| name | integration-eventing-cdc-configure |
| description | Use to enable Salesforce Change Data Capture (CDC) on a standard or custom object, configure a custom event channel, set a filter expression, or add enrichment fields. TRIGGER broadly on any of: 'enable CDC', 'enable Change Data Capture', 'turn on CDC', 'subscribe X to change events', 'only emit events for', 'filter change events', 'enrich change events', 'create a custom event channel'; or any mention of CDC, change events, PlatformEventChannel, PlatformEventChannelMember, EnrichedField, ChangeEvents channel, enrichment fields, change event filter; or when the user wants a downstream system to receive Salesforce data changes; or when the user touches .platformEventChannelMember-meta.xml / .platformEventChannel-meta.xml files. SKIP when publishing platform events, Pub/Sub API or REST/SOAP (use integration-connectivity-generate), or ManagedEventSubscription (out of scope for CDC). Always use this skill for CDC channel-membership metadata. |
| metadata | {"cliTools":[{"tool":["sf"],"semver":">=2.0.0"}],"relatedSkills":["integration-connectivity-generate","platform-custom-field-generate","platform-custom-object-generate","platform-permission-set-generate"],"version":"1.0","minApiVersion":"60.0"} |
Managing Change Data Capture Enablement
Generate the metadata that subscribes Salesforce objects to Change Data Capture: PlatformEventChannelMember files for the default ChangeEvents channel or a custom channel, and PlatformEventChannel files for new custom channels. Covers enrichment fields, filter expressions, and the canonical naming and value formats that the Metadata API actually accepts (which differ from values that appear in many internal test fixtures and code-search hits).
Scope
- In scope: Generating
PlatformEventChannelMember and PlatformEventChannel metadata for CDC. Subscribing standard objects, custom objects, or both. Configuring enrichment fields. Configuring filter expressions. Defining custom data channels.
- Out of scope: Publishing custom platform events (PE) — that's a different metadata type (
PlatformEvent). Pub/Sub API or external Kafka/Bayeux configuration. Pricing/limits guidance — refer the user to the CDC Developer Guide. Programmatic event-bus subscribers in Apex.
Clarifying Questions
Before generating, confirm with the user if not already clear:
- Which entity (or entities) need CDC enablement? Standard, custom, or both?
- Default channel (
ChangeEvents) or a custom channel? If custom, what's the channel label?
- Any enrichment fields needed? (Lookup IDs that the consumer needs even when they didn't change.)
- Any filter expression needed? (A SOQL-WHERE-clause body that gates which change events emit.)
Required Inputs
Gather or infer before proceeding:
- Source entity API name(s) — e.g.
Account, Lead, Order__c. The skill internally translates this to the ChangeEvent entity name (see Workflow step 2).
- Channel — either
ChangeEvents (default) or the developer name of a custom channel ending in __chn.
- Enrichment fields (optional) — list of field API names on the source object whose values should be included in every change event.
- Filter expression (optional) — a predicate over fields on the change event payload (e.g.
Status__c != null).
Defaults unless specified:
- Channel:
ChangeEvents (the default CDC channel — no path prefix).
- Enrichment fields: none.
- Filter expression: none.
If the user provides a clear, complete request, generate immediately without unnecessary back-and-forth.
Workflow
All steps are sequential. Do not skip or reorder.
Before generating anything, know the only valid CDC metadata types: CDC is expressed entirely through PlatformEventChannelMember (one per subscribed entity) and PlatformEventChannel (only for custom channels). Do NOT use <ChangeDataCapture>, .changeDataCapture-meta.xml, changeDataCapture/ directories, EnableChangeDataCapture, or ManagedEventSubscription — these are not in scope for CDC. If you find yourself writing any of them, stop and use a PlatformEventChannelMember file instead.
-
Identify the channel — if the user names a custom channel, you'll generate a PlatformEventChannel file (see step 4). Otherwise use the literal value ChangeEvents for the default channel.
-
Translate source entity to ChangeEvent entity name — <selectedEntity> is the ChangeEvent type, NOT the source object:
| Source object | <selectedEntity> value |
|---|
Account | AccountChangeEvent |
Lead | LeadChangeEvent |
Contact | ContactChangeEvent |
Order__c (custom) | Order__ChangeEvent |
MyThing__c (custom) | MyThing__ChangeEvent |
For standard objects: append ChangeEvent. For custom objects: replace the trailing __c with __ChangeEvent (the double-underscore is preserved).
