Group Metadata Type Reference

The Group metadata type represents a Public Group in Salesforce. Introduced in API version 24.0, Public Groups are foundational building blocks for SharingRules, Queue memberships, ListView visibility (sharedTo), and Report/Dashboard folder sharing.

In Salesforce DX projects, public groups are stored in force-app/main/default/groups/ with the .group-meta.xml suffix.

Why doesIncludeBosses Is Critical for Enterprise Scale#

Every Group includes a <doesIncludeBosses> boolean flag corresponding to Grant Access Using Hierarchies in Setup:

• When true (default), any record shared with the Public Group is also implicitly shared with every manager above the group’s members in the Role hierarchy.
• When false, record access stops strictly at the members of the group. In large enterprises with deep role hierarchies, setting <doesIncludeBosses>false</doesIncludeBosses> on exception or project-based Public Groups dramatically reduces the number of implicit group maintenance rows Salesforce has to recalculate during user role moves.

Key Metadata Fields#

Production-Grade XML Example#

Below is a Group definition (Tier_3_Support_Engineers.group-meta.xml) with hierarchy inheritance disabled to restrict sensitive incident records strictly to group members:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Group xmlns="http://soap.sforce.com/2006/04/metadata">
    <description>Restricted incident response group for Tier 3 escalation engineers. Hierarchy inheritance disabled per InfoSec policy.</description>
    <doesIncludeBosses>false</doesIncludeBosses>
    <name>Tier 3 Support Engineers</name>
</Group>

Querying Public Groups and Members with SOQL#

In the Salesforce database, Public Groups are stored in the Group object with Type = 'Regular':

-- 1. List all Public Groups and whether they grant access using hierarchies
SELECT Id, Name, DeveloperName, DoesIncludeBosses, CreatedDate
FROM Group
WHERE Type = 'Regular'
ORDER BY Name ASC

-- 2. Query all members (Users, Roles, or nested Groups) inside a Public Group
SELECT Id, GroupId, Group.DeveloperName, UserOrGroupId
FROM GroupMember
WHERE Group.Type = 'Regular'
  AND Group.DeveloperName = 'Tier_3_Support_Engineers'

Frequently asked questions

Why does the Group metadata file not contain a list of group members?

Salesforce excludes group members from Group metadata XML so that deploying a Public Group across sandboxes and production does not fail on environment-specific User IDs. Group membership is managed via GroupMember records in the database.

What is the impact of setting doesIncludeBosses to false on a Group?

Setting doesIncludeBosses (Grant Access Using Hierarchies) to false prevents managers higher in the Role Hierarchy from automatically inheriting access to records shared with the Public Group, and also speeds up Sharing Recalculation performance.

How do I query Public Groups vs Queues in the Group standard object?

In SOQL, query the Group object with WHERE Type = 'Regular' to return Public Groups, or WHERE Type = 'Queue' to return Queues.

When was the description field added to Group metadata?

The description field on Group metadata was introduced in API version 62.0 (Winter '25) so architects can document the purpose and governance owner of each Public Group.

Can a Public Group be a member of another Public Group or Queue?

Yes. A Public Group can be nested inside another Public Group or assigned to a Queue via queueMembers, allowing you to manage access in one central group.