Agentic AI Reference Architecture

Infrastructure · Data artifact

Container Image

Data artifactInfrastructureInfrastructurearc:ContainerImage

An immutable, tagged package of an agent's code, dependencies, model artifacts and runtime configuration that a container runtime instantiates.

Responsibility. Serves as the portable, reproducible unit of agent deployment.

Also known as: Docker image, Agent image, Multi-arch image, Inference microservice container, Pristine base image

is guarded by; is audited by; is evaluated byis produced byis read byContainer Image Scanner: is guarded by; is audited by; is evaluated byContainer Image ScannerContainer Image Builder: is produced byContainer Image BuilderEphemeral Sandbox Manager: is read byEphemeral Sandbox Manager
Direct neighbourhood (hover for relationship types)

Relationships

is read by dependency

is guarded by control

is audited by assurance

is evaluated by assurance

is produced by lifecycle

Design guidance

Classification

Patterns
Immutable tagsSemantic versioningImmutable artifactCommit-SHA tagging
Technologies
DockerOCI images
Quality attributes
Reliability (ISO/IEC 25010 | NIST AI RMF: valid and reliable)Flexibility (ISO/IEC 25010)Transparency and accountability (NIST AI RMF: accountable and transparent)
Risks mitigated
Silent drift from tag reassignment

Sources

  1. Ch4.1: T. Nguyen, "Introduction to AI Agent Deployment and Scaling," in Mastering Agentic AI Systems: Guide for the NVIDIA NCP-AAI Exam, 1st ed. 2026, ch. 4.1. ISBN: 9798244538229.
  2. Ch4.2: T. Nguyen, "Deployment and Scaling," in Mastering Agentic AI Systems: Guide for the NVIDIA NCP-AAI Exam, 1st ed. 2026, ch. 4.2. ISBN: 9798244538229.
  3. Ch9.3: T. Nguyen, "Sandboxing and Transparency Foundations," in Mastering Agentic AI Systems: Guide for the NVIDIA NCP-AAI Exam, 1st ed. 2026, ch. 9.3. ISBN: 9798244538229.
  4. Ref7.04: NVIDIA, "NVIDIA NIM," NVIDIA Docs. Accessed: Sep. 27, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://docs.nvidia.com/nim/
  5. Ref7.14: "NVIDIA Agentic AI Platform Ecosystem Integration," unpublished reference note (14-NVIDIA-Ecosystem-Integration.md), Mastering Agentic AI Systems: Guide for the NVIDIA NCP-AAI Exam supplementary materials, 2026. unpublished note