Uniform Siphon - Sitecore Command Reference (common)

This page covers the concepts that apply to every Uniform Siphon command: the executables, how configuration is resolved (command-line arguments, environment variables, and the .env file), logging, and the options that are shared across all commands. The per-command pages (download, migrate, push) only document what is specific to each command and link back here for the rest.

If you are migrating for the first time, start with the Sitecore migration walkthrough — it explains when and why to run each command. Use these reference pages as the lookup for what each command and parameter does.

Executables#

A Sitecore migration is driven by three separate command-line tools, each responsible for one phase of the Extract-Transform-Load pipeline:

The siphon / siphon.ps1 wrapper on your PATH (see the installation guide) forwards to the appropriate executable, so siphon download-items and siphon download download-items are equivalent to C:\siphon\Siphon.Download.exe download-items. The siphon uniform-canvas and siphon migration uniform-canvas are equivalent to C:\siphon\Siphon.Migration.exe uniform-canvas. The wrapper also provides the interactive configure-download wizard.

Configuring commands#

Every parameter can be supplied in one of three ways. When the same parameter is set in more than one place, the higher source wins:

1. A command-line argument — --parameterName value. Always wins.
2. An environment variable — real OS environment variables, and variables loaded from a .env file (see below).
3. A default baked into the command, if any.

Environment variables are the recommended way to drive a migration: they keep secrets out of your shell history, and they let you keep one reproducible configuration for the whole pipeline.

Environment-variable names#

Siphon turns SIPHON_-prefixed environment variables into command-line arguments for the verb you run. A variable is only applied if you did not already pass that option on the command line (so an explicit argument always overrides the environment). Two forms exist, and the more specific one wins:

• Command-scoped — SIPHON_{COMMAND}_{PARAMETER}. Applies only to that one command. Wins over the global form.
• Global — SIPHON_{PARAMETER}. Applies to every command that has that parameter.

The {COMMAND} and {PARAMETER} tokens are derived by upper-casing the name and replacing every - with _. So the command download-items becomes DOWNLOAD_ITEMS, and the option --outputDir becomes OUTPUTDIR:

Throughout the per-command pages, each switch lists its command-scoped variable (for example, --root on download-items shows SIPHON_DOWNLOAD_ITEMS_ROOT). The global SIPHON_{PARAMETER} form always works too.

The .env file#

Rather than exporting variables by hand, put them in a .env file (one KEY=value per line; lines starting with # are comments). On startup Siphon loads, without overwriting variables that are already set, from up to two locations:

1. The directory that contains the Siphon executable — loaded first.
2. The current working directory — loaded second (skipped if it is the same folder).

Because already-set variables are never overwritten, the effective precedence is: real OS environment variable → executable-folder .env → working-directory .env. Set SIPHON_DOTENV=false (or 0) to skip .env loading entirely.

Two helpers generate a .env for you:

• siphon configure-download — an interactive wizard (part of the siphon wrapper) that asks for the download-phase settings and writes a ready-to-use .env. See the download guide for a sample session.
• siphon generate-dot-env — writes a .env template into the current directory listing every supported SIPHON_ key, ready to fill in.

Special variables#

• SIPHON_COMMAND — its value is appended as the verb, letting you select the command itself from the environment.
• SIPHON_DOTENV — set to false/0 to disable .env loading.
• SIPHON_PATH_OVERRIDE — point the siphon wrapper at a specific build folder instead of the version on the PATH.

Logging#

Siphon ships with a built-in Serilog logger that writes several log files to the log directory (the current directory by default):

Verbosity is controlled by --logLevel (debug | info | warn | error, default info). Keep the default info for a normal run and switch to debug only when troubleshooting — the debug log is what the Uniform migration team will ask for. All the logging switches are listed under common options below.

Common options#

The logging and language options below are accepted by (essentially) every command, so the per-command pages don't repeat them — they document only the command-specific switches and link here. Each option's global environment variable is SIPHON_{NAME} (upper-cased, -→_); the command-scoped SIPHON_{COMMAND}_{NAME} form works too.

Performance and reliability switches (--threads, --RetryCount, --Timeout, --stopOnError, --skipClearingFolders, --cacheDir) are not universal — availability and meaning differ per command — so they are documented on each command's own page, under the command that uses them.

Logging & diagnostics#

SIPHON_LOGLEVEL = (empty)|debug|info|warn|error (--logLevel)
Verbosity of the log files and console output (unless --consoleLogLevel overrides it). Default: info.

SIPHON_CONSOLELOGLEVEL = (empty)|debug|info|warn|error (--consoleLogLevel)
Verbosity of the console output, independent of the file logs. Defaults to --logLevel when unset — useful to keep the console quiet (warn) while still writing a full debug file.

SIPHON_LOGFILEPREFIX = (empty)|<string> (--logFilePrefix)
Override the log file name prefix (default .siphon.log{timestamp}).

SIPHON_LOGSDIR = (empty)|<path> (--logsDir)
Directory where log files are written (default: current working directory).

SIPHON_NO_TIMESTAMPS = true|false (--no-timestamps)
Drop timestamps from log lines (handy for diffing two runs' logs). Default: false.

SIPHON_SORTLOGENTRIESBYTHREADID = true|false (--sortLogEntriesByThreadId)
Post-process the log files to group entries by thread ID within each scope block, so a multi-threaded run reads in order. Default: false.

Languages#

SIPHON_LANGUAGES = (empty)|<list> (--languages)
Restrict processing to a subset of languages; empty (the default) means all registered languages. Delimiters: , ; |. Use the Sitecore Language item Name (find them in _languages.json in the download folder). Example: en|ja-JP|da.

SIPHON_DEFAULTLANGUAGE = (empty)|<string> (--defaultLanguage)
The migrated language Siphon treats as the canonical / base locale, used in both phases. Given as the Sitecore Language item Name (same identifier as --languages), e.g. en; default en. During download it is the context language for fetching the Sitecore language list and for resolving media items (download-media) and single-item lookups (debug-get-item). During migration it selects the base item version when building content types, entries, compositions and the project map, resolves non-localized/fallback field values, and its locale is written to Uniform with IsDefault: true as the project's default locale.

Resolution rule: when you migrate a single language this value is ignored and that language is used; when you migrate several, --defaultLanguage must name one of them, otherwise Siphon aborts with "Default language was not found. Set --defaultLanguage."

It also seeds the deterministic id of non-versioned assets — the Uniform asset id is hash(itemId + defaultLanguage) — so changing --defaultLanguage changes those asset ids (versioned media instead use the item's own version language, overridable with --versionedImgDefaultLanguage).

Always available#

--help (--help) — Print the full, authoritative option list for the command (this reference is generated from the same source). (no environment variable.)

--version (--version) — Print the Siphon version. (no environment variable.)

Commands by phase#