Artifacts

An artifact is a unit of content adjacent to an ad placement. When evaluating brand suitability, you’re asking: “Is this artifact appropriate for my brand’s ads?”

What Is an Artifact?

Artifacts represent the content context where an ad appears:

A news article on a website
A podcast segment between ad breaks
A video chapter in a YouTube video
A social media post in a feed
A scene in a CTV show
An AI-generated image in a chat conversation

Artifacts are identified by property_id + artifact_id - the property defines where the content lives, and the artifact_id is an opaque identifier for that specific piece of content. The artifact_id scheme is flexible - it could be a URL path, a platform-specific ID, or any consistent identifier the property owner uses internally.

Structure

Schema: artifact.json

{
  "property_id": {"type": "domain", "value": "reddit.com"},
  "artifact_id": "r_fitness_post_abc123",
  "assets": [
    {"type": "text", "role": "title", "content": "Best protein sources for muscle building", "language": "en"},
    {"type": "text", "role": "paragraph", "content": "Looking for recommendations on high-quality protein sources...", "language": "en"},
    {"type": "image", "url": "https://cdn.reddit.com/fitness-image.jpg", "alt_text": "Person lifting weights"}
  ]
}

Required Fields

Field	Description
`property_id`	Where this artifact lives - uses standard identifier types (`domain`, `app_id`, `apple_podcast_id`, etc.)
`artifact_id`	Unique identifier within the property - the property owner defines their scheme
`assets`	Content in document order - text blocks, images, video, audio

Optional Fields

Field	Description
`variant_id`	Identifies a specific variant (A/B test, translation, temporal version)
`format_id`	Reference to format registry (same as creative formats)
`url`	Web URL if the artifact has one
`metadata`	Artifact-level metadata (Open Graph, JSON-LD, author info)
`published_time`	When the artifact was published
`last_update_time`	When the artifact was last modified

Variants

The same artifact may have multiple variants:

Translations - English version vs Spanish version
A/B tests - Different headlines being tested
Temporal versions - Content that changed on Wednesday

Use variant_id to distinguish between them:

// English version
{
  "property_id": {"type": "domain", "value": "nytimes.com"},
  "artifact_id": "article_12345",
  "variant_id": "en",
  "assets": [
    {"type": "text", "role": "title", "content": "Breaking News Story", "language": "en"}
  ]
}

// Spanish translation
{
  "property_id": {"type": "domain", "value": "nytimes.com"},
  "artifact_id": "article_12345",
  "variant_id": "es",
  "assets": [
    {"type": "text", "role": "title", "content": "Noticia de última hora", "language": "es"}
  ]
}

// A/B test variant
{
  "property_id": {"type": "domain", "value": "nytimes.com"},
  "artifact_id": "article_12345",
  "variant_id": "headline_test_b",
  "assets": [
    {"type": "text", "role": "title", "content": "Alternative Headline Being Tested", "language": "en"}
  ]
}

The combination of artifact_id + variant_id must be unique within a property. This lets you track which variant a user saw and correlate it with delivery reports.

Asset Types

Assets are the actual content within an artifact. Everything is an asset - titles, paragraphs, images, videos.

Text

{"type": "text", "role": "title", "content": "Article Title", "language": "en"}
{"type": "text", "role": "paragraph", "content": "The article body text...", "language": "en"}
{"type": "text", "role": "description", "content": "A summary of the article", "language": "en"}
{"type": "text", "role": "heading", "content": "Section Header", "heading_level": 2}
{"type": "text", "role": "quote", "content": "A quoted statement"}

Roles: title, description, paragraph, heading, caption, quote, list_item Each text asset can have its own language tag for mixed-language content.

Image

{
  "type": "image",
  "url": "https://cdn.example.com/photo.jpg",
  "alt_text": "Description of the image"
}

Video

{
  "type": "video",
  "url": "https://cdn.example.com/video.mp4",
  "transcript": "Full transcript of the video content...",
  "duration_ms": 180000
}

Audio

{
  "type": "audio",
  "url": "https://cdn.example.com/podcast.mp3",
  "transcript": "Today we're discussing...",
  "duration_ms": 3600000
}

Metadata

Artifact-level metadata describes the artifact as a whole, not individual assets:

{
  "metadata": {
    "author": "Jane Smith",
    "canonical": "https://example.com/article/12345",
    "open_graph": {
      "og:type": "article",
      "og:site_name": "Example News"
    },
    "json_ld": [
      {
        "@type": "NewsArticle",
        "datePublished": "2025-01-15"
      }
    ]
  }
}

This is separate from assets because it’s about the artifact container, not the content itself.

Secured Asset Access

Many assets aren’t publicly accessible - AI-generated images, private conversations, paywalled content. The artifact schema supports authenticated access.

