Project Manifest

In Salesforce DX, the Project Manifest is the sfdx-project.json file at the root of a DX Project. It declares which directories contain package source, the source API version used for metadata format conversions, the default Dev Hub alias, and - for Second-Generation Packaging (2GP) - package aliases, dependencies, and versioning. Salesforce CLI (sf, the unified CLI that replaced the original sfdx in 2023) reads sfdx-project.json on every command to understand the project layout.

In Salesforce DX, the Project Manifest is the sfdx-project.json file that defines project configuration including package directories, namespace, API version, and dependency information for the development project. The manifest tells the Salesforce CLI how to interpret the project structure and provides the metadata needed for build and deployment operations.

The sfdx-project.json file is required for any DX project; without it, the Salesforce CLI doesn't know how to work with the directory. The configuration includes package directories (where source files live), default package, namespace (for managed packages), API version, and source API version. Mature teams maintain the manifest carefully as part of project setup, with conventions for how packages and directories are organized.