Source-Driven Development
A Salesforce DX development methodology where the source of truth for metadata lives in a version control system (like Git) rather than in the org, enabling modern DevOps practices with scratch orgs and CI/CD pipelines.
Definition
A Salesforce DX development methodology where the source of truth for metadata lives in a version control system (like Git) rather than in the org, enabling modern DevOps practices with scratch orgs and CI/CD pipelines.
In plain English
“Source-Driven Development is a Salesforce DX methodology where the source of truth for metadata lives in Git (version control) rather than in the org. You develop locally, push to orgs for testing, and deploy from the repository. It enables modern DevOps practices like CI/CD.”
Worked example
Yawl Marine's Salesforce dev team adopted Source-Driven Development with Salesforce DX. Metadata lives in Git as the source of truth - not in any specific org. Devs work in personal scratch orgs (spun up daily via sf org create scratch), pull changes locally with sf project retrieve, commit to feature branches, and merge through PRs. CI/CD deploys merged code to integration sandbox, then to UAT, then to production. The org isn't where the canonical state lives - Git is. Source-Driven Development is what enables modern engineering practices (parallel feature work, code review, atomic deploys) on a platform that historically didn't fit them.
Why Source-Driven Development matters
Source-Driven Development is a Salesforce DX development methodology where the source of truth for metadata lives in a version control system (like Git) rather than in the org, enabling modern DevOps practices like continuous integration, automated testing, and collaborative development. Developers work with local source files, push to scratch orgs for testing, and deploy from the repository.
This is a fundamental shift from the traditional org-based model where the org itself was the source of truth. In source-driven development, the repository is authoritative and orgs are considered disposable development environments. Mature Salesforce teams use source-driven development for all code and most configuration, treating it as the standard way to build on Salesforce.
How organizations use Source-Driven Development
Uses source-driven development as their standard methodology, with Git as the source of truth.
Migrated from org-based development to source-driven for modern DevOps practices.
Trains all developers on source-driven development as the modern Salesforce approach.
Trust & references
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Source-Driven Development.
- Salesforce DX Developer GuideSalesforce Developers
Hands-on resources to go deeper on Source-Driven Development.
🧠 Test your knowledge
Q1. What is Source-Driven Development?
Q2. What does it enable?
Q3. What are orgs in this model?
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