Synchronize items between remote and local XM Cloud instances with the Sitecore CLI

When multiple developers develop an XM Cloud solution or when using multiple XM Cloud environments, you can synchronize the databases for the environments using Sitecore Command Line Interface (CLI) serialization commands. You can use CLI serialization commands against local and remote XM Cloud Content Management (CM) environments.

Before you begin

You must have the following:

.NET 6.0.
An XM Cloud-compatible solution, running locally.
A remote XM Cloud Sitecore CM instance.
Sitecore CLI version 5.0 or later, with the XM Cloud plugin installed.

This walkthrough describes how to:

Log in to the CLI

To log in to the CLI:

In the project working directory, in a command-line window, log in to XM Cloud using the CLI by running the command:
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```
dotnet sitecore cloud login
```

Follow the steps in the user interface to log in and authorize your device.

Connect the CLI to the XM Cloud environment

To support running commands such as serialization push on a remote XM Cloud CM instance, you must connect the Sitecore CLI plugins to the remote environment.

Note

If you followed the walkthrough to set up your full-stack XM Cloud local development environment, you can skip this section. If you have not, and you encounter issues, refer to that documentation for any steps you might have missed in your setup.

To connect the CLI to a remote XM Cloud environment:

In a command-line window, in the project working directory, run the cloud environment connect command and enter the environment ID:
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```
dotnet sitecore cloud environment connect --environment-id <environment-id>
```
Tip
You can retrieve the environment ID by running the following command:
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dotnet sitecore cloud environment list --project-id <project-id>
The command creates a new endpoint or updates an existing endpoint for the connected environment in the .sitecore/user.json file.
To allow serialization push operations on the remote XM Cloud Sitecore XM CM instance, in the .sitecore/user.json file, if the value of the allowWrite property is false, change it to true.

When connected, you can use Sitecore CLI commands that run against a remote instance. You specify the instance with the option --environment-name (or -n ) with the value of an endpoint key defined in the .sitecore/user.json file. For example:

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dotnet sitecore index list --environment-name development

Run serialization operations

With a connected CLI, you can run serialization pull and push operations against the remote XM Cloud Sitecore XM CM instance. You must provide the environment name, as defined in the .sitecore/user.json file.

To pull items from the remote XM Cloud CM instance to the local file system:

In a command-line window, in the project working directory, run the command:
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```
dotnet sitecore serialization pull -n development
```

To push items from the local file system to the remote XM Cloud CM instance:

In a command-line window, in the project working directory, run the command:
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```
dotnet sitecore serialization push -n development
```
Note

The serialization push command does not publish items. To publish content in an XM Cloud environment, refer to Publish and validate content for testing purposes using the Sitecore CLI.

You can also run other Sitecore CLI commands in the XM Cloud environment by providing the environment name.

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