Publish to Google Cloud Artifact Registry

Artifact Registry

Artifact Registry is a service provided by Google Cloud that acts as a universal package manager for our build artifacts and dependencies.

Artifact Registry can be used to create and manage private repositories for Docker images, Helm charts, and language packages such as Python, npm, Maven, apt, and yum packages.

There was Container Registry before Artifact Registry, which allowed us to manage Docker images. Artifact Registry evolved from Container Registry.

Therefore, Artifact Registry has the same features and capabilities as Container Registry, but it can do more because it can store both container images and non-container artifacts.

Artifact Registry allows us to have multiple repositories per project. Repositories are separate and distinct resources that must be created prior to pushing an image. This allows us to give names, descriptions, and specific permissions to a repository. This enables us to control who has access to our images.

Furthermore, Container Registry only supports multi-regional repositories, whereas Artifact Registry supports both multi-regional and regional repositories. It’s thus recommended to always use Artifact Registry instead of Container Registry.