A metadata filter is a feature that allows you to specify which types of metadata to include or exclude when setting up your comparison between two environments. By environments, we specifically refer to either Salesforce orgs or Git branches.
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It gives you a granular control over the comparison and deployment process. You can adjust your selection to focus only on the metadata components relevant to your current project or deployment.

By filtering out unnecessary metadata types, you can streamline your comparison and deployment processes, making them more efficient and accurate.

This not only helps metadata retrieval in your comparisons to finish faster, but also avoids potential errors caused by including irrelevant metadata components into your deployment package.

Gearset app comes with several default metadata filters, and we've named them as below:

The image below shows how each filter is displayed in our Compare and deploy feature (this UI preview is available before you run your comparison):

Below, you can click on the headline of each default filter to view a list of all included metadata types, along with references to guides on deploying specific metadata types.

The "On-demand comparison" filter has no preselected metadata types, this has the same effect as the "None (0)" filter.

This is used to load up a comparison quickly in the new Compare and deploy comparison screen. You can then add the required metadata types to your filter or select your required filter after entering the comparison window.

The Basic comparison filter contains 6 of the most commonly used metadata types. We recommend to select it when you want your metadata retrieval to finish relatively quickly.
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This filter can be useful when you need a broad overview of metadata differences between two environments, but you may not require the level of granularity provided by other more tailored filters.

The Default comparison filter consists of 63 commonly used metadata types in Salesforce environments. It includes a broad range of metadata types used in various Salesforce projects - taking into consideration objects and their sub-components that are often used for metadata retrieval and deployments.
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This filter offers a standardized approach to comparing Salesforce environments while making sure that it covers a wide spectrum of metadata components.
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It can be used by teams for initial assessment of metadata differences between environments as it offers a comprehensive view for the analysis.

The Default CI comparison filter contains 8 common metadata types that we believe teams can use when starting with the configuration of new Continuous Integration (CI) automation jobs - especially if the intention is to begin with safer and smaller automated deployments.
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This filter can be utilized in your CI jobs while teams learn to adopt automation into their workflow (including Gearset Pipelines). As you progress, you may naturally move away from our standard filter, and develop your own custom filters in order to adjust to your needs.

The Default Agentforce comparison filter currently contains 8 Agentforce related metadata types.
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This filter can be used for deployment of AI-powered configurations used within Salesforce.

For guidelines on how to deploy Agentforce related metadata types, please check our support article on how to deploy Agentforce (GenAi) metadata types.

The Default Experience Cloud comparison filter contains 16 metadata types and is specifically tailored to handle metadata types related to Salesforce Experience Cloud (formerly known as Salesforce Community Cloud).
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For more guidance, check our support article on:
​Digital Experiences aka Communities, and how to deploy changes to them.

Because Experience Cloud configurations in Salesforce orgs involve a specific set of metadata, this filter allows you to focus solely on the those types.

The Default profiles and permission set comparison filter consists of 15 metadata types and is specifically tailored to allow you to focus on the retrieval and deployment of profiles/permission sets.
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For more guidance, check our support article on how to retrieve Profiles and their components using this metadata filter.

The Compare all filter consists of all 260 metadata types that Gearset currently supports.