schema-management.md

Schema Management

txc provides a comprehensive set of commands for managing Dataverse schema — entities (tables), attributes (columns), relationships, and option sets — directly from the command line. All schema commands live under txc environment entity (alias: txc env entity).

Every mutating schema command extends StagedCliCommand, so it accepts either --apply (execute immediately) or --stage (queue for batch apply). See changeset-staging.md for details on the staging workflow.

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Table of Contents

• Entity CRUD
• Attribute CRUD
  • Attribute types
  • Type-specific parameters
• Attribute Type Introspection
• Relationship Commands
• OptionSet Commands

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Entity CRUD

txc env entity create

Creates a new Dataverse entity (table). Uses the CreateEntities batch API internally when staged — see dataverse-metadata-performance.md.

Option	Required	Default	Description
--name	Yes	—	Logical name (including publisher prefix)
--display-name	Yes	—	Display name shown in the UI
--plural-name	Yes	—	Plural display name
--description	No	—	Entity description
--solution	No	—	Solution unique name to add the entity to
--ownership	No	user	user or organization
--type	No	standard	Entity type (standard, etc.)
--has-notes	No	false	Enable notes (annotations)
--has-activities	No	false	Enable activity associations
--enable-audit	No	false	Enable auditing
--enable-change-tracking	No	false	Enable change tracking

txc env entity create --name tom_project \
  --display-name "Project" --plural-name "Projects" \
  --ownership user --has-notes --enable-audit --apply

txc env entity get

Retrieves detailed metadata for a single entity.

Argument/Option	Required	Description
entity (positional)	Yes	Entity logical name

txc env entity get account

txc env entity update

Updates an existing entity's display metadata. At least one of the optional flags must be provided.

Option	Required	Description
--entity	Yes	Entity logical name
--display-name	No	New display name
--plural-name	No	New plural display name
--description	No	New description

txc env entity update --entity tom_project --display-name "Initiative" --apply

txc env entity delete

Deletes an entity from the environment. Destructive — requires --yes to skip confirmation.

Option	Required	Description
--entity	Yes	Entity logical name
--yes	No	Skip confirmation prompt

txc env entity delete --entity tom_project --yes --apply

txc env entity list

Lists entities in the environment.

Option	Required	Default	Description
--search	No	—	Filter entities by name substring
--include-system	No	false	Include system entities

txc env entity list --search project

txc env entity describe

Shows a detailed description of an entity's schema — attributes, relationships, and metadata.

Argument/Option	Required	Default	Description
entity (positional)	Yes	—	Entity logical name
--include-system	No	false	Include system-managed attributes

txc env entity describe account --include-system

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Attribute CRUD

txc env entity attribute create

Creates a new attribute (column) on an entity. The --type flag determines which type-specific parameters are available.

Common options (all types):

Argument/Option	Required	Default	Description
<entity> (positional)	Yes	—	Target entity logical name
--name	Yes	—	Attribute logical name
--type	Yes	—	Attribute type (see types)
--display-name	No	—	Display name
--description	No	—	Description
--required	No	none	Requirement level: none, recommended, required
--solution	No	—	Solution unique name
--is-auditable	No	false	Enable auditing
--is-searchable	No	true	Include in quick-find/relevance search
--is-secured	No	false	Enable field-level security

Attribute types

Type value	Description
string	Single-line text
memo	Multi-line text
number	Whole number (integer)
decimal	Decimal number
float	Floating-point number
money	Currency
bool	Yes/No (two-option)
datetime	Date and time
choice	Single-select option set
multichoice	Multi-select option set
lookup	Single-entity lookup
polymorphic-lookup	Multi-table lookup
customer	Customer lookup (account + contact)
image	Image column
file	File column
bigint	Big integer

Type-specific parameters

String / Memo:

Option	Default	Description
--max-length	—	Maximum character length
--string-format	—	Format hint (e.g. email, url, phone)

Number (whole number):

Option	Default	Description
--min-value	—	Minimum value
--max-value	—	Maximum value
--number-format	—	Display format

Decimal / Float / Money:

Option	Default	Description
--min-value	—	Minimum value
--max-value	—	Maximum value
--precision	—	Number of decimal places
--precision-source	—	Precision source (money only)

Bool:

Option	Default	Description
--true-label	Yes	Label for the true value
--false-label	No	Label for the false value

DateTime:

Option	Default	Description
--datetime-format	—	dateonly or dateandtime
--datetime-behavior	—	uselocal, utc, or timezoneneutral

Choice / Multichoice:

Option	Default	Description
--options	—	Comma-separated list of option labels (creates a local option set)
--global-optionset	—	Name of an existing global option set to bind

Lookup:

Option	Default	Description
--target-entity	—	Target entity logical name
--cascade-delete	removelink	Cascade delete behaviour

Polymorphic Lookup:

Option	Default	Description
--target-entities	—	Comma-separated target entity logical names

Customer: No additional options — automatically targets account and contact.

