • On the Jobs page, to the right of the job:

    Job artifacts in Jobs page

  • On a job’s detail page. The Keep button indicates an expire_in value was set:

    Job artifacts browser button

  • On a merge request, by the pipeline details:

    Job artifacts in merge request

  • When browsing an archive:

    Job artifacts browser

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

View failed job artifacts

If the latest job has failed to upload the artifacts, you can see that information in the UI.

Latest artifacts button

Delete job artifacts

caution
This is a destructive action that leads to data loss. Use with caution.

You can delete a single job, which also removes the job’s artifacts and log. You must be:

  • The owner of the job.
  • A user with at least the Maintainer role for the project.

To delete a job:

  1. Go to a job’s detail page.
  2. In the upper right of the job’s log, select Erase job log ().
  3. On the confirmation dialog, select OK.

Expose job artifacts in the merge request UI

Use the artifacts:expose_as keyword to expose job artifacts in the merge request UI.

For example, to match a single file: 

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

With this configuration, GitLab adds a link artifact 1 to the relevant merge request that points to file.txt. To access the link, select View exposed artifact below the pipeline graph in the merge request overview.

An example that matches an entire directory: 

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

Retrieve job artifacts for other projects

To retrieve a job artifact from a different project, you might need to use a private token to authenticate and download the artifact.

How searching for job artifacts works

In GitLab 13.5 and later, 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 artifact from the parent pipeline is returned.

Access the latest job artifacts

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.

Download the whole artifacts archive for a specific job

You can download the artifacts archive for a specific job with 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

Replace <project-id> with a valid project ID, found at the top of the project details page.

Download a single file from the artifacts

You can download a specific file from the artifacts archive for a specific job with the job artifacts API.

For example, to download the file review/index.html from the latest job named build in the main branch of the gitlab project in the gitlab-org namespace: 

https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/27456355/jobs/artifacts/main/raw/review/index.html?job=build

Browse job artifacts

To browse the job artifacts of the latest successful pipeline for a specific job you can use the following URL: 

https://example.com/<namespace>/<project>/-/jobs/artifacts/<ref>/browse?job=<job_name>

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.

When job artifacts are deleted

See the expire_in documentation for information on when job artifacts are deleted.

Keep artifacts from most recent successful jobs

Version history

By default artifacts are always kept for successful pipelines for the most recent commit on each ref. This means that the latest artifacts do not immediately expire according to the expire_in specification.

If a pipeline for a new commit on the same ref completes successfully, the previous pipeline’s artifacts are deleted according to the expire_in configuration. The artifacts of the new pipeline are kept automatically. If multiple pipelines run for the most recent commit on the ref, all artifacts are 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:

  1. On the top bar, select Main menu > Projects and find your project.
  2. On the left sidebar, select Settings > CI/CD.
  3. Expand Artifacts.
  4. Clear the Keep artifacts from most recent successful jobs checkbox.

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

When Keep artifacts from most recent successful jobs is enabled, artifacts are always kept for blocked pipelines. These artifacts expire only after the blocking job is triggered and the pipeline completes. For more information, see issue 387087.

Troubleshooting

Job does not retrieve certain artifacts

By default, jobs fetch all artifacts from previous stages, but jobs using dependencies or needs do not fetch artifacts from all jobs by default.

If you use these keywords, artifacts are fetched from only a subset of jobs. Review the keyword reference for information on how to fetch artifacts with these keywords:

Job artifacts using too much disk space

There are a number of potential causes for this. Read more in the job artifacts administration documentation.

Error message No files to upload

This message is often preceded by other errors or warnings that specify the filename and why it wasn’t generated. Check the job log for these messages.

If you find no helpful messages, retry the failed job after activating CI/CD debug logging. This logging should provide information to help you investigate further.

Error message Missing /usr/bin/gitlab-runner-helper. Uploading artifacts is disabled.

There is a known issue where setting a CI/CD variable named DEBUG can cause artifact uploads to fail.

To work around this, either use a different variable name or set it inline with script: 

# This job might fail due to issue gitlab-org/gitlab-runner#3068
failing_test_job:
  variables:
    DEBUG: true
  script: bin/mycommand
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - bin/results

# This job does not define a CI/CD variable named `DEBUG` and is not affected by the issue
successful_test_job:
  script: DEBUG=true bin/mycommand
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - bin/results

Error message FATAL: invalid argument when uploading a dotenv artifact on a windows runner

The PowerShell echo command writes files with UCS-2 LE BOM (Byte Order Mark) encoding, but only UTF-8 is supported. If you try create the dotenv artifact with echo, it causes a FATAL: invalid argument error.

Use PowerShell Add-Content instead, which uses UTF-8: 

test-job:
  stage: test
  tags:
    - windows
  script:
    - echo "test job"
    - Add-Content -Path build.env -Value "MY_ENV_VAR=true"
  artifacts:
    reports:
      dotenv: build.env

Job artifacts are not expired

If some job artifacts are not expiring as expected, check if the Keep artifacts from most recent successful jobs setting is enabled.

When this setting is enabled, job artifacts from the latest successful pipeline of each ref do not expire and are not deleted.

Error message This job could not start because it could not retrieve the needed artifacts.

A job configured with needs:artifacts keyword fails to start and returns this error message if:

  • The job’s dependencies cannot be found.
  • The job cannot access the relevant resources due to insufficient permissions.

The troubleshooting steps to follow are determined by the syntax used in the job configuration.

Job configured with needs:project

The could not retrieve the needed artifacts. error can happen for a job using needs:project, with a configuration similar to: 

rspec:
  needs:
    - project: org/another-project
      job: dependency-job
      ref: master
      artifacts: true

To troubleshoot this job, verify that:

  • Project org/another-project is in a group with a Premium subscription plan.
  • The user running the job has permissions to access resources in org/another-project.
  • The project, job, and ref combination exists and results in the desired dependency.
  • Any variables in use evaluate to the correct values.

Job configured with needs:pipeline:job

The could not retrieve the needed artifacts. error can happen for a job using needs:pipeline:job, with a configuration similar to: 

rspec:
  needs:
    - pipeline: $UPSTREAM_PIPELINE_ID
      job: dependency-job
      artifacts: true

To troubleshoot this job, verify that:

  • The $UPSTREAM_PIPELINE_ID CI/CD variable is available in the current pipeline’s parent-child pipeline hierarchy.
  • The pipeline and job combination exists and resolves to an existing pipeline.
  • dependency-job has run and finished successfully.