Manifest
The XML file that tells the Metadata API exactly which components to retrieve or deploy.
Definition
A manifest is the XML file the Metadata API reads to know which components an operation should touch. package.xml lists what to retrieve or deploy; destructiveChangesPre.xml and destructiveChangesPost.xml list what to remove, before or after the rest of the deployment runs. Anything not named in a manifest is left untouched, so a missing entry is a silent gap rather than an error. Metadata-format tooling, the older Ant Migration Tool and raw Metadata API calls, requires a manifest for every operation; source-format tooling built around sfdx-project.json can infer what to retrieve or deploy from folder structure instead, though a manifest is still generated under the hood for the actual API call. Hand-maintaining a manifest for each release is a common source of missed components as a team scales past a couple of environments. See our metadata management guide for how teams typically outgrow manual manifests.
How it works in Serpent
Serpent builds the manifest for every deployment automatically from the metadata a task actually touched, tracked rather than hand-typed, so a component can't get silently left off a release. Destructive entries generate the same way when a task removes metadata, with pre- or post-deploy ordering resolved for you. See release management in Serpent for how manifests are scoped behind the scenes.
Manifest, answered
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