CONCEPT Cited by 1 source
Artifact-as-API¶
Definition¶
Artifact-as-API is the design principle that inter-agent (or inter-role) communication should happen exclusively through schema-validated files on disk rather than through unstructured context in memory or chat windows. The artifact file is the typed message; the JSON schema is the type contract; the gate validator is the consumer's assertion. Only artifact content crosses the boundary between workflow stages — no implicit state, no conversation history, no context window.
The principle makes multi-agent workflows reviewable (artifacts are diffable files), replayable (same inputs → same gate evaluation), governable (schema constraints prevent drift), and composable (any orchestrator can drive the CLIs).
Contrast with context-passing¶
| Property | Artifact-as-API | Context-in-chat |
|---|---|---|
| Auditability | Full (versioned files) | None (ephemeral) |
| Reproducibility | Deterministic gate evaluation | Non-deterministic |
| Governance | Schema-enforced | Honor-system |
| Scalability | Works at 50 devs + agents | Breaks past single developer |
Seen in¶
- systems/lakebase-app-dev-kit —
workflow-state.json,architecture.json,test-list.jsonas gate surfaces (Source: sources/2026-06-12-databricks-enabling-evolutionary-database-development-database-branchin-part3)