CLIs: How They Unlock Your Data To Deliver What You Actually Want

Salesforce. The CRM we all love to hate. Official owner of Slack. An entire ecosystem designed to keep you locked in forever, and an industry of apps and developers to keep the wheels churning, and your frustrations building.

But there is a glimmer of hope for any SMB that has fallen into this trap.

Salesforce CLI + Claude Code = Access to the underlying data models + SOQL Queries

Whats a CLI?

Command Line Interface. Pretty much a program that runs within a Command Terminal.

They are used as a developer tool to access the underlying data / functions / features via authentication.

An important note though...I would highly recommend to not use Claude Code directly with the Salesforce CLI as a novice. You might want some hooks in place to only allow it use certain 'queries'.

Use Claude Code to understand how to interact with it, to understand the data that comes out of it, and how to create SQL queries (SOQL) that allow you to shape the data you way you want.

The Unlock For You

The UX of Salesforce is janky as f@%k. This is typical though of any large enterprise platform that needs extreme customisation. You can't get beauty this way, so I have no hate for Salesforce PMs, Engineers, Designers..it is what it is.

Your modern apps striped back is just a visualisation layer that allows you to make adjustments through structured workflows.

Salesforce and it's partners would have you believe that you need an app built within their ecosystem, requiring a large investment and commitment. My recent experience with a client suggests otherwise.

The only thing stopping you today from being able to create your own app or reports using your data in Salesforce is skill and experience.

With the Salesforce CLI, Claude Code and enough practical knowledge of databases, data models, basic app infrastructure, and what your data means in Salesforce you can:

• Create an internal application

• Wrap the data of your app in a MCP and expose that to internal agents / platforms like Claude Cowork

Hey presto, you now have an agentic application.

How Do I Know This Is Possible?

Because I've just done it.

I haven't had much exposure to Salesforce in the past. Here's the timeline of events:

March 18th 2026

• Client asked for an Ops Dashboard. The data to drive it was in Salesforce and the reports / features they wanted to achieve were not possible out of the box.

March 19th 2026

• I was given access to their Salesforce Org. I explored their data via the Salesforce CLI.

• Started creating a prototype of what they asked.

March 22nd 2026

• Demonstrated working app to start iterating on

What makes this journey wild so wild to me

From request to first working iteration was less than a week.

All I needed was access to the underlying data models and tables. Once I had that, it was all about shaping that data to match what the client was after.

I didn't need detailed requirements either.

They had an idea, we explored it, and we have refined it together.

This is the way. In the past, product and engineering might have tired to protect itself by setting a 'high bar' in getting the requirements nailed before we move forward.

Today, you just need the sandbox to start playing in and start refining the detail as you go.

Launching in April

I've really enjoyed the creativity I've injected into this project, and how nothing really seems 'too difficult' as you progressively uncover and explore what your partners are trying to achieve.

With Salesforce as it's source, I'll be launching this project in April and making life a little easier for a great partner.

The CLI allowed me explore that underlying data, and create SOQL queries that will be used via Salesforce APIs. Highly recommend not to use the CLI directly in any application you're making.

Closing Note

If you're tired of Salesforce not delivering what you really need, let's get in touch! It's easier than you think.