Artifacts
Artifacts are the shared building blocks that people and agents use at runtime in DIAL: skills, prompts, files and conversations. Users create them in DIAL Chat or through the DIAL Core API, and publish them to the organization. Published artifacts live in the Public folder of DIAL file storage and appear in the Artifacts section of DIAL Admin. From there, other users can use them in Chat and agents can use them in agentic workflows, according to each user's roles and permissions.
As an administrator, you see and govern the shared content of your organization: what was published, where it lives, and who may use it.
How artifacts get here
Everything a user creates in DIAL is stored in their private space and visible only to them. To make it available to others, users publish it. For how private and public spaces work, see How access is granted: public and private spaces.
- A user publishes a skill, prompt, conversation, file or other resource from DIAL Chat, or sends a publication request through the Publications API. See Sharing and publishing for the user's view.
- The request appears under Governance > Approvals. An administrator reviews it and approves or declines it. See Review and approve publications.
- After approval, DIAL Core places a copy of the resource in the Public folder, and it appears here. The original stays in the user's private space, so the owner can keep editing it. If the request names a target sub-folder, the access rules of that folder apply.
- To withdraw it, the owner requests to unpublish it, or an administrator deletes it here.
Administrators can also create artifacts directly in the Public folder, or import them.
Note
Publishing must be enabled in your deployment. See Enable publications.
What artifacts are
| Artifact | What it is | How it is used |
|---|---|---|
| Skills | Reusable instructions that an agent picks up only when a task needs them. A skill is a SKILL.md file, with optional supporting files. | An agent decides when to use a skill. Attach skills to an agent, for example when building a Quick App, so the same procedure serves several agents. Users can also use skills directly in a conversation if the agent supports this. |
| Prompts | Reusable prompts with variables. | Users insert them in Chat, and applications can read them through the DIAL Core API. |
| Files | Files stored in DIAL, such as PDF, CSV, images and JSON. | Models and applications reference them at runtime. |
| Conversations | Chat sessions that users published. | Available to the organization, and to administrators for review. |
Applications and toolsets that users publish are stored in the same way, in the Public folder. You manage them in the AI Gateway section, together with the platform's own applications and toolsets. See Published applications and Published toolsets.
Who can see what
The Artifacts screens show only the Public folder. Private content of individual users is never shown here.
- Root folder: visible to every authenticated DIAL user.
- Sub-folders: can carry access rules that match claims in the user's identity token, such as a role or a group. A user sees and uses a published artifact only if the rules of its folder, and of all its parent folders, allow it.
- Protected resources: prompts and files are protected resources and follow the DIAL access control model.
You manage the folders and their rules in Governance > Folder Permissions. See Folders Storage and Access control.
What you can do here
- Browse the Public folder by artifact type and folder, with the author and update time of each artifact.
- Create, import, export, duplicate, move and delete artifacts, including whole folders.
- Create folders to organize the Public folder. Folders can be nested up to four levels, not counting the root.
- Open an artifact to edit its properties and content, or its raw JSON.
Folder access rules are set in Folders Storage, and publication requests are reviewed in Review and approve publications.