Copado Essentials leverages wildcards in the same way that you can use wildcards with Salesforce metadata API. Wildcard deployment allows you to deploy components of certain types without having to name the component explicitly.

For instance, you can deploy Apex classes or all object metadata from a source org to a target org by simply filter "Component Type" = "WildCard", then select Apex Class and Object as per the screen below.

If your source org is a git repository, you will find an additional wildcard type named "All Git Source". This type allows you to deploy everything in your git repository to the target org.

If you have an outdated sandbox and you wish to sync with production, you can select wildcard component types instead of having to select thousands of components by name.

When you set up source control for the first time, wildcard provides an easy way to populate your git repository with existing metadata in your production instance. Simply select all wildcard types and deploy from your Salesforce prod to your git repository.

Although Salesforce API support wildcard for most of the common Metadata types. However, there are still numbers of types where wildcard selection are still not yet available. Below is the list of them:

Apex Sharing Reason, Assignment Rule, Auto-Response Rule, Bot Version, Business Process, Button or Link, Compact Layout, Custom Report Type, Dashboard, Dashboard Folder, Dataflow, Document, Document Folder, Email Folder, Email Template, Embedded Service Flow Config, Escalation Rule, Experience Bundle, Feed Filter, Field Set, Knowledge Action, Lead Convert Settings, List View, Managed Content Type, Muting Permission Set, Prompt, Record Type, Redirect Whitelist Url, Report, Report Folder, S-Control, Send Action, Settings, Standard Field, Standard Value Set, Validation Rule, Workflow Email Alert, Workflow Field Update, Workflow Outbound Message, Workflow Rule, Workflow Task