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UploadActions Artifacts from your Workflow Runs. Internally powered by@actions/artifact package.

See alsodownload-artifact.

• @actions/upload-artifact
  • v6 - What's new
  • v4 - What's new
    • Improvements
    • Breaking Changes
  • Usage
    • Inputs
    • Outputs
  • Examples
    • Upload an Individual File
    • Upload an Entire Directory
    • Upload using a Wildcard Pattern
    • Upload using Multiple Paths and Exclusions
    • Altering compressions level (speed v. size)
    • Customization if no files are found
    • (Not) Uploading to the same artifact
    • Environment Variables and Tilde Expansion
    • Retention Period
    • Using Outputs
      • Example output between steps
      • Example output between jobs
    • Overwriting an Artifact
  • Limitations
    • Number of Artifacts
    • Zip archives
    • Permission Loss
  • Where does the upload go?

This release updates the runtime to Node.js 24. v5 had preliminary support for Node.js 24, however this action was by default still running on Node.js 20. Now this action by default will run on Node.js 24.

The release of upload-artifact@v4 and download-artifact@v4 are major changes to the backend architecture of Artifacts. They have numerous performance and behavioral improvements.

For more information, see the@actions/artifact documentation.

There is also a new sub-action,actions/upload-artifact/merge. For more info, check out that action'sREADME.

1. Uploads are significantly faster, upwards of 90% improvement in worst case scenarios.
2. Once uploaded, an Artifact ID is returned and Artifacts are immediately available in the UI andREST API. Previously, you would have to wait for the run to be completed before an ID was available or any APIs could be utilized.
3. The contents of an Artifact are uploaded together into animmutable archive. They cannot be altered by subsequent jobs unless the Artifacts are deleted and recreated (where they will have a new ID). Both of these factors help reduce the possibility of accidentally corrupting Artifact files.
4. The compression level of an Artifact can be manually tweaked for speed or size reduction.

1. On self hosted runners, additionalfirewall rules may be required.

2. Uploading to the same named Artifact multiple times.

   Due to how Artifacts are created in this new version, it is no longer possible to upload to the same named Artifact multiple times. You must either split the uploads into multiple Artifacts with different names, or only upload once. Otherwise youwill encounter an error.

3. Limit of Artifacts for an individual job. Each job in a workflow run now has a limit of 500 artifacts.

4. Withv4.4 and later, hidden files are excluded by default.

For assistance with breaking changes, seeMIGRATION.md.

Thank you for your interest in this GitHub repo, however, right now we are not taking contributions.

We continue to focus our resources on strategic areas that help our customers be successful while making developers' lives easier. While GitHub Actions remains a key part of this vision, we are allocating resources towards other areas of Actions and are not taking contributions to this repository at this time. The GitHub public roadmap is the best place to follow along for any updates on features we’re working on and what stage they’re in.

We are taking the following steps to better direct requests related to GitHub Actions, including:

1. We will be directing questions and support requests to ourCommunity Discussions area

2. High Priority bugs can be reported through Community Discussions or you can report these to our support teamhttps://support.github.com/contact/bug-report.

3. Security Issues should be handled as per oursecurity.md.

We will still provide security updates for this project and fix major breaking changes during this time.

You are welcome to still raise bugs in this repo.

-uses:actions/upload-artifact@v4with:# Name of the artifact to upload.# Optional. Default is 'artifact'name:# A file, directory or wildcard pattern that describes what to upload# Required.path:# The desired behavior if no files are found using the provided path.# Available Options:#   warn: Output a warning but do not fail the action#   error: Fail the action with an error message#   ignore: Do not output any warnings or errors, the action does not fail# Optional. Default is 'warn'if-no-files-found:# Duration after which artifact will expire in days. 0 means using default retention.# Minimum 1 day.# Maximum 90 days unless changed from the repository settings page.# Optional. Defaults to repository settings.retention-days:# The level of compression for Zlib to be applied to the artifact archive.# The value can range from 0 to 9.# For large files that are not easily compressed, a value of 0 is recommended for significantly faster uploads.# Optional. Default is '6'compression-level:# If true, an artifact with a matching name will be deleted before a new one is uploaded.# If false, the action will fail if an artifact for the given name already exists.# Does not fail if the artifact does not exist.# Optional. Default is 'false'overwrite:# Whether to include hidden files in the provided path in the artifact# The file contents of any hidden files in the path should be validated before# enabled this to avoid uploading sensitive information.# Optional. Default is 'false'include-hidden-files:

steps:-run:mkdir -p path/to/artifact-run:echo hello > path/to/artifact/world.txt-uses:actions/upload-artifact@v4with:name:my-artifactpath:path/to/artifact/world.txt

-uses:actions/upload-artifact@v4with:name:my-artifactpath:path/to/artifact/# or path/to/artifact

-uses:actions/upload-artifact@v4with:name:my-artifactpath:path/**/[abc]rtifac?/*

-uses:actions/upload-artifact@v4with:name:my-artifactpath:|      path/output/bin/      path/output/test-results      !path/**/*.tmp

For supported wildcards along with behavior and documentation, see@actions/glob which is used internally to search for files.

