> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://developer.harness.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://developer.harness.io/artifact-registry/new-to-artifact-registry/overview.md).

# Overview

Learn about the features and capabilities of Harness Artifact Registry.

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To enable Harness Artifact Registry in your account, contact your sales representative or reach out to the team at [ar-interest@harness.io](mailto:support@harness.io).
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**Harness Artifact Registry** is a universal, cloud-native artifact management platform designed to be the central hub of your software delivery pipeline. It **stores**, **secures**, and **distributes** every type of software artifact (container images, binaries, packages, libraries, Helm charts, and deployment components) across multi-cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments.

Think of it as the single source of truth for everything your CI/CD pipeline creates, deploys, and depends on. When your build generates artifacts, they go here. When your deployment pulls images, it fetches from here. When security teams scan for vulnerabilities, they check this location. When governance requires traceability, the audit trail lives here.

In continuous software building, deployed globally, and scaled dynamically, your artifact registry is no longer just storage. It is mission-critical infrastructure that directly impacts developer productivity, security posture, release velocity, and operational reliability.

### Why Harness Artifact Registry matters <a href="#why-harness-artifact-registry-matters" id="why-harness-artifact-registry-matters"></a>

Modern software development has evolved dramatically. Teams ship code multiple times per day. Applications depend on hundreds of third-party libraries. Microservices architectures generate thousands of container images. Multi-cloud strategies require artifacts to be available across AWS, Azure, GCP, and private data centres. Security regulations demand vulnerability scanning, access controls, and complete audit trails.

Traditional artifact storage solutions were built for a simpler era. They struggle with scale, lack native multi-cloud support, offer limited security capabilities, and create friction in developer workflows. As organisations grow, these limitations compound. Builds slow down, deployments fail, security gaps emerge, and compliance becomes a nightmare.

Harness Artifact Registry solves these challenges by providing a unified platform that combines universal artifact management, intelligent security, seamless CI/CD integration, and enterprise-grade scalability.

### Core capabilities <a href="#core-capabilities" id="core-capabilities"></a>

Like any modern artifact registry, Harness Artifact Registry provides the foundational capabilities you expect:

* **Universal format support** for Docker images, Helm charts (OCI and HTTP), Debian packages, Maven, npm, PyPI, NuGet, Go modules, generic files, and other formats. Go to [What is Supported](/artifact-registry/troubleshooting-and-resources/whats-supported.md) to review the full registry type list.
* [**Multi-region replication**](/artifact-registry/troubleshooting-and-resources/whats-supported.md#multi-region-replication) with automatic proximity-based serving across multiple global regions
* **Upstream proxy and caching** to cache and serve artifacts from public or private external sources, reducing latency and protecting against outages
* **Fine-grained access control** with role-based access control (RBAC) to secure artifacts at every stage of their lifecycle
* **Automated lifecycle management** with intelligent cleanup policies to retire artifacts based on age, usage, tags, or custom rules
* **Complete audit trails** to track every action for compliance with SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and other regulations
* **Enterprise-grade scalability** with high availability, distributed architecture, and automatic failover for mission-critical workloads

### What makes Harness Artifact Registry different <a href="#what-makes-harness-artifact-registry-different" id="what-makes-harness-artifact-registry-different"></a>

Whilst other registries provide basic storage and distribution, Harness Artifact Registry goes further by embedding intelligence, security, and governance directly into the artifact lifecycle. Here is what sets Harness apart:

**AI-powered semantic search and insights**

Finding the right artifact should not require memorising tags or digging through endless lists. Harness uses AI-driven semantic search to help you locate artifacts using natural language and contextual information. Discover what you need based on meaning, not just keywords.

Beyond search, Harness provides embedded insights into usage patterns, identifies redundant artifacts, predicts storage needs, and optimises your artifact lifecycle automatically. Intelligence is built into the artifact ecosystem, helping teams make smarter decisions faster.

**Automatic security scanning and quarantine**

Security is not an afterthought. It is built into the artifact lifecycle. Every container image that lands in Harness Artifact Registry is automatically evaluated for security and compliance before it becomes available for use.

Every image is scanned automatically with no extra step for developers. Harness integrates directly with [Harness Security Testing Orchestration (STO)](https://developer.harness.io/security-testing-orchestration/) and [Harness Supply Chain Security (SCS)](https://developer.harness.io/software-supply-chain-assurance/) to detect vulnerabilities, generate SBOMs, and assess risk in real time.

If an image fails security or compliance checks, it is automatically quarantined. This ensures that problematic packages and containers never make it into production environments, even if developers push them. Security becomes part of the artifact lifecycle, not a manual gate that slows down delivery.

Harness Artifact Registry combined with STO and SCS provides a single, trusted software supply chain where every artifact is verified, traceable, and secure.

**Native integration with Harness Platform**

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**PLATFORM INTEGRATIONS**

Harness Artifact Registry is not a standalone tool. It is natively integrated into the Harness platform, providing seamless workflows across [CI/CD pipelines](https://developer.harness.io/continuous-delivery/troubleshooting-and-resources/resources/new-user/cd-pipeline-modeling-overview), security scanning, policy enforcement, and governance.
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Simple setup for CI/CD pipelines means you can automate artifact publishing, tagging, promotion, and deployment with zero friction. Leverage your existing security scanners and tools. Harness does not force you to replace what works. Instead, it integrates seamlessly with your current toolchain, providing a unified interface whilst respecting your existing investments.

