artifact-keeper is a free, open source threat detection & response project written in Rust and released under MIT. It has 1,068 GitHub stars, 143 forks and 257 open issues, and was last pushed 3 hours ago. On this registry it ranks #32 of 33 tracked projects in Threat Detection & Response, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available.

What is artifact-keeper?

Artifact Keeper is an open-source, MIT-licensed universal artifact registry written in Rust that speaks the native protocols of more than 45 package formats and is positioned as a drop-in, self-hosted alternative to JFrog Artifactory and Nexus.

What it is

Artifact Keeper is a universal artifact registry built in Rust on the Axum web framework, organised as a layered backend: a middleware pipeline handling CORS, authentication, rate limiting, tracing and metrics feeds a router with 50+ route groups, which dispatches to a handler layer (format handlers plus core, security, plugin, peer and migration handlers) and then to artifact, repository, scanner, plugin and search services. Persistent state lives in PostgreSQL 16, binary artifacts in a filesystem or S3 storage backend, and full-text search in OpenSearch. The registry serves Maven, PyPI, NPM, Docker/OCI, Cargo, Go and Helm through their own protocols, alongside 38 further formats, so a single service can front the package ecosystems an organisation actually uses.

The concrete problem it addresses is registry sprawl and licence cost. Teams that publish containers, libraries and Helm charts typically end up running several ecosystem-specific servers, or paying for a commercial registry such as JFrog Artifactory or Nexus and operating it under a proprietary licence. Artifact Keeper consolidates those repositories into one MIT-licensed service and ships built-in tooling to migrate repositories, artifacts and permissions from JFrog Artifactory. It also absorbs work that often sits in separate tooling: vulnerability detection, policy enforcement and artifact signing run inside the registry rather than alongside it.

Key capabilities

  • Native protocol support for 45+ package formats, including Maven, PyPI, NPM, Docker/OCI, Cargo, Go, Helm and 38 more, implemented as format handlers in the backend.
  • A WASM plugin system for custom format handlers, built on WIT interfaces and running on the Wasmtime runtime.
  • Security scanning with Trivy and Grype, a policy engine and a quarantine workflow, with OpenSCAP available for compliance scanning.
  • Artifact signing with GPG and RSA keys, integrated directly into the Debian, RPM, Alpine and Conda handlers.
  • Borg Replication, a recursive peer mesh that distributes artifacts across instances using swarm-based distribution and peer-to-peer transfers.
  • OpenSearch-powered full-text search across every repository and artifact.
  • Multiple authentication methods: JWT, OpenID Connect, LDAP, SAML 2.0 and API tokens.

Who uses it and how

  • Platform and DevOps teams consolidating Maven, NPM, PyPI, Docker and Helm repositories behind one service instead of running a server per ecosystem.
  • Security-conscious and regulated organisations, which can rely on images built from DISA STIG-approved Red Hat UBI 9 base images with non-root execution and no shell or package manager in the runtime image, plus signing and a quarantine workflow for suspect artifacts.
  • Multi-site or edge deployments, where the Borg replication peer mesh keeps artifacts close to distributed build agents through P2P transfers between peer instances.
  • Organisations leaving JFrog Artifactory, using the built-in migration path for repositories, artifacts and permissions.
  • Evaluating teams, who can inspect the hosted demo before committing to an install.

Getting started

Deployment is through the published container images on GitHub Container Registry (ghcr.io) and Docker Hub under the artifactkeeper organisation, backed by PostgreSQL 16, a filesystem or S3 storage backend and OpenSearch; building from source requires Rust 1.75 or newer. Documentation is at artifactkeeper.com/docs and a hosted demo runs at demo.artifactkeeper.com.

How it compares

JFrog Artifactory and Nexus are commercially licensed products, whereas Artifact Keeper is MIT-licensed and designed to run entirely on infrastructure the operator controls, which keeps artifacts, metadata and search indexes inside the operator's own PostgreSQL and storage buckets. It closes the gap with a migration tool that imports repositories, artifacts and permissions from JFrog Artifactory, so the switch does not require rebuilding a repository layout by hand. The cost model follows from that: no per-seat or per-capacity licence, in exchange for operating the stack yourself.

