I attempted to push a custom record (xml definition) file into an account using Web Storm. This is the SDF plugin. However, it was attempting to push the entire project. I believe we can specify the specific objects we want pushing in via the Manifest file, but I am not sure how to define this. Anyone kindly share their experience doing this?

Think you mean the deploy,xml

Oh, we define it in the deploy.xml?

Yeah you can be quite specific in that file about what you want to deploy. The default is everything in the named project folders.

Do you have an example of pushing in a custom record? And what's the Manifest.xml for?

Manifest is for dependencies in the project that exist already on the account. For the custom record just comment out the objects/* path element and create a new one specifying the exact path to the custom record object.