5 CLI Plugins Every Salesforce QA Should Use

Testing in Salesforce has evolved far beyond manual checks and UI validations. Nowadays, Salesforce QA professionals juggle multiple responsibilities, they need to validate functionality, ensure security, manage different environments, and speed up release cycles, all while maintaining high quality. To meet these growing demands, relying solely on traditional methods is no longer enough.

Salesforce CLI (Command Line Interface) plugins have emerged as essential tools that help QAs streamline their workflows, automate repetitive tasks, and catch issues earlier in the development cycle. With the right plugins, QA teams can work smarter, making sure that every deployment is reliable, efficient, and ready for production.

In this blog, we explore five must-have Salesforce CLI plugins that can significantly boost QA productivity and improve the overall quality of testing efforts.

Popular Salesforce CLI Plugins

1. Smock-it

Key features of Smock-It

Smock-It (also known as Smockit) is a powerful Salesforce CLI plugin and mock data generation tool that streamlines the creation of synthetic, customizable test data for your orgs. Whether you're dealing with large datasets or intricate Salesforce schemas, Smock-It handles them with ease, supporting multiple output formats like CSV and JSON.

It automatically includes missing required fields, such as those in Account or Opportunity objects, and gives you the flexibility to include or exclude fields based on your needs. With the latest update, Smock-It generates data faster and allows users to reuse the same test data across different orgs, saving time and effort.

What Makes It a Must-Have for QA

• Boosts Speed and Efficiency

  With the ability to generate up to 300,000 unique records in just a few minutes, Smock-it significantly reduces the setup time for testing, enabling faster testing cycles and more agile QA processes.

• Understands Complex Salesforce Structures

  It is designed to work seamlessly with complex Salesforce setups, including custom objects, intricate relationships, and field dependencies. It ensures that generated data fits your org’s structure, keeping your tests stable and reliable.

• Streamlines Automation

  Smock-it intelligent field mapping, address linking, and auto generation features minimize manual effort, ensuring that QA teams can focus more on testing and less on data setup. This enhances overall productivity and efficiency during the testing process.

2. cli-plugins-testkit

While traditional unit testing is essential, Salesforce QA professionals know that the real action happens in integration and end to end scenarios, where the full ecosystem comes into play. That's where CLI plugins testkit steps in. Built specifically for testing Salesforce CLI plugins, this tool helps simulate real-world conditions with isolated Salesforce projects, scratch orgs, and multiple CLI versions.

QA teams can use it to write powerful non unit tests (NUTs) to validate that plugin commands run as expected, without relying on guesswork or manual testing. It’s perfect for CI pipelines, helping ensure plugins behave correctly even after code changes, dependency upgrades, or CLI updates.

Some Unique Capabilities of Cli Plugins Testkit

• Brings Confidence to CI/CD Pipelines

  The testkit allows QAs to run plugin tests using the exact Salesforce CLI executable that will ship to production. You can validate behavior against the latest release candidate (RC) CLI version, reducing the risk of post deployment surprises.

• End-to-End Testing, Made Easy

  From provisioning scratch orgs to executing commands and asserting outputs, the testkit simplifies full lifecycle tests. Plus, with built-in JSON parsing and return type casting, writing and debugging tests becomes seamless for TypeScript users.

• Customizable Test Environments

  QA teams can fine tune test sessions using environment variables, control everything from session directories to retry timeouts and JWT-based authentication. This level of control ensures that tests are consistent, repeatable, and tailored to your needs.

3. Dependencies-cli

Source: Github

The dependencies-cli is an open source Salesforce CLI plugin that helps you analyze the dependencies between objects and second-generation packages in your Salesforce org. It’s designed for developers and architects who want to better understand how different components are connected, especially in large or complex organizations. By visualizing these relationships through dependency graphs, it becomes easier to identify shared objects, spot version dependencies, and plan how to break down monolithic orgs into smaller, manageable packages. While it doesn't automate the refactoring, it provides clear, visual insights using tools like D3.js and Graphviz to guide decision making.

What Makes It a Must-Have for QA

• Visual Dependency Mapping

  It generates visual dependency graphs that help QA understand how different Salesforce components (fields, objects, etc.) are connected, making it easier to identify impact areas when testing.

• Better Regression Testing

  With the ability to track dependencies, QA can perform more effective regression testing by ensuring that changes do not negatively impact related components.

• Supports Complex Salesforce Orgs

  In large, monolithic Salesforce orgs, dependencies CLI helps QA teams untangle and analyze complex relationships, making it easier to focus on relevant areas during testing.

4. sfdx-plugin-lwc-test

SFDX plugin LWC test is a CLI plugin purpose-built for running unit tests on Lightning Web Components (LWCs) in a Salesforce DX workspace. It enables QA engineers and developers to quickly scaffold test files, run Jest-based tests, and debug LWC behavior directly from the command line. Whether you're validating component logic or ensuring UI interactions behave as expected, this plugin brings the power of Jest into your Salesforce development workflow, making component level testing faster, easier, and more standardized.

Key Capabilities for QA Teams

• Kickstart LWC Test Coverage

  No more setting up boilerplate from scratch. With a single command, you can generate Jest test files tailored to your Lightning components, helping you get started with unit tests quickly and consistently across your project.

• Run Tests with Ease

  Execute all LWC unit tests with the run command, supporting debug mode and watch mode for rapid test feedback during development. You can also integrate this seamlessly into CI pipelines for automated test validation.

5. mo-dx-plugin

This plugin supercharges Salesforce DX CLI experience by enabling direct deployment and retrieval of metadata like Apex Classes, Visualforce Pages, Static Resources, and Aura/LWC Bundles, using the Tooling API. It works seamlessly with both scratch and non-scratch orgs. Whether you're managing metadata from managed/unmanaged packages or fine-tuning a component during development, this plugin gives you control over how code moves between your local machine and your Salesforce org.

What Makes It a Must-Have for QA and Developers

• Retrieve Metadata from Any Org Format

  Convert traditional source or package-based metadata into Salesforce DX structure using retrieve:dxsource or retrieve:pkgsource. It's especially handy when pulling code from unmanaged or managed packages and changesets.

• Ideal for Quick Iteration

  When you need to quickly test a single Apex class change without redeploying everything, mo dx plugin offers a fast, efficient way to push your updates.

Conclusion

Salesforce CLI plugins serve as powerful productivity boosters, enabling QA professionals to work smarter and faster. Whether you need test data generation, dependency analysis, LWC testing, or rapid metadata deployment, these plugins enhance the standard CLI's functionality to streamline testing, improve efficiency, and minimize manual work.

With countless options available today, the key challenge is identifying the right plugins for your specific requirements. The five standout plugins we've highlighted deliver the ideal combination of automation, insight, and control that modern QA teams need to keep pace with today's rapid development cycles. Start integrating these plugins into your workflow today and experience the difference firsthand.

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