Pre-Configuration (Recommended)

For ongoing partnerships, configure access once during onboarding rather than per-request:

Service account sharing - Grant the verification agent access to your cloud storage
OAuth client credentials - Set up machine-to-machine authentication
API key exchange - Share long-lived API keys during setup

This happens during the activation phase when the seller first receives content standards from a buyer.

Per-Asset Authentication

When pre-configuration isn’t possible, include access credentials with individual assets:

{
  "type": "image",
  "url": "https://cdn.openai.com/secured/img_abc123.png",
  "access": {
    "method": "bearer_token",
    "token": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIs..."
  }
}

Note on token size: For artifacts with many assets, per-asset tokens can significantly increase payload size. Consider:

Pre-configured access - Set up service account access once during onboarding
Shared token reference - Define tokens at the artifact level and reference by ID
Signed URLs - Use pre-signed URLs where the URL itself is the credential

The url field is the access URL - it may differ from the artifact’s canonical/published URL. For example, a published article at https://news.example.com/article/123 might have assets served from https://cdn.example.com/secured/....

Access Methods

Method	Use Case
`bearer_token`	OAuth2 bearer token in Authorization header
`service_account`	GCP/AWS service account credentials
`signed_url`	Pre-signed URL with embedded credentials (URL itself is the credential)

Service Account Setup

For GCP:

{
  "access": {
    "method": "service_account",
    "provider": "gcp",
    "credentials": {
      "type": "service_account",
      "project_id": "my-project",
      "private_key_id": "...",
      "private_key": "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\n...",
      "client_email": "verification-agent@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com"
    }
  }
}

For AWS:

{
  "access": {
    "method": "service_account",
    "provider": "aws",
    "credentials": {
      "access_key_id": "AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE",
      "secret_access_key": "...",
      "region": "us-east-1"
    }
  }
}

Pre-Signed URLs

For one-off access without sharing credentials:

{
  "type": "video",
  "url": "https://storage.googleapis.com/bucket/video.mp4?X-Goog-Algorithm=GOOG4-RSA-SHA256&X-Goog-Credential=...&X-Goog-Signature=...",
  "access": {
    "method": "signed_url"
  }
}

The URL itself contains the credentials - no additional authentication needed.

Property Identifier Types

The property_id uses standard identifier types from the AdCP property schema:

Type	Example	Use Case
`domain`	`reddit.com`	Websites
`app_id`	`com.spotify.music`	Mobile apps
`apple_podcast_id`	`1234567890`	Apple Podcasts
`spotify_show_id`	`4rOoJ6Egrf8K2IrywzwOMk`	Spotify podcasts
`youtube_channel_id`	`UCddiUEpeqJcYeBxX1IVBKvQ`	YouTube channels
`rss_url`	`https://feeds.example.com/podcast.xml`	RSS feeds

Artifact ID Schemes

The property owner defines their artifact_id scheme. Examples:

Property Type	Artifact ID Pattern	Example
News website	`article_{id}`	`article_12345`
Reddit	`r_{subreddit}_{post_id}`	`r_fitness_abc123`
Podcast	`episode_{num}_segment_{num}`	`episode_42_segment_2`
CTV	`show_{id}_s{season}e{episode}_scene_{num}`	`show_abc_s3e5_scene_12`
Social feed	`post_{id}`	`post_xyz789`

The verification agent doesn’t need to understand the scheme - it’s opaque. The property owner uses it to correlate artifacts with their content.

Content Standards Overview - How artifacts fit into the content standards workflow
calibrate_content - Sending artifacts for calibration

Getting Started

Building with AdCP

Protocol

FAQ

Trust & Security

Reference

Certification

Content Artifacts

Artifacts

What Is an Artifact?

Structure

Required Fields

Optional Fields

Variants

Asset Types

Text

Image

Video

Audio

Metadata

Secured Asset Access

Pre-Configuration (Recommended)

Per-Asset Authentication

Access Methods

Service Account Setup

Pre-Signed URLs

Property Identifier Types

Artifact ID Schemes

​Artifacts

​What Is an Artifact?

​Structure

​Required Fields

​Optional Fields

​Variants

​Asset Types

​Text

​Image

​Video

​Audio

​Metadata

​Secured Asset Access

​Pre-Configuration (Recommended)

​Per-Asset Authentication

​Access Methods

​Service Account Setup

​Pre-Signed URLs

​Property Identifier Types

​Artifact ID Schemes

​Related

Artifacts

What Is an Artifact?

Structure

Required Fields

Optional Fields

Variants

Asset Types

Text

Image

Video

Audio

Metadata

Secured Asset Access

Pre-Configuration (Recommended)

Per-Asset Authentication

Access Methods

Service Account Setup

Pre-Signed URLs

Property Identifier Types

Artifact ID Schemes

Related