When to use it — and when not to

A self-hoster must run and maintain PostgreSQL 16, an OpenSearch deployment, a filesystem or S3 storage backend, and the scanning components Trivy, Grype and OpenSCAP — a non-trivial footprint. Teams without the appetite for that operational load, or those needing a commercial vendor contract and support agreement, should look elsewhere. The project also carries 257 open issues and an inconsistency worth noting: the tagline claims 40+ package formats while the README claims 45+, so exact format counts should be verified against current documentation.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

Artifact Keeper

CI Quality Gate Security Rating Vulnerabilities Lines of Code License Rust Docker Sponsor

An enterprise-grade, open-source artifact registry supporting 45+ package formats. Built with Rust.

Documentation | Demo | Website

Highlights

  • 45+ Package Formats - Native protocol support for Maven, PyPI, NPM, Docker/OCI, Cargo, Go, Helm, and 38 more
  • WASM Plugin System - Extend with custom format handlers via WebAssembly (WIT-based, Wasmtime runtime)
  • Security Scanning - Automated vulnerability detection with Trivy and Grype, policy engine, quarantine workflow
  • Hardened Containers - All images built on DISA STIG-approved Red Hat UBI 9 base images, non-root execution, no shell or package manager in runtime
  • Borg Replication - Recursive peer mesh with swarm-based artifact distribution and P2P transfers
  • Full-Text Search - OpenSearch-powered search across all repositories and artifacts
  • Multi-Auth - JWT, OpenID Connect, LDAP, SAML 2.0, and API token support
  • Artifactory Migration - Built-in tooling to migrate repositories, artifacts, and permissions from JFrog Artifactory
  • Artifact Signing - GPG and RSA signing integrated into Debian, RPM, Alpine, and Conda handlers

System Architecture

graph LR
    Client["CLI / Package Manager / Frontend"]
    Backend["Backend<br/>Rust · Axum<br/>45+ format handlers"]
    DB[(PostgreSQL 16)]
    Storage["Storage<br/>Filesystem / S3"]
    Meili["OpenSearch<br/>Full-text search"]
    Trivy["Trivy<br/>Container & FS scanning"]
    Grype["Grype<br/>Dependency scanning"]
    OpenSCAP["OpenSCAP<br/>Compliance scanning"]
    Peer1["Peer Instance"]
    Peer2["Peer Instance"]

    Client --> Backend
    Backend --> DB
    Backend --> Storage
    Backend --> Meili
    Backend --> Trivy
    Backend --> Grype
    Backend --> OpenSCAP
    Backend <-->|Borg Replication| Peer1
    Backend <-->|Borg Replication| Peer2
    Peer1 <-->|P2P Mesh| Peer2

Backend Architecture

The backend follows a layered architecture with a middleware pipeline processing every request.

flowchart TD
    REQ["HTTP Request"] --> MW["Middleware Pipeline"]

    subgraph MW["Middleware"]
        direction LR
        CORS["CORS"] --> AUTH["Auth<br/>JWT · OIDC · LDAP<br/>SAML · API Key"]
        AUTH --> RL["Rate Limiter"]
        RL --> TRACE["Tracing<br/>+ Metrics"]
        TRACE --> DEMO["Demo Mode<br/>Guard"]
    end

    MW --> ROUTER["Router<br/>50+ route groups"]

    subgraph HANDLERS["Handler Layer"]
        FMT["Format Handlers<br/>Maven · PyPI · NPM<br/>Docker · 41 more"]
        CORE["Core Handlers<br/>Repos · Artifacts<br/>Users · Auth"]
        ADV["Advanced Handlers<br/>Security · Plugins<br/>Peers · Migration"]
    end

    ROUTER --> HANDLERS

    subgraph SERVICES["Service Layer"]
        direction LR
        ART["Artifact<br/>Service"]
        REPO["Repository<br/>Service"]
        SCAN["Scanner<br/>Service"]
        PLUG["Plugin<br/>Service"]
        SEARCH["Search<br/>Service"]
    end

    HANDLERS --> SERVICES

    subgraph DATA["Data Layer"]
        direction LR
        PG[(PostgreSQL)]
        FS["Storage<br/>FS / S3"]
        MS["OpenSearch"]
        SC["Trivy / Grype / OpenSCAP"]
    end

    SERVICES --> DATA

Supported Package Formats

45+ formats organized by ecosystem. Each has a native protocol handler that speaks the package manager's wire protocol.

