Sf Connected Apps

sf-connected-apps: Salesforce Connected Apps & External Client Apps

Use this skill when the user needs OAuth app configuration in Salesforce: Connected Apps, External Client Apps (ECAs), JWT bearer setup, PKCE decisions, scope design, or migration from older Connected App patterns to newer ECA patterns.

Brite Context

Brite's integration auth landscape sits mid-migration. Spring '26 disabled org-wide creation of classic Connected Apps (SF Support re-enable required — treated as temporary migration runway), so every net-new OAuth app must be an ExternalClientApplication. Current inventory:

• Marketing_Claude_MCP — Brite's first pure ECA, provisioned post-Spring-'26 per BC-5579. Plugin-side MCP runtime access. JWT bearer. Scopes Api + RefreshToken. refreshTokenPolicy: zero. Private key in the Engineering Bitwarden collection.
• Outbound_Sales_Ops — live runtime integration writing CF-owned fields on Lead/Contact. Legacy ConnectedApp auto-wrapped with an ECA settings file during the Spring '26 migration — NOT a pure ECA. Parent .connectedApp-meta.xml + wrapper .eca-meta.xml. JWT bearer. isAdminApproved=true, refreshTokenPolicy=zero, ipRelaxation=ENFORCE.
• CI_Deploy — ECA committed but inactive ("compliance-posture-only"). CI does NOT use this app. GitHub Actions deploys authenticate via SFDX_AUTH_URL under Salesforce's built-in PlatformCLI Connected App.
• OutboundSync — separate sync path.

Credential home: Engineering Bitwarden collection. Naming convention and binding rule in Convention 7.

See also: brite-salesforce/CLAUDE.md §External Client Apps, docs/research/salesforce-mcp-findings.md Q3 + Appendix B.1, and memory gotcha_spring26_ca_blocked.

Brite ECA Conventions

These rules bind any sf-connected-apps work done in a Brite repo. Violations block PR review.

1. Use ExternalClientApplication for new OAuth apps. Classic ConnectedApp creation is disabled org-wide since Spring '26. Even for a simple single-org app, use the ECA metadata type. The upstream "First Decision" table below still lists Connected App as preferred for some cases — treat those rows as upstream reference only; at Brite the answer is always ECA.

2. JWT-via-SFDX-CLI flow requires BOTH Api and RefreshToken scopes. The sf org login jwt command persists auth records in ~/.sfdx/ and needs RefreshToken for that persistence — drop it and JWT exchange fails with "refresh_token scope is required." Pure JWT exchange at a non-CLI runtime (e.g. a Python MCP calling the token endpoint directly) does NOT require RefreshToken — apply the scope requirement where SFDX handles the handshake, not universally. Source: docs/research/salesforce-mcp-findings.md Q3 lines 50-52.

3. Set refreshTokenPolicy: zero on ECA OAuth policies (lowercase zero). The Salesforce XML enum is lowercase — see assets/connected-app-jwt.xml and the infinite | zero | specific_lifetime enumeration in assets/eca-policies.xml. Uppercase ZERO will not validate. Belt-and-suspenders against long-lived refresh tokens even when clients mis-request them; default for new ECAs unless a flow documents a specific persistence need in its PR.

4. Exclude ExtlClntAppOauthSettings via .forceignore for sandbox deploys. The file embeds an org-specific oauthLink (OrgId:ConsumerRecordId) that does not resolve cross-org. Excluded alongside the ExternalClientApplication type for sandbox work; temporarily comment the exclusions out before running a production deploy, then re-enable. The canonical toggle procedure lives in sf-deploy.

5. JWT-from-ECA breaks sf org create scratch. Upstream bugs: forcedotcom/cli#3025, forcedotcom/cli#3482. Scratch-org creation rejects JWT sessions authenticated against ECAs. Workaround: authenticate via SFDX_AUTH_URL through the CLI's built-in PlatformCLI Connected App for scratch-org provisioning. Runtime MCP calls are unaffected.

6. CI auth is SFDX_AUTH_URL via built-in PlatformCLI — not CI_Deploy. The CI_Deploy ECA in source is compliance-posture-only (committed but inactive). GitHub Actions deploys authenticate via an SFDX_AUTH_URL secret loaded into the CLI's built-in PlatformCLI Connected App. Runtime MCP access goes through JWT against Marketing_Claude_MCP. Don't repurpose CI_Deploy without explicit ADR approval — the blast-radius story depends on the CI path and runtime path staying independent.

7. All ECA secrets live in the Engineering Bitwarden collection, never in source. JWT private keys and consumer secrets are stored with item names <ECAName> — JWT private key and <ECAName> — consumer secret. Per-user distribution is out-of-band. Never commit, never echo to logs, never put in env templates with real values.