If a wildcard pattern is used, the path hierarchy will be preserved after the first wildcard pattern:

path/to/*/directory/foo?.txt =>    ∟ path/to/some/directory/foo1.txt    ∟ path/to/some/directory/foo2.txt    ∟ path/to/other/directory/foo1.txtwould be flattened and uploaded as =>    ∟ some/directory/foo1.txt    ∟ some/directory/foo2.txt    ∟ other/directory/foo1.txt

If multiple paths are provided as input, the least common ancestor of all the search paths will be used as the root directory of the artifact. Exclude paths do not affect the directory structure.

Relative and absolute file paths are both allowed. Relative paths are rooted against the current working directory. Paths that begin with a wildcard character should be quoted to avoid being interpreted as YAML aliases.

If you are uploading large or easily compressable data to your artifact, you may benefit from tweaking the compression level. By default, the compression level is6, the same as GNU Gzip.

The value can range from 0 to 9:

• 0: No compression
• 1: Best speed
• 6: Default compression (same as GNU Gzip)
• 9: Best compression

Higher levels will result in better compression, but will take longer to complete.For large files that are not easily compressed, a value of0 is recommended for significantly faster uploads.

For instance, if you are uploading random binary data, you can save a lot of time by opting out of compression completely, since it won't benefit:

-name:Make a 1GB random binary filerun:|    dd if=/dev/urandom of=my-1gb-file bs=1M count=1000-uses:actions/upload-artifact@v4with:name:my-artifactpath:my-1gb-filecompression-level:0# no compression

But, if you are uploading data that is easily compressed (like plaintext, code, etc) you can save space and cost by having a higher compression level. But this will be heavier on the CPU therefore slower to upload:

-name:Make a file with a lot of repeated textrun:|    for i in {1..100000}; do echo -n 'foobar' >> foobar.txt; done-uses:actions/upload-artifact@v4with:name:my-artifactpath:foobar.txtcompression-level:9# maximum compression

If a path (or paths), result in no files being found for the artifact, the action will succeed but print out a warning. In certain scenarios it may be desirable to fail the action or suppress the warning. Theif-no-files-found option allows you to customize the behavior of the action if no files are found:

-uses:actions/upload-artifact@v4with:name:my-artifactpath:path/to/artifact/if-no-files-found:error# 'warn' or 'ignore' are also available, defaults to `warn`

Unlike earlier versions ofupload-artifact, uploading to the same artifact via multiple jobs isnot supported withv4.

-run:echo hi > world.txt-uses:actions/upload-artifact@v4with:# implicitly named as 'artifact'path:world.txt-run:echo howdy > extra-file.txt-uses:actions/upload-artifact@v4with:# also implicitly named as 'artifact', will fail here!path:extra-file.txt

Artifact names must be unique since each created artifact is idempotent so multiple jobs cannot modify the same artifact.

In matrix scenarios, be careful to not accidentally upload to the same artifact, or else you will encounter conflict errors. It would be best to name the artifactwith a prefix or suffix from the matrix:

jobs:upload:name:Generate Build Artifactsstrategy:matrix:os:[ubuntu-latest, windows-latest]version:[a, b, c]runs-on:${{ matrix.os }}steps:    -name:Buildrun:./some-script --version=${{ matrix.version }} > my-binary    -name:Uploaduses:actions/upload-artifact@v4with:name:binary-${{ matrix.os }}-${{ matrix.version }}path:my-binary

This will result in artifacts like:binary-ubuntu-latest-a,binary-windows-latest-b, and so on.

Previously the behaviorallowed for the artifact names to be the same which resulted in unexpected mutations and accidental corruption. Artifacts created by upload-artifact@v4 are immutable.

