Salesforce API Version & CLI Retirement Lint

Five lines. That is the whole list of what a Salesforce DX consultant in the UK has to change in this GitHub Actions file before it will deploy again - and three of the five stopped working on dates that have already passed.

- run: npm install -g sfdx-cli
- run: sfdx force:auth:jwt:grant --clientid $CID --jwtkeyfile server.key
- run: sfdx force:source:deploy --sourcepath force-app --targetusername ci --checkonly
- run: sfdx force:apex:test:run --testlevel RunLocalTests --resultformat human --loglevel DEBUG

None of that is a style problem. Platform API versions 21.0 through 30.0 were retired in the Summer '25 release: REST now answers 410: GONE, SOAP answers 500: UNSUPPORTED_API_VERSION, and Bulk answers 400: InvalidVersion. Versions 31.0 through 40.0 are deprecated and retire in Summer '28 - every integration has to be on 41.0 or later by then. Separately, the SOAP login() call is retired in Summer '27 for versions 31.0 through 64.0. For scale: Summer '26 is API 67.0, Spring '26 was 66.0, Winter '27 is 68.0.

The CLI half is already past its date. Salesforce removed the force:source:*, force:mdapi:* and force:org:* commands from the Salesforce CLI on 6 November 2024; they do not run under sf (v2) at all. The sfdx-cli npm package is frozen at 7.209.6 and no longer receives weekly updates.

- run: npm install -g @salesforce/cli
- run: sf org login jwt --client-id $CID --jwt-key-file server.key
- run: sf project deploy start --source-dir force-app --target-org ci --dry-run
- run: sf apex run test --test-level RunLocalTests --result-format human

Asking a chatbot does not catch this, and the reason is structural: the assistants were trained on posts written while v29.0 and force:source:deploy were still correct, so they hand them back with confidence. And no chatbot can open the hundreds of -meta.xml files sitting in your repository.

SFDX Retirement Lint runs 81 rules inside VS Code over the file you have open - 10 on API version numbers and endpoint paths, 62 on commands removed from the CLI, 8 on renamed or dropped flags, and one on the frozen npm package. Each finding prints the line number, the error code the platform will return, and the sf-style replacement to type. That is free and asks for no key: paste sfdx-project.json into the free web page, or open the file in the editor, and you get the complete verdict on it.

A licence adds the parts that are a different job, not a bigger portion of the same one: the scan over the whole repository instead of the open file, in-place rewriting of the removed commands and flags, CI JSON so the build fails instead of the deploy, and CSV/JSON/HTML export for a team.

One deliberate limit, stated up front: version numbers are reported for a manual edit and are never rewritten for you. Bumping an API version can change behaviour, and a linter that silently edits your metadata is worse than the problem it found. Commands and flags are mechanical, so those it will rewrite.

$29 once. The Salesforce DevOps platforms that flag this bill per seat per month - Copado Essentials Basic from $79 per user per month, Gearset from $200 per user per month. Seven-day full refund.