In Catalio, an Organization represents the fundamental boundary for data isolation, access control, and multi-tenant security. Every organization operates in complete isolation from others—users, requirements, personas, and all other business data belong exclusively to a single organization with absolute privacy guarantees.
Think of an organization as your enterprise workspace: a secure, private environment where your teams collaborate on requirements, manage personas, define use cases, and build comprehensive product specifications without any risk of data leakage across organizational boundaries.
What is an Organization?
An organization in Catalio serves three critical purposes:
-
Tenant Boundary: Every resource (requirements, personas, use cases, test cases, conversations) is scoped to exactly one organization. This ensures complete data isolation—no cross-organizational data access is possible.
-
Security Perimeter: Authorization policies enforce that users can only access data within their own organization. Multi-tenant security is built into the foundation, not layered on top.
-
Administrative Domain: Organization-level settings control features like AI accessibility and integration with external authentication providers.
Real-World Examples
Enterprise Customer: TechCorp Inc.
- Multiple product teams (Platform, Mobile, Analytics)
- 50+ employees across engineering, product, and QA
- Strict data isolation from competitors and partners
- Custom AI settings to control which requirements are AI-accessible
SaaS Startup: CloudFlow Systems
- Single product focus with fast iteration cycles
- 12-person team across product, engineering, and customer success
- AI features fully enabled for rapid requirement discovery
- All team members collaborate in shared workspace
Partner Organization: Integration Labs
- Separate workspace for integration development
- Access restricted to integration team members
- Independent requirement lifecycle from main product
- Can be deactivated when project completes, preserving data for audit
Multi-Tenant Data Isolation
Catalio’s multi-tenant architecture ensures complete privacy and security between organizations. Every piece of data belongs to exactly one organization, and the system automatically enforces strict boundaries so you only see and access your organization’s data.
How Data Isolation Protects You
When you work in Catalio:
- Automatic Filtering: The system automatically shows only your organization’s data—you never see other organizations’ information
- Secure by Design: Data isolation is built into the foundation, not added as an afterthought
- Intelligent Boundaries: When you create new requirements, personas, or other resources, they automatically belong to your organization
- No Accidental Sharing: It’s impossible to accidentally view or modify another organization’s data
What This Means for Your Business
- Complete Privacy: Your requirements, personas, and conversations are invisible to other organizations
- Regulatory Compliance: Built-in data isolation helps meet privacy and compliance requirements
- Audit Trail: Every resource tracks which organization owns it, enabling compliance reporting
- Scalability: Add more users and data without worrying about performance or security degradation
Multi-Tenant Resources
The following resources are scoped to organizations:
- Users: Belong to exactly one organization (cannot switch organizations)
- Requirements: All requirements owned by organization
- Personas: User roles defined per-organization
- Use Cases: Scenario definitions scoped to organization
- Test Cases: Test specifications per-organization
- Test Results: Execution history scoped to organization
- Components: Architecture elements per-organization
- Processes: Business workflows scoped to organization
- Conversations: Chat history isolated per-organization
- Messages: Chat messages within organization context
- API Keys: Authentication tokens scoped to organization
Example: Automatic Organization Filtering
When you view your requirements list, Catalio automatically shows only your organization’s requirements. You don’t need to filter or specify your organization—the system handles this automatically and securely. This same automatic filtering applies to all data types, ensuring you always work within your organization’s secure workspace.
Organization Attributes
Organizations have rich metadata that describes their identity, configuration, and operational status.
Core Identity
Name (required) The organization’s display name. Must be unique across all organizations.
- Example: “TechCorp Inc.”, “Catalio Demo”, “Integration Labs”
- Used in navigation, headers, and user interface
- Required for organization creation
Description A concise explanation of the organization’s purpose and scope.
- Example: “Enterprise product development team for TechCorp platform”
- Helps users understand organizational context
- Optional but recommended for clarity
Provider Organization ID The unique identifier from your authentication provider (e.g., Auth0).
- Syncs organization membership from external auth systems
- Enables SSO and identity federation
- Automatically managed during authentication flows
- Must be unique if provided
Operational Metadata
Website The organization’s primary website URL.
- Example: “https://techcorp.com”
- Must be a valid URL format (http:// or https://)
- Used for organization profile and external links
- Optional
Industry The primary business sector or industry.
- Examples: “Software Development”, “Healthcare”, “Financial Services”
- Free-form text field for flexibility
- Helps categorize organizations in reporting
- Optional
Size The organization’s size category based on employee count or scale.
- Startup: Early-stage company, typically <10 employees
- Small: 10-50 employees
- Medium: 50-250 employees
- Large: 250-1,000 employees
- Enterprise: 1,000+ employees
Understanding organization size helps tailor features and capacity planning.
Headquarters Location The primary business location or headquarters.
- Example: “San Francisco, CA” or “Remote-First”
- Free-form text for flexibility
- Used for organizational profile
- Optional
Status Lifecycle
Organizations move through a well-defined lifecycle that controls access and operational state.