You can use~ in the path input as a substitute for$HOME. Basic tilde expansion is supported:

  -run:|      mkdir -p ~/new/artifact      echo hello > ~/new/artifact/world.txt  -uses:actions/upload-artifact@v4with:name:my-artifactspath:~/new/**/*

Environment variables along with context expressions can also be used for input. For documentation seecontext and expression syntax:

env:name:my-artifactsteps:    -run:|        mkdir -p ${{ github.workspace }}/artifact        echo hello > ${{ github.workspace }}/artifact/world.txt    -uses:actions/upload-artifact@v4with:name:${{ env.name }}-namepath:${{ github.workspace }}/artifact/**/*

For environment variables created in other steps, make sure to use theenv expression syntax

steps:    -run:|        mkdir testing        echo "This is a file to upload" > testing/file.txt        echo "artifactPath=testing/file.txt" >> $GITHUB_ENV    -uses:actions/upload-artifact@v4with:name:artifactpath:${{ env.artifactPath }}# this will resolve to testing/file.txt at runtime

Artifacts are retained for 90 days by default. You can specify a shorter retention period using theretention-days input:

  -name:Create a filerun:echo "I won't live long" > my_file.txt  -name:Upload Artifactuses:actions/upload-artifact@v4with:name:my-artifactpath:my_file.txtretention-days:5

The retention period must be between 1 and 90 inclusive. For more information seeartifact and log retention policies.

If an artifact upload is successful then anartifact-id output is available. This ID is a unique identifier that can be used withArtifact REST APIs.

    -uses:actions/upload-artifact@v4id:artifact-upload-stepwith:name:my-artifactpath:path/to/artifact/content/    -name:Output artifact IDrun:echo 'Artifact ID is ${{ steps.artifact-upload-step.outputs.artifact-id }}'

jobs:job1:runs-on:ubuntu-latestoutputs:output1:${{ steps.artifact-upload-step.outputs.artifact-id }}steps:      -uses:actions/upload-artifact@v4id:artifact-upload-stepwith:name:my-artifactpath:path/to/artifact/content/job2:runs-on:ubuntu-latestneeds:job1steps:      -env:OUTPUT1:${{needs.job1.outputs.output1}}run:echo "Artifact ID from previous job is $OUTPUT1"

Although it's not possible to mutate an Artifact, can completely overwrite one. But do note that this will give the Artifact a new ID, the previous one will no longer exist:

jobs:upload:runs-on:ubuntu-lateststeps:      -name:Create a filerun:echo "hello world" > my-file.txt      -name:Upload Artifactuses:actions/upload-artifact@v4with:name:my-artifact# NOTE: same artifact namepath:my-file.txtupload-again:needs:uploadruns-on:ubuntu-lateststeps:      -name:Create a different filerun:echo "goodbye world" > my-file.txt      -name:Upload Artifactuses:actions/upload-artifact@v4with:name:my-artifact# NOTE: same artifact namepath:my-file.txtoverwrite:true

By default, hidden files are ignored by this action to avoid unintentionally uploading sensitive information.

If you need to upload hidden files, you can use theinclude-hidden-files input.Any files that contain sensitive information that should not be in the uploaded artifact can be excludedusing thepath:

-uses:actions/upload-artifact@v4with:name:my-artifactinclude-hidden-files:truepath:|      path/output/      !path/output/.production.env

Hidden files are defined as any file beginning with. or files within folders beginning with..On Windows, files and directories with the hidden attribute are not considered hidden files unlessthey have the. prefix.

Within an individual job, there is a limit of 500 artifacts that can be created for that job.

You may also be limited by Artifacts if you have exceeded your shared storage quota. Storage is calculated every 6-12 hours. Seethe documentation for more info.

When an Artifact is uploaded, all the files are assembled into an immutable Zip archive. There is currently no way to download artifacts in a format other than a Zip or to download individual artifact contents.

File permissions are not maintained during artifact upload. All directories will have755 and all files will have644. For example, if you make a file executable usingchmod and then upload that file, post-download the file is no longer guaranteed to be set as an executable.

If you must preserve permissions, you cantar all of your files together before artifact upload. Post download, thetar file will maintain file permissions and case sensitivity.

-name:'Tar files'run:tar -cvf my_files.tar /path/to/my/directory-name:'Upload Artifact'uses:actions/upload-artifact@v4with:name:my-artifactpath:my_files.tar

At the bottom of the workflow summary page, there is a dedicated section for artifacts. Here's a screenshot of something you might see:

There is a trashcan icon that can be used to delete the artifact. This icon will only appear for users who have write permissions to the repository.

The size of the artifact is denoted in bytes. The displayed artifact size denotes the size of the zip thatupload-artifact creates during upload. The Digest column will display the SHA256 digest of the artifact being uploaded.