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 you deployment package.

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

Below image shows how each filter is displayed in our app in 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 below to view a list of all metadata types included in each filter. with references to further guides on how to deploy specific metadata types.

The Basic comparison filter contains 6 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 is 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.

Make sure to check that the filter includes the metadata type of which components you're looking to retrieve.

The Default comparison filter contains of a set 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 utilised in our 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 increase the number of metadata types added to the CI jobs and increase their potential.

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 specific set of metadata components which are distinct from components used in standard Salesforce orgs, this filter allows you to focus solely on the relevant types.
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By applying this filter, you can streamline the comparison process by excluding irrelevant metadata types that are not related to Experience Cloud configurations. This type of targeted approach allows you to be more efficient in identifying differences and similarities between Experience Cloud environments. The filter can be particularly useful in selecting changes that need to be deployed from source to target environments during manual deployments.

The Default profiles and permission set comparison filter consists of 15 metadata and is specifically tailored to allow you to focus on the retrieval and deployment of profiles and permission sets - elements that are crucial for managing user access and security within Salesforce.
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For more guidance, check our support article on how to retrieve Profiles and their components using this metadata filter.

By narrowing the scope of your filter to profile and permission set related metadata types, you're prepared to run targeted comparisons to analyze and deploy changes related to user permissions.

The Compare all filter consists of 214 metadata types that Gearset currently supports. It is the only pre-defined filter that by default includes all of the managed packages.

This filter offers users the most comprehensive view of their Salesforce org's configuration, or preview of all the metadata types stored in Git branches.

It allows you to select all the metadata types for manual comparisons, CI job deployments or validations of customisations. When necessary, the filter can be used to conduct a thorough review of your environment's set up, for the purpose of understanding various environment configurations, or even for troubleshooting activities.
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Comparing all metadata types helps teams with making sure that no aspect of the environment's setup is overlooked.

The None consists of 0 metadata types. It's helpful in scenarios when you need to create your custom metadata filter from scratch - you can then easily switch to "None" filter, and begin with selection of your own metadata type that will be saved in a custom filter, or simply used in your new comparison.

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.