Artifacts Reference

DiffPal writes artifacts under .artifacts/diffpal/ by default.

Artifact Table

Path	Created when	Format	Intended consumer
.artifacts/diffpal/findings.json	Every successful provider-backed review and debug prompt unless --out changes it.	DiffPal findings JSON	CI automation, audit logs, downstream converters.
.artifacts/diffpal/summary.md	Non-dry-run host review commands when the summary surface is enabled; custom CI examples may capture local stdout here.	Markdown	Humans, CI job summaries, retained review record.
.artifacts/diffpal/diffpal.sarif	Non-dry-run GitHub and GitLab host review commands; diffpal sarif; any file-publishing run that enables the SARIF surface.	SARIF 2.1.0 JSON	Code scanning or SARIF upload consumers.
.artifacts/diffpal/codequality.json	GitLab host review commands.	GitLab Code Quality JSON	GitLab Code Quality report ingestion.
.artifacts/diffpal/github-comments.json	GitHub file-output publishing plan when GitHub comment surface is emitted to files.	JSON	Debugging or API publishing handoff.
.artifacts/diffpal/gitlab-discussions.json	GitLab file-output publishing plan for discussions.	JSON	Debugging or API publishing handoff.
.artifacts/diffpal/gitlab-status.json	GitLab status file output.	JSON	Debugging or API publishing handoff.
.artifacts/diffpal/azure-threads.json	Azure file-output publishing plan for PR threads.	JSON	Debugging or API publishing handoff.
.artifacts/diffpal/azure-status.json	Azure status file output.	JSON	Debugging or API publishing handoff.

Canonical Versus Host-Specific

findings.json is the canonical DiffPal artifact. It contains validated structured findings and metadata independent of a code host.

Host-specific artifacts are derived from the canonical bundle:

• SARIF is derived for SARIF consumers.
• GitLab Code Quality is derived for GitLab report ingestion.
• Comments, discussions, threads, and status JSON files are publishing plans or status payloads for host integrations.

Creation Conditions

diffpal review local:

• writes findings.json or the --out path;
• prints Markdown to stdout;
• does not automatically create summary.md.

Non-dry-run diffpal review github:

• writes findings.json;
• creates summary.md and diffpal.sarif;
• creates GitHub comment artifacts when feedback=review file outputs are generated.

Non-dry-run diffpal review gitlab:

• writes findings.json;
• creates summary.md, diffpal.sarif, codequality.json, gitlab-status.json;
• creates gitlab-discussions.json when feedback=review file outputs are generated.

Non-dry-run diffpal review ado:

• writes findings.json;
• creates summary.md and azure-status.json;
• creates azure-threads.json when feedback=review file outputs are generated.

diffpal debug prompt writes a mock findings bundle to --out. diffpal sarif reads a findings bundle and writes SARIF to --out.

Retention Advice

Upload .artifacts/diffpal/ from CI when you need audit records, downstream automation, or report ingestion after the job completes. Retain at least findings.json for machine processing and summary.md for human review history when host summaries are not enough.