Moving from Change Sets to Git Without Breaking Your Release Process

Daniel RosenbergCo-Founder

Jan 15, 2026Blog

Moving from Change Sets to Git Without Breaking Your Release Process

If your team still relies on Salesforce Change Sets, you already know the pain:

Manually selecting metadata
Losing track of what’s changed
Conflicting deployments from devs and admins
Zero auditability

And yet, for many Salesforce teams, switching to Git feels risky. You might worry about CLI tools, losing admin flexibility, or breaking your current release process.

But what if you could adopt Git without disruption, and even make your release workflow more stable in the process?

This article shows you how OrgFlow lets you safely move from Change Sets to Git-based DevOps, using a model that respects how real Salesforce teams work, admins and developers alike.

Part 1: Why Change Sets Break at Scale

Salesforce Change Sets were designed for smaller teams and simpler orgs. As your metadata, sandbox count, and team size grow, they start to show serious cracks.

1.1 Collaboration Collapses

With Change Sets, every deployment is manual and tribal:

Admins and devs overwrite each other’s work
Teams can’t tell who changed what
There’s no unified change history

It’s not just frustrating, it’s dangerous. You can’t track regressions, roll back easily, or coordinate across environments. And if you need to comply with SOX or ISO? Forget it.

1.2 Metadata Conflicts and Blind Spots

Without a single source of truth, devs and admins edit overlapping metadata, like Flows or Layouts, without visibility. Merges happen in production, often without testing. Change Sets offer no comparison tools, no safeguards, and no pre-deployment visibility.

Part 2: Why Git-Based Salesforce DevOps Has a Reputation Problem

Git offers version control, transparency, and automation. But many teams fail when they try to adopt it for Salesforce because the tooling isn’t built for how Salesforce actually works.

2.1 Most Tools Force a “Sync” You Can’t Trust

Most “Git-based” tools still treat your Salesforce org as the primary source of truth. They sync from orgs to Git and back again, creating confusion about what’s accurate. Conflicts aren’t caught early, and developers are forced to clean up metadata messes downstream.

2.2 Admins Get Locked Out

Worse, many Git-based processes assume everyone can (and wants to) use a CLI. That leaves admins sidelined, or creates shadow workflows outside Git.

This is where OrgFlow takes a fundamentally different approach.

Part 3: OrgFlow = Syncing Git and Orgs the Right Way

OrgFlow embraces the need to sync Git and Salesforce environments, but does so with the correct directionality and structure. Git is the source of truth. Environments (like sandboxes or production) are synced to and from Git in a way that’s predictable, auditable, and scalable.

3.1 Git as the Source of Truth

With OrgFlow, everything starts and ends in Git. You don’t blindly sync metadata from production and hope for the best. You pull changes from your Salesforce environment into Git, review and version them, and push from Git into the next environment in your pipeline.

No more guessing where a change came from. Every change lives in Git, tied to a branch, a commit, and a pull request.

This model gives:

Developers: full Git workflows in their own tools
Admins: ability to safely contribute without CLI tools
Architects: a clean, auditable pipeline

3.2 Git/Org Syncing Made Safe and Predictable

OrgFlow syncs Salesforce environments (sandboxes or production) to Git using defined, reproducible flows. You define a mapping between your Git branches and your Salesforce environments, removing ambiguity and shadow deployments.

This structure allows you to:

Pull metadata into Git from a source org
Push metadata from Git into a destination org
Automate validations, Apex tests, and deployments

There’s no black box or manual juggling. Just a Git-native release flow that works.

3.3 Understand the Real Differences: Diffs vs Merges

Let’s clarify something critical: diffs are not merges, and OrgFlow doesn’t rely on fancy UIs to resolve conflicts.

OrgFlow does not provide “visual diffing” in the UI, only raw, line-by-line Git diffs (e.g., XML, Apex). That’s a good thing. You’re not working in a UI abstraction layer; you’re using real Git.

Merge conflicts are handled using Git-native workflows: feature branches, commit history, and the same tools your developers already use.

The “smarter merges” come from early detection and branch-level control, so conflicts are caught before production, not in production.

3.4 Built-in CI/CD Compatibility, with GitHub Actions Demo

OrgFlow integrates directly with CI/CD tools, letting you automate builds, test runs, and deployments based on Git events.

Want to see it in action? Check out the OrgFlow GitHub Actions demo repository; it showcases how to build pipelines that run Apex tests and deploy metadata using OrgFlow as your deployment engine.

Part 4: Step-by-Step – How to Migrate from Change Sets to Git with OrgFlow

You don’t need to replace your release process overnight. Here’s how to make the switch gradually and safely:

Step 1: Install OrgFlow and Connect Git

OrgFlow connects to your Git repo (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket) and your Salesforce orgs using OAuth. There’s no setup complexity or CLI barrier.

Step 2: Understand OrgFlow’s Model, Workspaces, Stacks, Environments

Here’s how OrgFlow structures your team:

Workspace: Your top-level organization (e.g., your company)
Stack: A collection of related environments (e.g., dev → test → prod)
Environment: A specific Git branch linked to a Salesforce org

This model makes it easy to reason about your pipeline and enforce release discipline.

📌 Note: OrgFlow does not support scratch orgs; this is intentional. Our goal is to simplify Git-based delivery, not add complexity.

Step 3: Let Admins Contribute Metadata

Admins can pull Flows, Layouts, and other metadata from their sandbox into Git without needing the CLI. They use OrgFlow’s UI tools to preview changes and commit them to a feature branch.

This reduces the gap between admins and devs; everyone works in the same system, with clear ownership and visibility.

Step 4: Use Git for Review and Merge, But Keep It Native

OrgFlow doesn’t replace your Git provider. You still use GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket for:

Pull requests
Code reviews
Branch protection rules
CI/CD triggers

OrgFlow fits into this ecosystem; it doesn’t try to replace it. Your team stays in control.

Step 5: Deploy from Git to Each Environment

Using OrgFlow’s CLI or GitHub Actions integration, you can deploy metadata from Git to any linked Salesforce environment.

This gives you full traceability:

What changed
Who made the change
When it was reviewed
Which commit deployed it

No more hidden Change Sets. No more guessing what’s live.

Part 5: Benefits for Every Persona on the Salesforce Team

For the Architect / DevOps Lead

Move to Git-based DevOps without disrupting your team
Get full change visibility across sandboxes and production
Enforce a single source of truth across admins and devs

For the Developer

Use native Git workflows (no black box UIs)
Automate Apex test runs and deployments
Avoid merge conflicts by catching them at the branch level

For the Admin

Commit Flows and metadata without touching the CLI
Preview changes and avoid overwriting others’ work
Join the release process without fear

Final Thoughts: You Can Drop Change Sets Without Dropping the Ball

Making the jump from Change Sets to Git can feel risky, especially for teams with a mix of devs and admins. But with OrgFlow, you’re not forcing a one-size-fits-all approach. You’re adopting a Git-native process that flexes with your team’s skill sets, roles, and workflows.

You’ll get:

Real Git-based release control
Safe org-to-Git syncing
Admin-friendly contribution tools
Automated CI/CD that just works

See how it works in your own pipeline. Book a Demo at www.orgflow.io