Languages & Runtimes

Format Aliases Ecosystem
Maven Gradle Java, Kotlin, Scala
NPM Yarn, Bower, pnpm JavaScript, TypeScript
PyPI Poetry, Conda, JupyterLab Extensions Python
NuGet Chocolatey, PowerShell .NET, C#
Cargo Rust
Go Go modules
RubyGems Ruby
Hex Elixir, Erlang
Composer PHP
Pub Dart, Flutter
CocoaPods iOS, macOS
Swift Swift Package Manager
CRAN R
SBT Ivy Scala, Java

Containers & Infrastructure

Format Aliases Ecosystem
Docker / OCI Podman, Buildx, ORAS, WASM OCI, Helm OCI Container images
Helm Kubernetes charts
Terraform OpenTofu Infrastructure modules
Vagrant VM boxes

System Packages

Format Ecosystem
RPM RHEL, Fedora, CentOS
Debian Ubuntu, Debian
Alpine Alpine Linux (APK)
Conda Conda channels
OPKG OpenWrt, embedded Linux

Configuration Management

Format Ecosystem
Chef Chef Supermarket
Puppet Puppet Forge
Ansible Ansible Galaxy

ML / AI

Format Ecosystem
HuggingFace Models, datasets
ML Model Generic ML artifacts

Editor Extensions

Format Aliases Ecosystem
VS Code Extension marketplace (VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Kiro)
JetBrains Plugin repository

Schemas

Format Ecosystem
Protobuf / BSR Buf Schema Registry, Connect RPC

Other

Format Ecosystem
Conan C, C++
Git LFS Large file storage
Bazel Bazel modules
P2 Eclipse plugins
Generic Any file type

Custom formats can be added via the WASM plugin system.

Security Scanning Pipeline

Every artifact upload is automatically scanned for known vulnerabilities.

flowchart LR
    UP["Artifact<br/>Upload"] --> HASH{"SHA-256<br/>Dedup"}
    HASH -->|New artifact| T["Trivy<br/>FS Scanner"]
    HASH -->|New artifact| G["Grype<br/>Dependency Scanner"]
    HASH -->|Already scanned| CACHE["Cached<br/>Results"]
    T --> SCORE["Vulnerability<br/>Score A-F"]
    G --> SCORE
    CACHE --> SCORE
    SCORE --> POL{"Policy<br/>Engine"}
    POL -->|Pass| OK["Stored"]
    POL -->|Fail| Q["Quarantined"]
  • Dual scanner - Trivy for filesystem/container analysis, Grype for dependency trees
  • Scoring - A through F grades based on finding severity and count
  • Policies - Configurable rules that block or quarantine artifacts
  • Signing - GPG/RSA signing for Debian, RPM, Alpine, and Conda packages

Container-image scanning (TRIVY_ADAPTER_URL). The base docker-compose.yml wires TRIVY_URL for the legacy trivy server (filesystem / incus rootfs scanning) only. To get first-class Trivy container-image reports, set TRIVY_ADAPTER_URL (e.g. http://scanner-adapter:8080) so the backend registers the dedicated ImageScanner against the in-repo scanner-adapter (Harbor Pluggable Scanner API). Without it, images are still covered by grype (registry mode) but no Trivy image report is produced. Uncomment the TRIVY_ADAPTER_URL line and the scanner-adapter service in docker-compose.yml to enable it.

Incus/LXC image scanning is enabled by default whenever either Trivy URL is configured. Set INCUS_SCANNER_ENABLED=false to leave that scanner out of the scanner registry when the deployment does not accept Incus images. This does not disable Trivy filesystem or container-image scanning.

The adapter pulls images back from the registry, so it must be told an address of the backend that is reachable from the adapter container — localhost is not, since the adapter itself listens on :8080 in its own network namespace (#3169). When nothing is configured the backend now advertises its own container address automatically; set TRIVY_ADAPTER_REGISTRY_URL (or the shared AK_GRYPE_REGISTRY_HOST) to override, e.g. http://backend:8080. The automatic derivation is skipped when the adapter's own URL is a loopback address, because that normally means the adapter shares this network namespace (cargo run next to a local adapter, or network_mode: host). It is not skipped correctly for an adapter container published on loopback (docker run -p 127.0.0.1:8081:8080 …scanner-adapter): there the backend reaches the adapter over loopback but the adapter cannot reach the backend that way, so set TRIVY_ADAPTER_REGISTRY_URL explicitly. The backend logs which fallback it took on every scan. Give the adapter its own trivy cache volume — reusing the trivy server's root-owned trivy_cache fails with permission denied on fanal/fanal.db because the adapter runs unprivileged (UID 1001).

