GitLab CI - Artifacts & Caching

Configure artifacts and caching for efficient pipeline execution.

Artifacts

Basic Artifact Configuration

build: script: - npm run build artifacts: paths: - dist/ expire_in: 1 week

Artifact Reports

test: script: - npm test -- --coverage artifacts: reports: junit: junit.xml coverage_report: coverage_format: cobertura path: coverage/cobertura-coverage.xml

Conditional Artifacts

build: artifacts: paths: - dist/ when: on_success # on_success, on_failure, always exclude: - dist/**/*.map

Artifact Dependencies

build: artifacts: paths: - dist/

test: dependencies: - build # Downloads build artifacts script: - npm test

deploy: dependencies: [] # Skip all artifact downloads script: - ./deploy.sh

Caching

Basic Cache Configuration

default: cache: key: ${CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG} paths: - node_modules/ - .npm/

Cache Key Strategies

Per-branch cache

cache: key: ${CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG} paths: - node_modules/

Lock file based cache

cache: key: files: - package-lock.json paths: - node_modules/

Combined key

cache: key: prefix: ${CI_JOB_NAME} files: - package-lock.json paths: - node_modules/

Cache Policy

install: cache: key: ${CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG} paths: - node_modules/ policy: push # Only upload cache script: - npm ci

test: cache: key: ${CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG} paths: - node_modules/ policy: pull # Only download cache script: - npm test

Fallback Keys

cache: key: ${CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG} fallback_keys: - ${CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH} - main paths: - node_modules/

Distributed Cache (S3)

Configure in GitLab Runner:

[runners.cache] Type = "s3" Shared = true [runners.cache.s3] ServerAddress = "s3.amazonaws.com" BucketName = "gitlab-runner-cache" BucketLocation = "us-east-1"

Artifacts vs Cache

Feature Artifacts Cache

Purpose Pass data between jobs Speed up job execution

Storage GitLab server Runner local or S3

Reliability Guaranteed Best effort

Expiration Configurable Configurable

Cross-pipeline Yes (with dependencies) Yes (with keys)

Best Practices

• Use cache for dependencies (node_modules, vendor)

• Use artifacts for build outputs

• Set appropriate expiration times

• Use lock file-based cache keys

• Exclude source maps and unnecessary files

• Use policy: pull for jobs that only read cache