Abstract: A strategy is described for synchronizing components of a product with respect to a reference. The strategy first supplies a manifest associated with a current version of the product. The manifest identifies the components within the product and unique identifiers associated with the components. A recipient system can compare the manifest with a locally-maintained version of the product, thereby identifying a manner in which the locally-maintained version should be modified. The recipient system can then selectively download the components that need to be added or changed. Alternatively, the recipient system can download an entire collection of components associated with the product if this is determined to be more efficient.