Not-applicable scanners. A scanner that does not apply to an artifact's format (e.g. the filesystem/incus/openscap scanners on a Docker image) records a not_applicable result — a benign terminal state, distinct from failed. The scan-list API folds multiple not_applicable results for the same artifact into a single summary row (collapsed_not_applicable_count + collapsed_scan_types) so they read as one muted "not applicable" indication rather than N failures.

Borg Replication

Recursive peer-to-peer replication where every node is a full Artifact Keeper instance. No thin caches — each peer runs the same stack and can serve as an origin for other peers.

graph TD
    P1["Peer<br/>US-West"]
    P2["Peer<br/>EU-Central"]
    P3["Peer<br/>AP-Southeast"]
    P4["Peer<br/>US-East"]

    P1 <-->|"Chunked Transfer"| P2
    P1 <-->|"Chunked Transfer"| P4
    P2 <-->|"Chunked Transfer"| P3
    P3 <-->|"Chunked Transfer"| P4
    P1 <-->|"P2P Mesh"| P3
    P2 <-->|"P2P Mesh"| P4
  • Recursive peers - Every peer is a full instance (backend, DB, storage) that can originate replication to other peers
  • Swarm-based distribution - Artifacts replicate across the mesh based on demand
  • Chunked transfers - Large artifacts split for reliable delivery over unstable links
  • Network-aware scheduling - Bandwidth and latency profiling for optimal routing

WASM Plugin System

Extend Artifact Keeper with custom format handlers compiled to WebAssembly.

  • WIT-based interface - Plugins implement a well-defined FormatHandler contract
  • Wasmtime runtime - Sandboxed execution with fuel-based CPU limits and memory caps
  • Hot reload - Install, enable, disable, and reload plugins without restart
  • Sources - Load from Git repositories or ZIP uploads

Quick Start

Get running in 5 minutes with Docker Compose: Quickstart Guide

Documentation

Project Structure

artifact-keeper/
├── backend/          # Rust backend (Axum, SQLx, 6,400+ unit tests)
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── api/      # Handlers, middleware, routes
│   │   ├── formats/  # 45+ format handler implementations
│   │   ├── services/ # Business logic (68 services)
│   │   ├── models/   # Data models (21 types)
│   │   └── storage/  # FS and S3 backends
│   └── migrations/   # 69 PostgreSQL migrations
├── edge/             # Peer replication service (Rust)
├── scripts/          # Test runners, native client tests, stress tests
└── .github/          # CI/CD workflows

Technology Choices

Layer Choice Why
Backend language Rust Memory safety, performance, strong type system
Web framework Axum Tower middleware ecosystem, async-first
Database PostgreSQL 16 JSONB for metadata, mature ecosystem
Search OpenSearch Fast full-text search, easy to operate
Security scanning Trivy + Grype + OpenSCAP Complementary coverage, industry standard
Plugin runtime Wasmtime Sandboxed, portable, WIT contract system
Storage Filesystem / S3 Simple default, cloud-ready upgrade path

CI/CD Pipeline

Seven GitHub Actions workflows handle testing, publishing, and deployment.

flowchart TD
    subgraph TRIGGER["Triggers"]
        PUSH["Push / PR<br/>to main"]
        TAG["Tag v*"]
        CRON["Daily 2 AM UTC"]
        SITE_PUSH["Push to site/**"]
    end

    subgraph CI["ci.yml — Every Push/PR"]
        direction TB
        LINT["🦀 Lint Rust<br/>fmt + clippy"]
        UNIT["🧪 Unit Tests<br/>cargo test --lib"]
        INTEG["🔗 Integration Tests<br/>+ PostgreSQL<br/>(main push only)"]
        SMOKE["🔥 Smoke E2E<br/>PyPI · npm · Cargo<br/>docker-compose.test.yml"]
        AUDIT["🔒 Security Audit<br/>cargo audit"]
        CI_OK["✅ CI Complete"]

