What are Artifacts?

A skill with a face on it

A skill is rules. An artifact is those rules with a small interface in front of them: fields to fill, options to pick, a result laid out in sections or a table.

That matters for anyone who is not going to type a careful instruction each time. They open the screen, set this week's dates and quantities, and get the output in the format the business agreed on.

What the settings usually are

• A date or date range — this week, this month, a particular job period.
• Quantities and rates — the numbers that change per job or per client.
• Which output to produce — a client-facing version or an internal one.
• Which inputs to include — one site, one project, one supplier.

Why we use them for quoting and reporting

Quoting is the clearest example. The method is fixed — the rates, margins and checks do not change — but the numbers change every job. A builder we work with sets the quantities and the artifact assembles the quote pack, applying their own rates and their own arithmetic, ready to be checked and sent.

Reporting works the same way. Pick the period, get the same report, in the same shape, so this month sits neatly beside last month.

Where they end and something else begins

Artifacts are for the person doing the work, not for showing off to a wide audience. If the output needs to live somewhere as a page — for clients, or for a whole team to visit — that is a site.

And as with everything we build, the result is prepared for a person to approve. An artifact does not send, sign or pay.