Create an XM Cloud project using the Sitecore CLI

You can create projects, environments, and deployments with the Sitecore CLI commands provided by the XM Cloud plugin. Using the Sitecore CLI instead of the XM Cloud Deploy app for creating the XM Cloud project is a matter of preference if your project repository is hosted on GitHub, but it is necessary if your organization hosts source-code repositories on other platforms.

This walkthrough demonstrates using the Sitecore CLI to deploy a Sitecore solution to an XM Cloud environment.

Before you begin

Download .NET 6.0.
Prepare your credentials for logging into XM Cloud.
Install the Sitecore CLI version 5.0 or later with the XM Cloud plugin.

This walkthrough describes how to:

Optional: Obtain the initial source code

If you do not have an XM Cloud-compatible solution and do not want to host the source code in a GitHub repository, you can obtain an initial solution by cloning a foundation template.

To obtain the initial source code for your XM Cloud project:

Clone the XM Cloud SXA-based foundation template repository.
Follow the walkthrough to set up your local development environment.

Tip

If you use GitHub to host your repositories, the fastest and easiest way to create an XM Cloud project is using the XM Cloud Deploy app. You can then follow the walkthrough to set up your local development environment.

Log in to XM Cloud

To run CLI commands against the SaaS XM Cloud platform, you must authorize your device and provide your XM Cloud credentials. The login process described here performs the necessary device and user authorization and authentication.

You obtain your authentication credentials during the onboarding process.

To log in to XM Cloud:

In the project working directory, in a command-line window, run the cloud login command:
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```
dotnet sitecore cloud login
```
The CLI immediately displays information about the [DeviceLogin] process and opens a new browser window.
In the browser window, if the device code displayed in the window matches the User code value displayed in the CLI, click Confirm.

Note

If the device code and your command line code do not match, it indicates a severe error or potential security issue, and you must click Cancel. Attempt to log out and log in again.
In the Welcome dialog, in the Email address field, provide the email address associated with your XM Cloud user account. Click Continue.
In the Password field, enter your user password. Click Continue.

On successful authentication, the page in the browser displays a success message, and the [DeviceLogin] process in the CLI exits.

Sitecore XM Cloud device authorization success screen

Tip

You can implement a non-interactive login flow with an authentication/automation client in XM Cloud Deploy app. Use the resulting client credentials with the dotnet sitecore cloud login command. For ease of use, you can write the command with client credentials in an executable script file.

Create an XM Cloud project

A project within XM Cloud represents a collection of one or more Sitecore XM environments.

To create an XM Cloud project :

In the project working directory, in a command-line window, run the cloud project create command:
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```
dotnet sitecore cloud project create --name <project-name>
```
For example, dotnet sitecore cloud project create --name MyXMCloudProject
Copy the Project Id assigned to the project and store it for later use.
Tip
You can retrieve the project ID at any time by running the following command:
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dotnet sitecore cloud project list

Create an environment for the XM Cloud project

An XM Cloud environment represents a SaaS Sitecore Content Management (CM) tenant along with all the services and supporting tenants for hosting a Sitecore solution. Every environment belongs to a project.

To create an environment for an XM Cloud project:

In the project working directory, in a command-line window, run the cloud environment create command and enter the project ID:
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```
dotnet sitecore cloud environment create --name <name> --project-id <project-id>
```
For example, dotnet sitecore cloud environment create --name staging --project-id 6btMioN1QDVjSUvQkklkVR
Copy the Environment Id assigned to the environment and store it for later use.
Tip
You can retrieve the environment ID at any time by running the following command:
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dotnet sitecore cloud environment list --project-id <project-id>

Deploy the solution to the XM Cloud environment

The XM Cloud deployment process deploys an image of your solution to a specified environment. It provisions and configures the necessary infrastructure. This section describes using the --upload CLI command.

To deploy your solution:

In the project working directory, in a command-line window, run the cloud deployment create command and enter the environment ID:
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```
dotnet sitecore cloud deployment create --environment-id <environment-id> --upload
```
The --upload parameter ensures the Server-side rendering engine endpoint URL and Server-side rendering engine application URL fields are populated with the necessary values. Without these settings, the rendering host will be empty and fail to work with Sitecore layout and page editors.

The command creates a deployment that starts immediately and includes all the code in the current working directory.
Tip
You can retrieve the deployment ID by running the following command:
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dotnet sitecore cloud deployment list --environment-id <environment-id>
When the deployment completes, the CLI prints a URL to the XM Cloud Sitecore CM instance. Open the link to view the Sitecore XM Cloud CM instance.
To navigate to the Sitecore Launchpad, in the browser address bar, append /sitecore to the root URL of the instance.

The default value for the --upload command parameter is the current working directory. When providing the argument, everything in the directory is packaged and deployed to XM Cloud unless specified in a .gitignore file.

To use another folder, use the --upload parameter and provide the path to another directory with the --working-dir (-dir) parameter. For example:

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dotnet sitecore cloud deployment create --environment-id <id> --no-start --no-watch --upload --working-dir <path>

Additional steps

After deploying your solution to the XM Cloud platform, you can continue to develop locally and then deploy customizations to the XM Cloud environment. You can also synchronize items between your local development environment and the XM Cloud CM instance.

See also how to deploy the client/front-end application.

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