This article explains what Contracts are in Content Studio, how they connect to Spaces Flex, and how to create and manage them.
Contracts overview
A Contract links a Contract Company with the application (e.g. Spaces Flex) and specifies which catalogs that application can access.
Each contract uses a contract link — a unique URL parameter found in the partnership attributes — that associates the target application with the correct catalog set:
Catalog types within a contract
- Open catalogs – publicly accessible; no authentication required. At least one domain must be specified to save an open catalog.
- Protected catalogs – require user authentication; access can be restricted by identity provider, email domain, or individual users.
A single Contract Company may have both open and protected catalogs.
Creating a contract
To create a contract
- Go to the Contracts
tab.
- At the top, select the Contract Company (the company holding the agreement with Cyncly).
- If this company has no contracts yet, click the relevant button to create one (Open or Protected). Then follow the detailed steps below to complete the setup.
Setting up an open contract
- Click + Create Open Catalog.
-
Enter the Contract Link (the URL token attribute) in the first field.
-
Specify domains in the next two fields:
Internal domains – choose the required domains from the suggested list
Domains – add any extra domains manually. If no domain is specified, it will be generally available.
- In the Catalogs section, click + Add and select the public catalogs to include. These catalogs will be visible to anyone without logging in.
- Click Save in the bottom-right corner to save the contract.
Your selections will appear under the contract link name in the Open Catalogs section:
Setting up a restricted contract
- Select the Contract Company.
- Click + Create Protected Catalog.
-
Choose one or more security methods to restrict access:
- Identity Providers: Assign one or more IDPs to manage user authentication
- Email Domains: List one or more email domains whose users should have access to
- Accounts: Specify accounts from the Cyncly system to allow only designated contacts access
-
Enter the required Provider Code (idp) or Email Domain in the appropriate fields.
- Click + Add Catalog Set and choose the catalogs you want to make available for each login type.
By default, catalogs of the company will appear in the list.
- When everything is set, click Save in the bottom-right corner to complete the contract.
To limit a protected catalog to certain users, click + Add value and enter the custom 'Key' and its value that your login integration provides. For example, if the 'Key' is 'Role' and its value is 'Designer', the user will see only the catalogs mapped to 'Designer'; if the value is 'Sales', they’ll see the catalogs assigned to 'Sales'.
When a company’s login integration sends extra attributes, they can be used to control protected catalog access. Click + Add value and enter the claim Key and its Value. The key can be any field the integration provides: Role, Division, Market, etc.
For example, if the Key is 'Role' and its value is 'Designer', the user will see only the catalogs mapped to 'Designer'; if the value is 'Sales', they’ll see the catalogs assigned to 'Sales'.
Catalog Dependencies
The item search only looks through the catalogs listed in the contract. When you add a main catalog, the platform automatically loads any dependent catalogs, so you don’t need to add those separately.
If Catalog 1 includes Catalog 2 as a dependency, and Catalog 2 depends on Catalog 3, you only need to add Catalog 1 to the contract. SpacesFlex automatically loads Catalogs 2 and 3 as part of Catalog 1, so their items are available for search and design without any extra configuration.
Make sure the contract rules and catalog access rules stay aligned — in case they don’t, the catalog won’t appear in SpacesFlex as expected. You can learn more about access rules in this article.