-
Generate the channel-member file — one file per (entity, channel) pair. The filename and fullName always use a SINGLE underscore between the entity stem and ChangeEvent — this is independent of how selectedEntity is formatted in the XML body. For custom objects, drop the __c from the source name when forming the filename:
| Source object | Filename (and fullName) | <selectedEntity> (in XML) |
|---|
Account | Account_ChangeEvent.platformEventChannelMember-meta.xml | AccountChangeEvent |
Lead | Lead_ChangeEvent.platformEventChannelMember-meta.xml | LeadChangeEvent |
Order__c |
Rules / Constraints
| Constraint | Rationale |
|---|
<selectedEntity> is the ChangeEvent type name, not the source object name | The Metadata API binds the member to a ChangeEvent entity — passing Account directly fails with "invalid event in selectedEntity". |
Member fullName uses single underscore: Account_ChangeEvent | The double-underscore form (Account__ChangeEvent) is parsed as <namespace>__<name> and rejected: "Cannot create a new component with the namespace: Account". |
Default channel value is exactly ChangeEvents — no path prefix | Older fixtures and some docs show data/ChangeEvents; the deploy returns "Unable to find the specified channel" for that value. |
| Enrichment field names are single-hop API names on the source entity | Standard (OwnerId), custom lookup (MyLookup__c), and custom non-relationship (Region__c) all validate. Traversals like Owner.Name are rejected: "The selected field, X.Y, isn't valid". |
<filterExpression> body has no WHERE keyword | Deploy returns "filter expression has syntax errors: unexpected token: 'WHERE'". |
Filter cannot reference IsDeleted or do relationship traversal (Owner.Username) | Deploy rejects with "field is invalid". |
DateTime fields support only equality in filters (=, !=) — not < / > | Deploy returns "Only equality operators are supported for this field type or value". Use a named date literal: LastModifiedDate = TODAY. |
| Filter RHS must be a literal — no field-to-field comparison | BillingCity = ShippingCity returns "unexpected token: 'ShippingCity'". |
Compound fields (e.g. BillingAddress) require dotted component access in filter | BillingAddress.City = 'X' deploys; flat BillingCity is rejected as "field is invalid"; raw BillingAddress is rejected as "has to be used with a component field". Note this is the OPPOSITE of , which uses flat names. |
Gotchas
| Issue | Resolution |
|---|
Unable to find the specified channel | Set <eventChannel>ChangeEvents</eventChannel> (no data/ prefix). |
The PlatformEventChannelMember can't be created because it references an invalid event in the "selectedEntity" field | Use the ChangeEvent name, not the source object: AccountChangeEvent, not Account. |
Cannot create a new component with the namespace: <Object> | Rename the file to use a single underscore: Account_ChangeEvent..., not Account__ChangeEvent.... |
The selected field, X.Y, isn't valid (in <enrichedFields>) | Replace Owner.Name with OwnerId. CDC enriches the lookup automatically; only single-hop field API names validate. |
filter expression has syntax errors: unexpected token: 'WHERE' | Remove the WHERE keyword. The body is the predicate only. |
The BillingCity field in the filter expression is invalid (or any flat Address component) | Use the compound dotted form: BillingAddress.City, not BillingCity. See references/filter-expressions.md for the full compound-field matrix. |
| Custom-object member fails with "ChangeEvent doesn't exist" | The source object isn't deployed yet. Ensure the Foo__c object metadata is in the same deploy or already in the org. |
DUPLICATE_VALUE on second deploy | The member is already subscribed. Either delete first or skip — CDC doesn't support upsert on members directly. |
sf infra error (TypeInferenceError, DeployMetadata): Could not infer a metadata type for a .changeDataCapture-meta.xml file | That file extension and metadata type don't exist. Replace the changeDataCapture/<Entity>.changeDataCapture-meta.xml file with a platformEventChannelMembers/<Entity>_ChangeEvent.platformEventChannelMember-meta.xml file. |
| User says "subscribe Order__c" but means standard |
Output Expectations
Deliverables:
- One
force-app/.../platformEventChannelMembers/<Entity>_ChangeEvent.platformEventChannelMember-meta.xml per subscribed entity.
- One
force-app/.../platformEventChannels/<DevName>__chn.platformEventChannel-meta.xml per custom channel (if any).
File structure follows the templates in assets/.
After receiving the generated files, the user can verify them with sf project deploy start --dry-run -d <path> --target-org <alias> before deploying. If a dry-run surfaces an unfamiliar error, references/deploy-troubleshooting.md maps the common deploy errors to their metadata-side fixes.
Cross-Skill Integration
| Need | Delegate to |
|---|
| Generate the source custom object | platform-custom-object-generate skill |
| Generate custom fields referenced by enrichment or filter | platform-custom-field-generate skill |
| Build a permission set for users who consume change events | platform-permission-set-generate skill |
Reference File Index
| File | When to read |
|---|
assets/PlatformEventChannelMember-template.xml | Step 3 — starting structure for a channel member |
assets/PlatformEventChannel-template.xml | Step 4 — starting structure for a custom channel |
references/filter-expressions.md | Step 6 — for the supported operators and field-type matrix when writing a filter expression |
references/deploy-troubleshooting.md | When a user reports a dry-run deploy error and asks for help diagnosing it |
