b2c-sandbox_skill

Overview

This skill provides commands to create, manage, and inspect Salesforce B2C Commerce on-demand sandboxes (ODS) using the b2c CLI. It streamlines provisioning development instances, controlling lifecycle actions (start/stop/restart/delete), and checking sandbox status. The skill supports both UUID and realm-instance ID formats and includes options for permissions, OCAPI settings, TTL, and schedulers.

How this skill works

The skill issues b2c CLI sandbox commands to list, create, inspect, start, stop, restart, and delete sandboxes. It accepts full UUIDs or realm-instance identifiers (realm_code-instanceNumber); when given the realm-instance format the CLI resolves the corresponding UUID automatically. Destructive actions (create/delete) require explicit user confirmation and may be billable.

When to use it

• Provision a new development sandbox for testing or feature work.
• Start or stop sandboxes to control costs or resource usage.
• Restart a sandbox to recover from transient issues.
• Check sandbox state, hostname, or other metadata before deployments.
• Delete expired or unused sandboxes after confirming backups or exports.

Best practices

• Only create or delete sandboxes when explicitly requested to avoid unexpected charges or data loss.
• Prefer realm-instance shorthand (zzzz-123) for quick lookups; the CLI will map to UUIDs automatically.
• Use --json and --wait when automating pipelines to capture structured output and block until completion.
• Configure permissions and OCAPI settings explicitly if your integration requires custom access.
• Use TTL and scheduler options to limit run time and automate start/stop windows to save costs.

Example use cases

• Create a medium sandbox for a short-lived feature branch with a 4-hour TTL: b2c sandbox create --realm zzpq --ttl 4 --wait --json.
• Start an existing sandbox before running integration tests: b2c sandbox start zzzv-123.
• Stop unused sandboxes overnight via the start/stop scheduler to reduce charges.
• List sandboxes filtered by state and creator to audit active development instances.
• Delete a sandbox after a release, confirming the action to prevent data loss: b2c sandbox delete zzzv-123 --force.