        LINT --> UNIT
        LINT --> INTEG
        UNIT --> SMOKE
        SMOKE --> CI_OK
        AUDIT --> CI_OK
    end

    subgraph DOCKER["docker-publish.yml — Push to main / tags"]
        direction TB
        BE_BUILD["Backend<br/>amd64 + arm64"]
        OS_BUILD["OpenSCAP<br/>amd64 + arm64"]
        BE_MERGE["Multi-Arch<br/>Manifest"]
        OS_MERGE["Multi-Arch<br/>Manifest"]

        BE_BUILD --> BE_MERGE
        OS_BUILD --> OS_MERGE
    end

    subgraph E2E["e2e.yml — Manual / called by release"]
        direction TB
        PKI["🔐 Setup PKI<br/>TLS + GPG"]
        NATIVE["📦 Native Client Tests<br/>10 formats"]
        STRESS["🔥 Stress Tests<br/>100 concurrent uploads"]
        FAILURE["💥 Failure Tests<br/>crash · db · storage"]

        PKI --> NATIVE
        NATIVE --> STRESS
        NATIVE --> FAILURE
    end

    subgraph RELEASE["release.yml — Tags v*"]
        direction TB
        E2E_GATE["🚦 E2E Gate<br/>all formats + stress + failure"]
        BINARIES["📦 Build Binaries<br/>linux + macOS<br/>amd64 + arm64"]
        GH_RELEASE["🚀 GitHub Release<br/>binaries + checksums"]

        E2E_GATE --> BINARIES
        BINARIES --> GH_RELEASE
    end

    subgraph NIGHTLY["scheduled-tests.yml — Daily"]
        direction TB
        NIGHTLY_E2E["🌙 Nightly Smoke E2E"]
        DEP_CHECK["🔍 Dependency Check"]
        SEC_SCAN["🔒 Security Scan"]
    end

    subgraph SITE["site.yml"]
        PAGES["📄 Build + Deploy<br/>GitHub Pages"]
    end

    subgraph AMI["ami-build.yml"]
        PACKER["🖥️ Packer Build AMI"]
    end

    PUSH --> CI
    PUSH --> DOCKER
    TAG --> RELEASE
    TAG --> DOCKER
    CRON --> NIGHTLY
    SITE_PUSH --> SITE
    GH_RELEASE -.->|"on release published"| AMI

    classDef trigger fill:#6f42c1,color:#fff,stroke:#6f42c1
    classDef ci fill:#2ea44f,color:#fff,stroke:#2ea44f
    classDef docker fill:#0969da,color:#fff,stroke:#0969da
    classDef release fill:#d97706,color:#fff,stroke:#d97706

    class PUSH,TAG,CRON,SITE_PUSH trigger
    class LINT,UNIT,INTEG,SMOKE,AUDIT,CI_OK ci
    class BE_BUILD,OS_BUILD,BE_MERGE,OS_MERGE docker
    class E2E_GATE,BINARIES,GH_RELEASE release
Workflow Trigger What It Does
ci.yml Every push/PR Lint, unit tests, integration tests, smoke E2E (PyPI, npm, Cargo)
docker-publish.yml Push to main, tags Multi-arch Docker images (backend + OpenSCAP) to ghcr.io
e2e.yml Manual or called by release Full E2E: 10 native client formats, stress, failure injection
release.yml Tags v* E2E gate, cross-platform binaries, GitHub Release
scheduled-tests.yml Daily 2 AM UTC Nightly smoke E2E, dependency check, security scan
site.yml Push to site/** Build and deploy docs to GitHub Pages
ami-build.yml On release published Bake AWS AMI with Packer

Sponsors

Thank you to our sponsors for supporting ongoing development of Artifact Keeper.

Backers

Become a sponsor to support the project and get your name listed here.

Contributing

We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Have questions or ideas? Join the conversation in GitHub Discussions.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.


Built with Rust. "JFrog" and "Artifactory" are trademarks of JFrog Ltd. Artifact Keeper is not affiliated with or endorsed by JFrog.

Frequently asked questions

Is artifact-keeper free to use?

artifact-keeper is open source under the MIT licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does artifact-keeper do?

Open-source universal artifact registry. Drop-in Artifactory/Nexus alternative with 40+ package formats, security scanning, WASM plugins, and edge replication.

What is artifact-keeper written in?

artifact-keeper is primarily written in Rust. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/artifact-keeper/artifact-keeper, and it has 1,068 GitHub stars.