Metadata Retriever

The Metadata Retriever replaces the standard Org Browser. It answers "what did I change in my org?" in one click, filters by type, name, author, date and package, shows which components already exist in your project, and retrieves the ones you pick.

Open it

• Click Metadata Retriever in the CI/CD (simple) menu of the side bar.
• Click the Commit changes card of the DevOps Pipeline, or the Metadata Retriever card of the Welcome panel.

Find and retrieve what you changed

1. Check the org in (1). It is your default org when the panel opens.
2. Pick a mode in (2):
   • Recent Changes lists what was created, modified or deleted recently, with who did it. Use it before you commit a User Story.
   • All Metadata lists every component of the org, including the ones nobody touched.
3. Narrow the list with (3): metadata type (or a preset of several types), name, last updated by, date range, installed package.
4. Click (4). The results show below, with an icon telling whether each component was created, modified or deleted.
5. (7) filters the results without querying the org again.
6. Check the rows you want (8), then click the floating Retrieve button that appears once something is selected. The files land in your project, ready to commit.

Two settings change how it works (6):

• Retrieve mode picks how the selected components are retrieved: - Auto, the default, retrieves Profiles complete with sf hardis:mdapi:read and keeps only the permissions they grant. Everything else goes through the standard retrieve. A standard retrieve returns a Profile with only the permissions related to the other components retrieved with it, which is why Profiles get this treatment. - Full, active only reads every selected component whole through the CRUD Metadata API, and leaves out the Profile and Permission Set entries that grant nothing. - Full, all tags reads every selected component whole through the CRUD Metadata API, false entries included. - Off uses the standard retrieve for everything.

  The CRUD Metadata API can not read code, binary and bundle types (Apex, LWC, Static Resources...): the Full modes report them as skipped. - Check local files adds a column that tells which components already exist in your project.

When you retrieve a field, a list view or a record type without its object, Salesforce CLI writes an empty .object-meta.xml file for the object. Committed, it makes the deployment fail with Must specify a non-empty label for the CustomObject. When a retrieve makes such a file appear, the Metadata Retriever runs hardis:project:clean:emptyitems on CustomObject files and tells you which ones it removed. A file already committed is never touched, as deleting it would delete the object in the next deployment. To catch the ones that come from elsewhere, add emptyItems to autoCleanTypes.

(5) manages presets, see below.

Act on one component

The arrow at the end of a row opens its menu:

• (1) retrieves this component only.
• (2) opens Metadata Dependencies on what uses it, before you change or delete it.
• (3) opens Metadata Dependencies on what it uses.

Save your own presets of metadata types

A preset is a named group of metadata types that the type filter selects in one click, for example "Developer Metadata" for Apex, Flows and LWC. Click Manage Presets: it opens .sfdx-hardis.yml at the metadataRetrieverPresets key (1), and writes the built-in presets there the first time, so you have an example to copy. Each preset (2) has an id, a label, an optional description and its types:

metadataRetrieverPresets:
  - id: securityMetadata
    label: Security
    description: Profiles, permission sets and their groups
    types:
      - Profile
      - PermissionSet
      - PermissionSetGroup

Save the file: the panel uses your presets at once. Commit it so the whole team gets them.

Customize

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