Introducing Tooling API

Use Tooling API to build custom development tools or apps for Lightning Platform applications. Tooling API’s SOQL capabilities for many metadata types allow you to retrieve smaller pieces of metadata. Smaller retrieves improve performance, which makes Tooling API a better fit for developing interactive applications.Tooling API provides SOAP and REST interfaces.

For example, you can:

Add features and functionality to your existing Lightning Platform tools.
Build dynamic modules for Lightning Platform development into your enterprise integration tools.
Build specialized development tools for a specific application or service.

Tooling API exposes metadata used in developer tooling that you can access through REST or SOAP.

For detailed descriptions of Tooling API objects and the REST resources and SOAP calls that each object supports, see Tooling API Objects in the Reference tab.

Tip

When to Use Tooling API

Use Tooling API when you need fine-grained access to an org’s metadata. Tooling API’s SOQL capabilities for many metadata types allow you to retrieve smaller pieces of metadata. Smaller retrieves improve performance, which makes Tooling API a better fit for developing interactive applications.
Tooling API Release Notes

Use the Salesforce Release Notes to learn about the most recent updates and changes to Tooling API.
SOQL Operation Limitations

Some Tooling API objects have SOQL limitations. These limitations apply to any Metadata Catalog query, which applies to all Custom Metadata Types and Metadata Catalog entities, not only the ones explicitly listed.
SOSL Operation Limitations

Two Tooling API objects, EntityDefinition and FieldDefinition, have some SOSL limitations. ExternalString and MetadataComponentDependency (Beta) don’t support SOSL searches.
Considerations for CRUD Operations in Active Orgs

CRUD operations on most Tooling API objects are allowed in active orgs in API version 41.0 and later, just as they are in other kinds of orgs. However, for performance reasons you can’t perform CRUD operations in an active org for some Tooling API objects.
Allow Metadata Save Operations to Complete with Returned Warnings

When a metadata save operation generates warnings, the default behavior of Tooling API is to fail the operation without returning the warnings. For objects in both the Tooling API and Metadata API WSDLs, you can indicate that you want error-free save operations to complete successfully, returning any warnings.
REST Overview

Use REST if you’re using a language that isn’t strongly typed, like JavaScript.
API End-of-Life Policy

See which Tooling REST and SOAP API versions are supported, unsupported, or unavailable.