Image:

Option	Default	Description
--max-size-kb	—	Maximum image size in KB
--can-store-full-image	true	Store full-resolution image

File:

Option	Default	Description
--max-size-kb	—	Maximum file size in KB

BigInt: No additional type-specific options.

# String attribute
txc env entity attribute create tom_project \
  --name tom_code --type string --display-name "Code" \
  --max-length 20 --required required --apply

# Money attribute
txc env entity attribute create tom_project \
  --name tom_budget --type money --display-name "Budget" \
  --precision 2 --apply

# Lookup attribute
txc env entity attribute create tom_project \
  --name tom_accountid --type lookup --display-name "Account" \
  --target-entity account --apply

# Choice attribute
txc env entity attribute create tom_project \
  --name tom_priority --type choice --display-name "Priority" \
  --options "Low,Medium,High,Critical" --apply

txc env entity attribute get

Retrieves detailed metadata for a single attribute.

Argument/Option	Required	Description
<entity> (positional)	Yes	Entity logical name
--name	Yes	Attribute logical name

txc env entity attribute get account --name name

txc env entity attribute update

Updates an existing attribute's display metadata.

Argument/Option	Required	Description
<entity> (positional)	Yes	Entity logical name
--name	Yes	Attribute logical name
--display-name	No	New display name
--description	No	New description
--required	No	New requirement level

Note: Updating RequiredLevel uses a Web API PUT (full replacement) internally, because the SDK's UpdateAttributeRequest silently ignores RequiredLevel changes. See dataverse-metadata-performance.md for details.

txc env entity attribute update account --name name \
  --required required --apply

txc env entity attribute delete

Deletes an attribute. Destructive — requires --yes.

Argument/Option	Required	Description
<entity> (positional)	Yes	Entity logical name
--name	Yes	Attribute logical name
--yes	No	Skip confirmation prompt

txc env entity attribute delete tom_project --name tom_code --yes --apply

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Attribute Type Introspection

These commands help MCP clients and interactive users discover available attribute types and their parameters.

txc env entity attribute type list

Lists all supported attribute types.

txc env entity attribute type list

txc env entity attribute type describe

Outputs a JSON schema describing the parameters for a specific attribute type. Useful for MCP tool integration where clients need to know which options apply to a given type.

Argument	Required	Description
type (positional)	Yes	Attribute type name (e.g. string, lookup)

txc env entity attribute type describe lookup

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Relationship Commands

Manage many-to-many (N:N) relationships between entities.

txc env entity relationship create

Creates a new N:N relationship.

Option	Required	Description
--entity1	Yes	First entity logical name
--entity2	Yes	Second entity logical name
--name	Yes	Relationship schema name
--display-name	No	Display name

txc env entity relationship create \
  --entity1 tom_project --entity2 account \
  --name tom_project_account --display-name "Project Accounts" --apply

txc env entity relationship list

Lists relationships for an entity.

Option	Required	Description
--entity	Yes	Entity logical name

txc env entity relationship list --entity account

txc env entity relationship delete

Deletes a relationship. Destructive — requires --yes.

Option	Required	Description
--name	Yes	Relationship schema name
--yes	No	Skip confirmation prompt

txc env entity relationship delete --name tom_project_account --yes --apply

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OptionSet Commands

Manage global option sets and individual options on both local and global option sets.

txc env entity optionset global create

Creates a new global option set.

Option	Required	Description
--name	Yes	Schema name
--display-name	Yes	Display name
--options	Yes	Comma-separated list of option labels
--description	No	Description
--solution	No	Solution unique name

txc env entity optionset global create \
  --name tom_priority --display-name "Priority" \
  --options "Low,Medium,High,Critical" --apply

txc env entity optionset global delete

Deletes a global option set. Destructive — requires --yes.

Option	Required	Description
--name	Yes	Global option set name
--yes	No	Skip confirmation prompt

txc env entity optionset global list

Lists all global option sets in the environment.

txc env entity optionset global list

txc env entity optionset option add

Adds an option to a local or global option set. Target the option set by providing either --entity + --attribute (local) or --global-optionset (global).

Option	Required	Description
--entity	No*	Entity logical name (for local option set)
--attribute	No*	Attribute logical name (for local option set)
--global-optionset	No*	Global option set name
--label	Yes	Label for the new option
--value	No	Explicit integer value (auto-assigned if omitted)

* Provide either --entity + --attribute or --global-optionset.

txc env entity optionset option add \
  --global-optionset tom_priority --label "Urgent" --apply

txc env entity optionset option delete

Removes an option from a local or global option set. Destructive — requires --yes.

Option	Required	Description
--entity	No*	Entity logical name (for local option set)
--attribute	No*	Attribute logical name (for local option set)
--global-optionset	No*	Global option set name
--value	Yes	Integer value of the option to remove
--yes	No	Skip confirmation prompt