Summary
Add support for comparing assets between branches and exporting/importing only the assets that are missing or different. This would provide an asset workflow similar to the existing content compare/merge functionality.
Problem
The Contentstack CLI currently provides excellent support for comparing and merging content between branches, but there is no equivalent workflow for assets.
Today, if assets are missing from a target branch, the only option is to:
- Export all assets from the source branch.
- Import the entire asset export into the target branch.
For stacks with thousands of assets, this process is inefficient because:
- Exporting every asset can take a significant amount of time.
- Importing every asset is unnecessary when only a few assets are actually missing.
- CI/CD pipelines become slower due to the extra processing.
- Developers must manually determine which assets need to be synchronized.
This results in an all-or-nothing workflow that doesn't scale well for larger Contentstack implementations.
Proposed Solution
Introduce branch-aware asset comparison and targeted asset export/import functionality.
1. Compare Assets Between Branches
Provide a command similar to the existing content compare functionality.
csdx cm:branches:assets:compare \
--source development \
--target release
Example output:
Comparing assets...
✓ 8,421 assets exist in source
✓ 8,397 assets exist in target
Missing in target:
- hero-homepage.jpg
- service-icons.zip
- emergency-water.webp
- marketing/logo-dark.svg
Modified:
- brochure.pdf
Summary:
Missing: 24
Modified: 1
2. Export Only Missing or Modified Assets
Allow exporting only the assets identified during the comparison.
Example:
csdx cm:assets:export \
--branch development \
--compare release \
--missing-only \
--output assets.zip
or
csdx cm:branches:assets:export-diff \
--source development \
--target release \
--output assets.zip
This would generate an export package containing only the assets that need to be synchronized.
3. Import into the Target Branch
Import only those assets into the destination branch.
csdx cm:assets:import \
--branch release \
--file assets.zip
Since the export contains only the required assets, the import is significantly faster and avoids unnecessary processing.
Benefits
- Eliminates exporting thousands of unchanged assets.
- Greatly reduces import times.
- Makes asset synchronization consistent with the existing content compare/merge workflow.
- Improves developer productivity.
- Better supports CI/CD and automated deployment pipelines.
- Reduces unnecessary API calls and processing overhead.
- Scales much better for enterprise stacks with large asset libraries.
Example Workflow
Source Branch (development)
│
│
▼
Compare Assets
│
▼
Identify Missing / Modified Assets
│
▼
Export Only Required Assets
│
▼
assets.zip
│
▼
Import into Target Branch (release)
Optional Enhancements
Additional flags that could make this feature even more powerful:
--missing-only--modified-only--deleted--dry-run--json output for CI/CD automation--overwrite--include-folders--include-references- Interactive mode to review assets before exporting
Why This Matters
The existing branch compare and merge functionality for content is one of the strongest features of the CLI. Bringing the same experience to assets would create a much more complete branch management workflow.
Many organizations have asset libraries containing tens of thousands of files, while only a handful of assets change between releases. Requiring a full export and import for every synchronization is unnecessarily time-consuming and resource-intensive.
A branch-aware asset comparison with targeted export/import would significantly improve the developer experience, reduce deployment times, and make Contentstack CLI more efficient for large-scale implementations.
Summary
Add support for comparing assets between branches and exporting/importing only the assets that are missing or different. This would provide an asset workflow similar to the existing content compare/merge functionality.
Problem
The Contentstack CLI currently provides excellent support for comparing and merging content between branches, but there is no equivalent workflow for assets.
Today, if assets are missing from a target branch, the only option is to:
For stacks with thousands of assets, this process is inefficient because:
This results in an all-or-nothing workflow that doesn't scale well for larger Contentstack implementations.
Proposed Solution
Introduce branch-aware asset comparison and targeted asset export/import functionality.
1. Compare Assets Between Branches
Provide a command similar to the existing content compare functionality.
Example output:
2. Export Only Missing or Modified Assets
Allow exporting only the assets identified during the comparison.
Example:
or
This would generate an export package containing only the assets that need to be synchronized.
3. Import into the Target Branch
Import only those assets into the destination branch.
Since the export contains only the required assets, the import is significantly faster and avoids unnecessary processing.
Benefits
Example Workflow
Optional Enhancements
Additional flags that could make this feature even more powerful:
--missing-only--modified-only--deleted--dry-run--jsonoutput for CI/CD automation--overwrite--include-folders--include-referencesWhy This Matters
The existing branch compare and merge functionality for content is one of the strongest features of the CLI. Bringing the same experience to assets would create a much more complete branch management workflow.
Many organizations have asset libraries containing tens of thousands of files, while only a handful of assets change between releases. Requiring a full export and import for every synchronization is unnecessarily time-consuming and resource-intensive.
A branch-aware asset comparison with targeted export/import would significantly improve the developer experience, reduce deployment times, and make Contentstack CLI more efficient for large-scale implementations.