Frequently asked questions

General

Is SFDT affiliated with Salesforce? No. SFDT is an independent, open-source (MIT) project. “Salesforce” and “Flow Builder” are trademarks of Salesforce, Inc.

Do I have to use AI? No. AI is optional and off-by-default-capable. Set features.ai: false and everything still works; sfdt explain falls back to heuristics. See AI across SFDT.

Does my code or org data leave my machine? No. The dashboard and bridge bind to 127.0.0.1, Salesforce calls use your existing session, and AI prompts go to a provider key you supply. See Security & privacy.

Which platforms are supported? macOS and Linux today. Windows CLI support is on the roadmap; for Windows CI use the Docker image.

CLI

Does SFDT work with my project? Yes — it works with any Salesforce DX project. Nothing is hardcoded; run sfdt init and go.

Why Node ≥ 22.15.0? The pull cache uses the built-in node:sqlite module, which is unflagged starting in Node 22.15. See Requirements.

sfdt: command not found after install? Ensure your global npm bin is on PATH (npm prefix -g). If you installed from source, run npm link in the repo.

How do I update? sfdt update (add --force if needed). It prints a manual retry command if a self-update fails.

Chrome extension

Where do I get it? It’s pending Chrome Web Store submission. For now, build from source and load unpacked — see Chrome → Installation.

A feature isn’t doing anything. It may need the bridge (e.g. flow-deploy, ai-assistant) — start sfdt ui and pair the token. Or it may be turned off in options, or disabled by the kill switch. Run sfdt doctor --extension.

Does it collect telemetry? Only if you opt in, and even then it’s local-only with no PII and no network egress. See Chrome → Privacy.

VS Code extension

Do I need the CLI installed? Yes. The VS Code extension is a thin UI over @sfdt/cli — install the CLI and make sure it’s on PATH (or set sfdt.cliPath). See VS Code → Installation.

The Org Health sidebar is empty. Run an audit or monitor first (SFDT: Run Org Audit / SFDT: Run Org Monitor). The tree reads logs/audit-latest.json and logs/monitor-latest.json; until they exist you’ll see a placeholder. See VS Code → Org Health sidebar.