Metadata API Developer Guide

Introduction to Metadata API
Understanding Metadata API
Use Cases for Metadata API
Move Metadata from Production to Your Local File System
Move Metadata Changes to and from a Scratch Org
Move Metadata to a Sandbox at Integration Points
Deploy Metadata to Production
Move Metadata for Production-Level Changes
Make Large Metadata Configuration Changes
Release Notes
Metadata API Developer Tools
Supported Salesforce Editions
Metadata API Edit Access
Development Platforms
Standards Compliance
Metadata API Support Policy
API End-of-Life Policy
Related Resources
Quick Start: Metadata API
Build Client Applications for Metadata API
Using Metadata API
Metadata API Context MCP Tool (Beta)
Reference
Appendices
PDF

Note: This release is in preview. Features described here don’t become generally available until the latest general availability date that Salesforce announces for this release. Before then, and where features are noted as beta, pilot, or developer preview, we can’t guarantee general availability within any particular time frame or at all. Make your purchase decisions only on the basis of generally available products and features.

Move Metadata for Production-Level Changes

Use Metadata API to move metadata during large changes, such as merging or splitting Salesforce orgs.

To split an org, first retrieve the metadata to be moved. Then, use a deploy call to push those configurations to the new org. Similarly, to merge two orgs, retrieve existing metadata from one org. Next, use a deploy call to migrate metadata from one org to another.