cds.tools

What It Is

CDS.Tools (also known as Xrm.Tools) is a set of online development and customization utilities for Microsoft Dataverse/Dynamics 365. Its goal is to make app customization, environment analysis, and development troubleshooting easier. It is not a general-purpose IDE; instead, it provides a collection of lightweight tools centered around Dataverse platform objects.

Core Features and Ecosystem

Based on the available text, its core features include quickly downloading the latest Dataverse/Dynamics 365 SDK Tools, viewing all Business Rules in an environment, viewing and comparing Security Roles, and checking a user’s combined roles. Server Trigger Explorer can be used to explore Business Rules, Power Automate flows, Classic workflows, Plugins, and their server-side execution order. The site also lists tools such as Access Tokens, WebAPI Builder, Auto Number Creator, Record Counts, Azure Region Check, and Tables Diagram, covering scenarios such as development, permission auditing, configuration checks, and environment diagnostics. Its ecosystem is clearly tied to Microsoft Dataverse/Dynamics 365/Power Platform.

Pricing, Openness, and Deployment

The available text does not disclose its pricing model, payment methods, open-source status, or self-hosting options, so it is not possible to assess commercial licensing or private deployment capabilities. The About page explicitly states that some tools on the site are in preview, beta, or pre-release status, and may be changed or discontinued at any time. All site features are provided “as-is” and “as available.” This means stability and dependency risks should be assessed carefully before using it in production-critical workflows.

Pros and Cons

Its main advantage is its highly focused positioning: it can reduce the time Dataverse administrators and developers spend manually checking entities, roles, rules, plugins, and flows, especially for permission comparison and troubleshooting trigger execution chains. The downside is that public information is relatively brief, with limited documentation, no clear SLA, no data security details, and no pricing information. The preview status also reduces predictability.

Who It’s For and Access from China

It is suitable for Dynamics 365/Dataverse developers, Power Platform consultants, system administrators, and solution architects for environment audits, troubleshooting, and configuration reviews. The available text does not provide information about access from China. The deployment hint points to WestUS, and actual network connectivity, account login, and access to Microsoft-related services may depend on the organization’s network environment. Alternative or complementary tools include XrmToolBox, Microsoft Power Platform Admin Center, Power Platform CLI, and the official SDK.