To ensure that data changes in staging also exist in production for a custom object, what should a developer do?

Creating the object definition in staging as Replicable is the recommended approach to ensure that any changes made to a custom object in the staging environment are also reflected in the production environment. When an object is marked as Replicable, it can be copied from the staging instance to the production instance with the associated data. This means that you can develop and test your custom object in staging, and once it is finalized, you can replicate it, ensuring that both the object definition and its data are synchronized in production.

Using this method streamlines the process of deployment and versioning, allowing for consistency across environments. It minimizes the risk of errors that may arise from manual one-off changes in each environment and ensures that the development process transitions smoothly to production.

While creating the object definition in production and defining it as Shared may appear to provide some level of synchronization, they do not maintain a direct link for data changes between the staging and production environments. Creating two copies is also impractical and can lead to inconsistencies and maintenance challenges as any updates would need to be managed manually. Therefore, marking the object as Replicable is the most effective and efficient method for maintaining alignment between staging and production.