---
title: "Configure metadata pulling"
slug: "configure-metadata-pulling"
abstract: "Use progressive metadata pulling to avoid connection timeouts during Sitecore CLI operations by performing multiple smaller requests."
---
# Configure metadata pulling

By default, the Sitecore CLI performs a single metadata pull request for all included items during push or pull operations to maximize efficiency. However, when handling a large number of items, the time required to generate the metadata might cause a connection timeout.

If you experience a connection timeout during pull or push operations, you can use the progressive metadata pull feature to perform multiple smaller metadata pull requests instead of a single bulk request.

> [!important]
> Progressive metadata pulling is available from CLI 6.0.23 or later. When it's enabled, the additional requests will increase the total operation time. Therefore, we strongly recommend only enabling progressive metadata pulling if you have connection timeout issues.

To enable progressive metadata pulling:

- In the `sitecore.json` file, in the `serialization` section, set the value of `progressiveMetadataPull` to `true`.