Searching inside metadata
Content search greps through the source of every component in a capture. It answers the question that Salesforce Setup can't: "which metadata actually uses this field / this URL / this label?"
Running a search
- Open a capture and switch the metadata browser to search mode.
- Type what you're looking for — a field API name, an endpoint URL, a hard-coded value, anything that would appear in metadata source.
- Results list every component containing the text, with a snippet around each match. Click one to open the component with the match highlighted.
[SCREENSHOT REQUIRED: Content search results with match snippets and highlighting]
The first search on a large capture builds a search index in the background — you may see it working for a few seconds. Once built, searches on that capture return almost instantly.
What to use it for
- Impact analysis before deleting a field — search the field's API name; every Flow, formula, layout, and Apex class that references it shows up. An empty result is your green light.
- Hunting hard-coded values — record Ids, URLs, or emails baked into automations.
- Integration audits — search an endpoint domain to find every callout and named credential touching it.
- Where is this label used? — find the component behind a UI text users are asking about.
Search vs. Ask AI
Content search finds literal text, exhaustively. The Org Assistant answers questions, selectively. "List everything referencing Legacy_ID__c" is a search; "is it safe to delete Legacy_ID__c and what would break?" is a question for the assistant — which will run the same search for you and then read the results.