When This Skill Owns the Task

Use sf-connected-apps when the work involves:

• .connectedApp-meta.xml or .eca-meta.xml files
• OAuth flow selection and callback / scope setup
• JWT bearer auth, device flow, client credentials, or auth-code decisions
• Connected App vs External Client App architecture choices
• consumer-key / secret / certificate handling strategy

Delegate elsewhere when the user is:

• configuring Named Credentials or runtime callouts → sf-integration
• analyzing access / permission policy assignments → sf-permissions
• writing Apex token-handling code → sf-apex
• deploying metadata to orgs → sf-deploy

First Decision: Connected App or External Client App

At Brite: always ECA. See § Brite ECA Conventions rule 1. The table and default guidance below are upstream reference only — rows recommending Connected App do not apply in Brite repos because Spring '26 blocks new Connected App creation org-wide.

Default guidance:

• choose ECA for new regulated, packageable, or automation-heavy solutions
• choose Connected App when simplicity and legacy compatibility matter more
• Spring ’26 note: creation of new Connected Apps is disabled org-wide (SF Support re-enable required, treated as temporary migration runway). At Brite, always use ECA — see Brite ECA Conventions rule 1.

Required Context to Gather First

Ask for or infer:

• app type: Connected App or ECA
• OAuth flow: auth code, PKCE, JWT bearer, device, client credentials
• client type: confidential vs public
• callback URLs / redirect surfaces
• required scopes
• distribution model: local org only vs packageable / multi-org
• whether certificates or secret rotation are required

Recommended Workflow

1. Choose the app model

Decide whether a Connected App or ECA is the better long-term fit.

2. Choose the OAuth flow

3. Start from the right template

Use the provided assets instead of building from scratch:

• assets/connected-app-basic.xml
• assets/connected-app-oauth.xml
• assets/connected-app-jwt.xml
• assets/external-client-app.xml
• assets/eca-global-oauth.xml
• assets/eca-oauth-settings.xml
• assets/eca-policies.xml

If you need source-controlled ECA OAuth security metadata, retrieve it from an org first and treat the retrieved file as the schema source of truth:

• sf project retrieve start --metadata ExtlClntAppOauthSecuritySettings:<AppName> --target-org <alias>

4. Apply security hardening

Favor:

• least-privilege scopes
• explicit callback URLs
• PKCE for public clients
• certificate-based auth where appropriate
• rotation-ready secret / key handling
• IP restrictions when realistic and maintainable

5. Validate deployment readiness

Before handoff, confirm:

• metadata file naming is correct
• scopes are justified
• callback and auth model match the real client type
• secrets are not embedded in source

High-Signal Security Rules

Avoid these anti-patterns:

Default fix direction:

• narrow scopes
• constrain callbacks
• enable PKCE for public clients
• keep secrets outside version control
• use JWT certificates or controlled secret storage where appropriate

Metadata Notes That Matter

Connected App

Usually lives under:

• force-app/main/default/connectedApps/

External Client App

Current source-supported ECA metadata uses multiple top-level source directories, not a single externalClientApps/ folder:

• force-app/main/default/externalClientApps/ → ExternalClientApplication (.eca-meta.xml)
• force-app/main/default/extlClntAppGlobalOauthSets/ → ExtlClntAppGlobalOauthSettings (.ecaGlblOauth-meta.xml)
• force-app/main/default/extlClntAppOauthSettings/ → ExtlClntAppOauthSettings (.ecaOauth-meta.xml)
• force-app/main/default/extlClntAppOauthSecuritySettings/ → ExtlClntAppOauthSecuritySettings (.ecaOauthSecurity-meta.xml)
• force-app/main/default/extlClntAppOauthPolicies/ → ExtlClntAppOauthConfigurablePolicies (.ecaOauthPlcy-meta.xml)
• force-app/main/default/extlClntAppPolicies/ → ExtlClntAppConfigurablePolicies (.ecaPlcy-meta.xml)

Important file-name gotchas:

• the global OAuth suffix is .ecaGlblOauth, not .ecaGlobalOauth
• the general policy suffix is .ecaPlcy, not .ecaPolicy
• use .ecaOauthSecurity for ExtlClntAppOauthSecuritySettings

Output Format

When finishing, report in this order:

1. App type chosen
2. OAuth flow chosen
3. Files created or updated
4. Security decisions
5. Next deployment / testing step

Suggested shape:

App: <name>
Type: Connected App | External Client App
Flow: <oauth flow>
Files: <paths>
Security: <scopes, PKCE, certs, secrets, IP policy>
Next step: <deploy, retrieve consumer key, or test auth flow>

Cross-Skill Integration

Reference Map

Start here

• references/oauth-flows-reference.md
• references/security-checklist.md
• references/testing-validation-guide.md

Migration / examples

• references/migration-guide.md
• references/example-usage.md
• assets/

Score Guide