At Salesforce, our mission is to empower developers and admins with the tools they need to build, test, and deploy solutions efficiently. Recognizing that a smooth development process is vital to delivering high-quality solutions, we are excited to announce a significant enhancement that will streamline workflows across our platform: seamless access to Code Builder directly from Sandbox environments. Code Builder is Salesforce’s next-generation, web-based IDE that brings the full power of Visual Studio Code, Salesforce Extensions, and Salesforce CLI directly to your browser.

The challenge: Code Builder required a detour through production

For years, developers working within Salesforce have relied heavily on sandbox environments for testing, customization, and iterative development. Until now, developers couldn’t launch Code Builder directly in sandboxes.

Previously, users needed admin assistance to access production environments where Code Builder was enabled. They then had to launch Code Builder from the production org and manually connect to a sandbox within Code Builder. This process introduced friction, slowed deployment cycles, and often discouraged adoption of more efficient development workflows.

Why seamless access from sandboxes is a big deal

Modern development workflows rely on instant, hassle-free access to tools like Code Builder. Developers expect to dive into their environment and start coding — without waiting on administrative approvals. Since most development happens in sandboxes, enabling access directly from those environments is critical to maintaining a smooth, uninterrupted workflow.

In addition, access to Code Builder from a sandbox:

  • Addresses security concerns: Admins have long expressed concerns about giving developers access to production environments. With this new capability, developers can now use Code Builder directly from sandboxes, eliminating the need for production access and significantly reducing security risk.
  • Accelerates development cycles: By removing access barriers, developers can now rapidly prototype, test, and deploy changes directly within their sandbox environments. This improves agility and reduces time-to-market for new features.
  • Supports most Salesforce editions: This feature is available in Salesforce Enterprise, Professional, and Unlimited Editions, ensuring broad coverage across our user base.

How Code Builder is enabled in a sandbox

There are two primary ways in which Code Builder is enabled in a sandbox.

  • Automatic inheritance in fresh sandboxes: When a sandbox is created after Code Builder has been enabled in the production org, it automatically inherits the necessary permissions, requiring no extra setup.
  • Manual activation in existing sandboxes: For sandboxes created before Code Builder was activated in production, admins can now refresh the sandbox to inherit permissions automatically, or manually install and enable Code Builder within the sandbox, accepting terms and assigning permissions accordingly.

Once enabled, users with valid Code Builder licenses can launch the environment directly from their sandbox, just as they do from production.

For more informa, please refer to the Code Builder documentation.

Rollout to eligible orgs

To ensure a smooth experience, the rollout will be phased, starting with 10% of organizations and expanding each week to cover all eligible orgs. This approach allows us to monitor usage, gather feedback, and address any issues proactively. Throughout the rollout, we’ll gather data that tracks how developers are leveraging this feature and identify areas for improvement.

The impact

This enhancement represents a major leap forward in our mission to deliver a truly developer-centric platform. By making Code Builder easily accessible in sandboxes, we are:

  • Empowering developers with greater autonomy
  • Eliminating delays caused by administrative bottlenecks
  • Encouraging best practices in iterative, sandbox-based development
  • Boosting overall productivity and developer satisfaction
  • Resolving security concerns by removing the need for production access

Conclusion

We are excited about the possibilities that this unlocks for your development teams. Seamless access to Code Builder from sandboxes aligns with Salesforce’s vision of providing flexible, powerful, and user-friendly tools to accelerate innovation.

We encourage you to explore this new feature and share your feedback. Together, we can continue to evolve and streamline the Salesforce development experience, delivering greater value to our customers and users.

Resources

About the authors

Faisal Velani is a Product Marketing Manager, Platform, at Salesforce with over 15 years of experience in product marketing, primarily within the enterprise software and cybersecurity sectors. He enjoys quality time with his family, playing classic video games like Mario and Street Fighter, and playing basketball.

Raj Sensharma is a Director of Product Management at Salesforce with over 20 years of experience delivering transformative SaaS, platform, and AI-powered solutions. He’s passionate about building AI-native products that go beyond automation to enable truly agentic experiences. Raj holds an MBA and a Master’s in Computer Science from the University of Central Florida. Follow him on LinkedIn.