Developers focus on building features, not managing infrastructure.

**Built-in OPA policy enforcement**

Harness Artifact Registry supports Open Policy Agent (OPA) policy enforcement, allowing you to define and enforce custom policies for artifact creation, publishing, promotion, and deletion. Policies are evaluated automatically, ensuring compliance without manual intervention.

This ensures that security, compliance, and governance are not bolted on as afterthoughts but are foundational to how artifacts are managed.

**Transparent, storage-based pricing**

Harness offers transparent, storage-based pricing with no hidden fees or complex licensing models. You pay for what you use, making it easy to predict costs and scale without surprises. Harness automatically deduplicates content: uploading identical files does not consume additional storage.

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**NETWORKING**

Harness Artifact Registry is accessible over the public internet. For private connectivity from your builds to your own infrastructure, go to [PrivateLink for Harness Cloud](https://developer.harness.io/harness-platform/use-harness-platform/references/network-and-security/private-link-connect) to configure AWS PrivateLink or GCP Private Service Connect.
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***

### Why choose Harness Artifact Registry <a href="#why-choose-harness-artifact-registry" id="why-choose-harness-artifact-registry"></a>

Harness Artifact Registry is not just another storage solution. It is a strategic platform that unifies artifact management across your entire software delivery lifecycle. By combining universal format support, multi-cloud distribution, AI-driven intelligence, enterprise-grade security, and seamless CI/CD integration, Harness eliminates the complexity, friction, and risk that come with traditional registries.

Whether you are building microservices at scale, managing artifacts across hybrid clouds, ensuring compliance in regulated industries, or trying to ship faster without compromising security, Harness Artifact Registry gives you the foundation to succeed.

## Frequently asked questions

<details>

<summary>How is Harness Artifact Registry licensed?</summary>

Harness Artifact Registry is a licensed module on your Harness account. To enable it, contact your Harness sales representative or <ar-interest@harness.io>. Pricing is based on the storage you use. Harness stores and counts each unique file or image layer once per account, so uploading identical content again does not add to your storage.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Is there a documented limit on how many packages or how much data a registry can store?</summary>

No. Artifact Registry does not enforce a limit on the number of registries, packages, or versions in your account, and it does not apply a storage quota. You pay for the storage you use. Harness stores and counts each unique file or image layer once per account, so uploading identical content again does not add to your storage.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Where is automated lifecycle management documented?</summary>

Go to [Lifecycle rules](/artifact-registry/use-artifact-registry/lifecycle-rules.md) to create cleanup rules and retention rules. A cleanup rule removes the versions that match its criteria on a schedule. On a registry that is not an upstream proxy, the removal is a soft delete, so you can restore the version during the recovery period. On an upstream proxy registry the removal is permanent. A retention rule protects matching versions from cleanup.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Does one registry contain environments?</summary>

No. A registry does not contain environments. To track an environment, add custom metadata to a registry, a package, or a version. For example, add the key `environment` with the value `production`. Open the **Metadata** tab of a registry or package, or the **Overview** tab of a version, and select **Add Metadata**. To filter by that metadata, go to [Find artifacts](/artifact-registry/use-artifact-registry/manage-artifacts/find-artifacts.md). You can also keep one registry for each environment.

If you deploy with Harness Continuous Delivery (CD), the **Deployments** tab of a version shows the production and non-production environments where that version runs. The tab is available for Docker, Maven, Generic, npm, Python, and NuGet.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Do the docs describe encryption in transit and at rest?</summary>

You connect to Harness Artifact Registry over HTTPS. The client setup commands use an HTTPS URL. Upstream proxy passwords and tokens are stored as Harness secrets, and the registry keeps only a reference to each secret. Go to [Harness Secret Manager overview](/harness-platform/3.0/harness-platform-resources/secrets/secrets-management/harness-secret-manager-overview.md) to see how Harness stores secrets.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Is artifact promotion behind a feature flag?</summary>

No. Artifact Registry has no separate promotion feature, so no feature flag applies. To promote an artifact, copy its version from one registry to another. Use **Copy Version** in the UI, the `hc artifact copy` command, or the Copy API. Both registries must be the same kind (both virtual or both upstream proxy) and have the same package type. Each copy applies to one version. Go to [Copy a version](/artifact-registry/use-artifact-registry/manage-artifacts/artifact-management.md#copy-a-version).

</details>

## Next steps

* [Quickstart Guides](/artifact-registry/new-to-artifact-registry/quickstart.md): Get started with Harness Artifact Registry in minutes
* [CI integration](/artifact-registry/use-artifact-registry/platform-integrations/ci-ar-integrations.md) - Integrate with your CI pipelines
* [CD integration](/artifact-registry/use-artifact-registry/platform-integrations/cd-ar-integrations.md#awslambda) - Deploy artifacts with Harness CD
* [Security integrations](/artifact-registry/use-artifact-registry/platform-integrations/security-integrations.md) - Connect with STO and SCS for vulnerability scanning
* [Artifact Registry CLI](/artifact-registry/use-artifact-registry/artifact-registry-cli.md) - Manage artifacts from the command line

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