# Artifact

> A durable output produced during an agent task, such as a file, report, structured payload, or generated asset.

- Category: Tools & Protocols
- Stage: Rising
- Also called: Agent output artifact, Task artifact
- Canonical: https://www.joelcsaji.com/ai-dictionary/artifact

## Plain English

It is the thing the agent made, not just the chat message about it.

## Example

A research agent returns a Markdown report, source table, and chart as task artifacts.

## Why it matters

Artifacts make agent work inspectable, shareable, and reusable across tools.

## Related

- [A2A Task](https://www.joelcsaji.com/ai-dictionary/a2a-task)
- [Structured Outputs](https://www.joelcsaji.com/ai-dictionary/structured-outputs)
- [Trace](https://www.joelcsaji.com/ai-dictionary/trace)

## Mentioned in

- [Fable 5, Export Controls, and GLM 5.2](https://www.joelcsaji.com/blog/fable-5-export-controls-and-glm-5-2)

## Sources

- [A2A Protocol Specification](https://a2a-protocol.org/latest/specification/)
- [OpenAI: Deep Research](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/deep-research)