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Artifact System

The Artifact System is the core execution mechanism of the Horus Runtime SDK.

An artifact represents a concrete unit of data produced or consumed by a task (e.g. files, folders, datasets, models, serialized objects). Artifacts are not just data containers — they define task success, workflow state, and execution status.

In Horus, artifacts are the single source of truth. The workflow engine does not track execution state explicitly. Instead, it derives execution state purely from artifact existence and integrity.

What Is an Artifact?​

An artifact is a concrete representation of task input or output. Examples:

  • Local files
  • Folders
  • Datasets
  • Model checkpoints
  • JSON / pickle / serialized objects
  • Remote objects (e.g. S3, HTTP, registries)

Each artifact:

  • Has a unique ID
  • Has a URI describing its location
  • Defines:
    • How to check existence
    • How to materialize itself locally
    • How to compute a content hash (determines if the artifact changed)

Defining Custom Artifacts​

Artifacts inherit from BaseArtifact and are automatically registered using the runtime registry mechanism.

from horus_runtime.core.artifact.base import BaseArtifact

class MyArtifact(BaseArtifact):

    # Utility subclasses can set False to
    # not include them in the registry
    add_to_registry = True

    ...

Required Implementations​

Every artifact must define:

  • exists() → Does the artifact exist?
  • materialize() → Ensure the artifact is locally available.
  • hash → Deterministic content hash.
  • delete() → Deletes the artifact.
  • kind: str → Concrete discriminator value for the artifact type

Artifact Resolution​

Artifacts are resolved automatically at workflow instantiation time using:

  • Pydantic validation
  • The runtime artifact registry
  • Type discrimination via the kind field

This allows workflows to declare artifacts declaratively without manually wiring runtime resolution logic.

Built-in Artifacts​

The SDK provides standard artifact implementations:

  • FileArtifact — Local file resources
  • FolderArtifact — Local directory resources

These cover the majority of filesystem-based workflows and serve as reference implementations for custom artifacts.

Registering custom artifacts​

To register and discover artifact plugins within the Horus runtime use the following entry point:

[project.entry-points."horus.artifact"]

For more details, refer to the AutoRegistry documentation.