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.

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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.)

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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.

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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.

1. 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.

2. 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).

3. 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	Order_ChangeEvent.platformEventChannelMember-meta.xml (NOT Order__ChangeEvent)	Order__ChangeEvent
   MyThing__c	MyThing_ChangeEvent.platformEventChannelMember-meta.xml (NOT MyThing__ChangeEvent)	MyThing__ChangeEvent

   The custom-object case is the easiest place to slip — the filename uses single underscore, the selectedEntity keeps its double underscore. Read assets/PlatformEventChannelMember-template.xml as the structural template.

4. For a custom channel, generate a PlatformEventChannel file — required if any member references a non-default channel. Derive a DeveloperName from the user's label: strip spaces and non-alphanumeric characters, convert to CamelCase, then always append the literal suffix __chn. The filename and the channel's <eventChannel> reference must use this exact form, otherwise the deploy fails with Invalid channel name:

   User says	DeveloperName	Filename
   Partner Sync	PartnerSync__chn	PartnerSync__chn.platformEventChannel-meta.xml (NOT Partner_Sync... or PartnerSync...)
   Order Updates	OrderUpdates__chn	OrderUpdates__chn.platformEventChannel-meta.xml
   data sync	DataSync__chn	DataSync__chn.platformEventChannel-meta.xml

   Members on this channel reference it by the same DeveloperName: <eventChannel>PartnerSync__chn</eventChannel>. Read assets/PlatformEventChannel-template.xml.

5. Add enrichment fields if requested — repeat the <enrichedFields><name>FIELD_API_NAME</name></enrichedFields> block for each field. The name must be a single-hop API name on the source entity — verified working with: standard lookup IDs (OwnerId, ParentId), custom lookup fields (MyLookup__c), and custom non-relationship fields (Region__c, Status__c). Relationship traversals like Owner.Name or Parent.Account.Industry are rejected by deploy with "The selected field, X.Y, isn't valid".

6. Add a filter expression if requested — wrap the predicate in <filterExpression>...</filterExpression>. The body is a WHERE-clause body without the WHERE keyword (e.g. Status__c != null, not WHERE Status__c != null). For supported operators, field types, and pitfalls, read references/filter-expressions.md.

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Rules / Constraints

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Gotchas

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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.

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Cross-Skill Integration

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Reference File Index