Configure Lifecycle Center (formerly next-generation DevOps Center) to manage your release management lifecycle. Review the prerequisites, access the feature, manage users, and set up your projects and pipelines.
Before you begin, review the set up considerations and make sure that you have these resources:
- A source control provider account. See Creating an account on GitHub or Sign up for a Bitbuck account.
- (Optional) To use Lifecycle Center Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools in the Salesforce DX MCP Server:
- An MCP-enabled IDE, such as Agentforce Vibes IDE or VS Code.
- A user-facing MCP client, such as the Agentforce Vibes Extension.
For information about setting up DevOps Center using managed package, see Install and Configure DevOps Center.
- Access Lifecycle Center
Lifecycle Center is enabled by default in your Salesforce org, so you don't have to turn it on. You can open it directly from the App Launcher. The first time you open it, accept the DX Tools terms and conditions. - Add Team Members as Users in the Lifecycle Center Hub Org
Add any team members who need access to Lifecycle Center Hub org. For each team member, specify the appropriate license and profile based on their role. - Assign Lifecycle Center Permission Sets
Grant team members access to Lifecycle Center features and workflows by assigning the appropriate permission sets. - Source Control Setup
Lifecycle Center uses your source control as the single source of truth for all metadata and configuration data changes across your pipeline. A repository stores your project work files, including code, text, images, and so on. - Exclude Metadata with the .forceignore File
Use the .forceignore file to exclude files or metadata types that you don’t want to commit to the source control or deploy to the target org in your release pipeline. This file makes sure that DX Inspector and Lifecycle Center don’t push or pull unnecessary files, such as IDE configuration files, local test data, or specific profiles, from the development environment. - Create a Lifecycle Center Project
Create a project to serve as the central workspace for your team’s change management collaboration. - Build Your Pipeline
Define the sequence of stages for your release lifecycle by building a pipeline in Lifecycle Center. - Create and Assign Work Items
Use work items to track the progress of changes related to specific objectives, such as user stories or issue fixes. Work items help teams manage changes and releases by providing visibility into the status and progress of changes. - Integrate Agentforce Vibes IDE with Lifecycle Center
Agentforce Vibes IDE provides a modern developer experience and comes with everything you need to work with Salesforce DX MCP Server and Lifecycle Center tools (previously DevOps Center tools). We recommend setting up Agentforce Vibes IDE if you want to experience the capabilities of the MCP server.