Simplified testing of Sitecore package installations

Have you ever found the setup of Sitecore module packages to be time consuming and a pain to automate? Did you know that modules can be converted from the standard module zip to a web deployment version?

The following repo provides some details about how you can get started.

Setup

1. Clone this repo
2. From an elevated prompt run init.ps1 with the path to the license file. An elevated prompt is required for this step to install the TLS certificate into the system trust store.

.\init.ps1 [-LicenseXmlPath "C:\License\license.xml"] [-HostName "dev.local"] [-SitecoreAdminPassword "Password12345"] [-SqlSaPassword "Password12345"]

init.ps1 is idempotent — re-running it on an existing environment preserves already-generated secrets (Telerik key, ID secret, media request secret) so running containers are not broken.

3. Build the Docker images and start the environment.

.\up.ps1 [-SkipBuild] [-IncludeSpe] [-IncludeSxa] [-IncludePackages] [-ForceConvert]

4. Authenticate the Sitecore CLI (opens a browser login).

.\login.ps1

5. (First time only) Populate the Solr schema, publish content, and rebuild indexes.

.\maintenance.ps1

6. Tear down when done.

.\down.ps1 [-IncludeSpe] [-IncludeSxa] [-Cleanup]

Important: pass the same -IncludeSpe / -IncludeSxa flags to down.ps1 that were used with up.ps1 so all overlay services are properly stopped.

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Package / Code Deployment

Packages and code can be delivered to the running environment in three ways depending on when you need them applied:

Location	When applied	Use case
.\docker\build\packages\	Baked into the image at build time	Packages that must be present before Sitecore first starts
.\docker\releases\	Deployed by scripts when containers start	Packages to install on each fresh environment
.\docker\deploy\	Hot-deployed via volume mount at any time	Fastest path for iterating on code changes

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Scripts

Script	Description
init.ps1	One-time setup (elevated): generates TLS certificates, populates .env. Safe to re-run — existing secrets are preserved.
cert.ps1	Creates or renews the Traefik TLS development certificate. Called automatically by init.ps1. Pass -Renew for annual renewal.
up.ps1	Converts any new packages to WDP format, builds images (unless -SkipBuild), starts containers, and waits for CM to become healthy.
login.ps1	Restores the Sitecore CLI and authenticates against the running Identity Server. Re-run any time the CLI session expires.
maintenance.ps1	Populates the Solr managed schema, publishes content, and rebuilds search indexes. Individual steps can be skipped with -SkipSchemaPopulate, -SkipPublish, or -SkipIndexRebuild.
deploy.ps1	Installs packages from .\docker\releases\ into running containers via docker compose exec. Run after containers are up whenever new packages are added.
status.ps1	Displays a colour-coded per-container health table. Use -Watch to poll continuously until all containers are healthy.
down.ps1	Stops containers. Pass -IncludeSpe / -IncludeSxa to match the flags used with up.ps1. Use -Cleanup to also clear data volumes and build artefacts.
build.ps1	Builds Docker images. Called by up.ps1 but can be run standalone to rebuild without restarting containers.
clean.ps1	Removes data volumes and build artefacts. Called by down.ps1 -Cleanup.

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Testing

• Run up.ps1, then login.ps1

Demo