How Gearset resolves merge conflicts for Salesforce teams

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Description

Git wasn’t built for Salesforce metadata. When your metadata is stored as XML, Git can’t tell the difference between genuine conflicts and false positives that waste your team’s time.

High-traffic components like profiles and layouts trigger false conflicts constantly. Different developers touch the same file, or XML elements appear in a different order. These aren’t real conflicts, but standard Git approaches treat them like they are.

Gearset’s semantic merge understands Salesforce metadata at a structural level. Instead of flagging every XML difference, it recognizes what actually matters and auto-resolves what doesn’t.

This walkthrough shows how Gearset handles conflict resolution intelligently:

  • Auto-resolving independent changes (like two developers adding different fields to the same profile)
  • Ignoring non-functional differences (like reordered XML elements)
  • Flagging genuine conflicts that need your attention (like the same field added to different positions in a layout)
  • Resolving conflicts directly in the Gearset UI with side-by-side visibility
  • Remembering your resolution choices and applying them automatically in future promotions

You won’t jump between external IDEs or command line tools. Everything happens in one place with full transparency and control.

If your team spends hours untangling false conflicts every week, Gearset’s semantic merge gives that time back. You can focus on shipping features with confidence.

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Transcript

Hi there. In today's demo, we're gonna take a quick look at how Gearset can help teams to spend less time untangling XML and chasing false conflicts, and instead spend more time on shipping features with confidence.

The problem with standard merge conflict handling is that Salesforce metadata is stored as XML, and Git isn't built to differentiate between genuine conflicts and those that aren't really conflicts at all.

High-traffic components such as profiles and layouts that are touched by several users or reordered XML are common examples of elements that trigger false conflicts when nothing has actually happened.

Gearset employs semantic merge technology to understand Salesforce metadata at a structural level, dramatically reducing conflicts with transparency, ensuring that you're firmly kept in control at all times.

Gearset approaches conflict resolution either by auto resolving, ignoring, or flagging. For example, if two developers add fields to the same profile, Gearset's semantic merge resolution recognizes the independent additions and merges automatically, or if the XML elements appear in a different order, Gearset knows the order doesn't matter and can proceed without flagging a conflict.

As we can see here, Gearset has run a check for any conflicts and has given me the green tick, no conflicts here.

However, in those circumstances where there is a genuine conflict, such as the same field being added to a layout in different positions, Gearset flags that this real conflict will cause a validation error and then will provide precise conflict resolution to prevent any downstream errors.

In this example, two different developers have made changes to the same field. Of course, there can only be one true value, so Gearset has flagged that there is a conflict for us to resolve.

Unlike tools that force you to resolve conflicts in external IDEs or command line, Gearset handles everything in one place within the Gearset UI with full side-by-side visibility of the conflicted differences.

You have the ability to precisely choose which sections to resolve between the conflicting branches, And once your resolution is made, Gearset remembers your resolution and automatically suggest the same fix for any subsequent promotions.

In this way, Gearset helps to streamline the conflict resolution process whilst maintaining visibility, control, and consistency across your entire release process.

Thank you for watching this demo on how gearset manages conflict resolution.