Salesforce DX Developer Guide

How Salesforce Developer Experience Changes the Way You Work
Enable Dev Hub Features in Your Org
Project Setup
Authorization
Metadata Coverage
Scratch Orgs
Supported Scratch Org Editions and Allocations
Build Your Own Scratch Org Definition File
Create a Scratch Org Based on an Org Shape (Beta)
Create Scratch Orgs
Select the Salesforce Release for a Scratch Org
Push Source to the Scratch Org
Pull Source from the Scratch Org to Your Project
Track Changes Between the Project and Scratch Org
Scratch Org Users
Manage Scratch Orgs from Dev Hub
Scratch Org Error Codes
Sandboxes
Development
Build and Release Your App
First-Generation Managed Packages
Second-Generation Managed Packages
Unlocked Packages
Continuous Integration
Troubleshoot Salesforce DX
Limitations for Salesforce DX
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Scratch Orgs

The scratch org is a source-driven and disposable deployment of Salesforce code and metadata. A scratch org is fully configurable, allowing developers to emulate different Salesforce editions with different features and preferences. You can share the scratch org configuration file with other team members, so you all have the same basic org in which to do your development.

Scratch orgs drive developer productivity and collaboration during the development process, and facilitate automated testing and continuous integration. You can use the CLI or IDE to open your scratch org in a browser without logging in. Spin up a new scratch org when you want to:

  • Start a new project.
  • Start a new feature branch.
  • Test a new feature.
  • Start automated testing.
  • Perform development tasks directly in an org.
  • Start from “scratch” with a fresh new org.

Scratch Org Creation Methods

By default, scratch orgs are empty. They don’t contain much of the sample metadata that you get when you sign up for an org, such as a Developer Edition org, the traditional way. Some of the things not included in a scratch org are:
  • Custom objects, fields, indexes, tabs, and entity definitions
  • Sample data
  • Sample Chatter feeds
  • Dashboards and reports
  • Workflows
  • Picklists
  • Profiles and permission sets
  • Apex classes, triggers, and pages

Before creating a scratch org, you must configure it so it has the features, settings, licenses, and limits that mirror a source org, often your production org. The combination of features, settings, licenses, and limits are what we refer to as the org’s shape.

We offer these methods for configuring scratch orgs:

On Which Salesforce Instances Are Scratch Orgs Created?

Scratch orgs are created on sandbox instances. The sandbox instance depends on the country information used when creating the Dev Hub org.

Scratch orgs for Government Cloud and Public Cloud are created in the region where the Dev Hub org is physically located.

  • Scratch orgs created from a Dev Hub org in Government Cloud are created in a Government Cloud instance.
  • Scratch orgs created from a Dev Hub org in Public Cloud are created on a Public Cloud instance.

If you notice that your scratch orgs aren’t located in the expected region, create a Salesforce Support case.