Using the Ant Migration Tool

The Ant Migration Tool is retired with Spring ’24. The tool continues to function as-is for future API versions but isn’t updated with new functionality and isn’t supported. If Salesforce adds a new feature that is incompatible with Ant, the Ant Migration Tool won’t be updated to support it. To manage metadata changes, switch to Salesforce CLI for a modern, supported developer experience.

Note

The Ant Migration Tool is a Java/Ant-based command-line utility for moving metadata between a local directory and a Salesforce organization. You can use the Ant Migration Tool to retrieve components, create scripted deployment, and repeat deployment patterns.

The general procedure you will follow when using the Ant Migration Tool to copy metadata from one Salesforce organization to another is:

Enter credentials and connection information for source Salesforce organization in build.properties
Create retrieve targets in build.xml
Construct a project manifest in package.xml
Run the Ant Migration Tool to retrieve metadata files from Salesforce
Enter credentials and connection information for destination Salesforce organization in build.properties
Run the Ant Migration Tool to deploy metadata files or deletions to Salesforce

Entering Salesforce Connection Information
Constructing a Project Manifest
Creating Retrieve Targets
Retrieving Metadata from a Salesforce Organization
Editing Metadata
Deleting Files from an Organization
Deploying Changes to a Salesforce Org
Checking the Status of a Task