Active
The default operational state for organizations. Active organizations:
- Users can authenticate and access the platform
- All features are available based on subscription tier
- Resources can be created, updated, and deleted normally
- AI features respect organization-level settings
When to Use: Normal operational state for all working organizations.
Inactive
Temporarily disabled organizations. Inactive organizations:
- Users cannot authenticate or access the platform
- Data is preserved but read-only
- No operations are allowed (create, update, delete)
- Billing may be paused depending on subscription terms
When to Use:
- Temporary project suspension
- Pending contract renewal
- Seasonal organizations (only active during specific periods)
- Testing environments during off-cycles
How to Reactivate: Change status back to Active through admin interface or API.
Suspended
Administratively locked organizations. Suspended organizations:
- Users cannot authenticate or access the platform
- Data is preserved for audit and compliance
- No operations allowed
- Billing remains active (data preservation)
- Requires administrator intervention to reactivate
When to Use:
- Compliance violations or security concerns
- Payment issues or subscription expiration
- Legal holds or regulatory requirements
- Contract disputes
How to Reactivate: Suspended organizations require administrator approval. Contact support or resolve the underlying issue, then request status change to Active.
Status Transition Actions
Catalio provides explicit actions for status management:
- Activate: Set organization to active state
- Deactivate: Set organization to inactive state
- Suspend: Set organization to suspended state
All status changes are tracked in the audit trail with timestamps and the user who performed the change.
AI Accessibility Controls
Catalio’s AI-powered features (semantic search, quality assessment, sentiment analysis, auto-categorization) can be controlled at both the organization and individual resource level.
Organization-Level AI Setting
AI Accessible (default: true)
This organization-wide toggle controls the default AI accessibility for all resources created within the organization.
- Enabled (true): New requirements, personas, and other resources are AI-accessible by default
- Disabled (false): New resources are NOT AI-accessible by default
Important: This is a default setting. Individual resources can override this setting.
How AI Accessibility Works
When AI accessibility is enabled for a resource:
- Vector Embeddings: Generated for semantic search
- Quality Assessment: AI analyzes completeness and clarity
- Sentiment Analysis: AI detects stakeholder attitude
- Auto-Categorization: AI suggests priority, complexity, and tags
- Summary Generation: AI creates concise summaries
When AI accessibility is disabled for a resource:
- No AI Processing: Resource content is never sent to AI services
- No Vector Search: Resource excluded from semantic search results
- Manual Management: All metadata must be set manually
- Privacy Guarantee: Sensitive data remains confidential
Use Cases for AI Accessibility
Enable AI (Recommended for Most Organizations)
- Faster requirement discovery through semantic search
- Automated quality feedback on requirements
- Time-saving auto-categorization suggestions
- Better requirement organization with AI tags
Disable AI (For Sensitive Environments)
- Healthcare organizations with HIPAA requirements
- Financial services with strict data privacy rules
- Government contractors with classified information
- Proprietary product specifications under NDA
Changing AI Settings
Organization-Level: Update the ai_accessible attribute when creating or updating the
organization.
Resource-Level: Each requirement, persona, and other resource has its own ai_accessible toggle
that overrides the organization default.
Best Practice: Set organization default based on your primary use case, then override for specific resources that require different handling.
Auth Provider Synchronization
Catalio integrates with your identity provider (such as Auth0) to automatically synchronize organization information and user access. This means:
- Automatic Setup: When users from your organization first log in, Catalio automatically creates or updates your organization workspace
- Single Sign-On (SSO): Users authenticate through your existing corporate identity system
- Consistent Access: Organization membership in your identity provider determines access to Catalio
- Seamless Updates: Changes to organization details in your identity provider sync to Catalio automatically
This integration ensures your team can access Catalio using your existing corporate credentials without manual setup or duplicate account management.
Identity Requirements
Organizations must have unique identifiers:
- Name: Must be unique across all Catalio organizations (prevents confusion)
- Provider Organization ID: Must be unique if synced from your identity provider (enables authentication)
These constraints ensure each organization has a distinct identity and prevent conflicts during authentication.
Organization Settings and Metadata
Organizations can store additional context in AI-focused metadata fields.
AI Summary
A concise summary (max 200 characters) describing the organization for AI context.
Example: “Enterprise SaaS company building collaboration tools for distributed teams. Focus on scalability, security, and user experience.”
Use Cases:
- AI agent context windows
- Quick organizational overview in dashboards
- Integration with external tools requiring brief descriptions
AI Tags
Semantic tags categorizing the organization across multiple dimensions.
Example Categories and Tags:
- Industry: software, saas, collaboration, healthcare, fintech
- Focus Areas: scalability, security, user experience, compliance
- Technologies: mobile, web, cloud, api, database
Use Cases:
- Advanced filtering and search across organizations
- AI-powered feature recommendations
- Organizational analytics and reporting
- Integration with business intelligence tools
These fields are optional and enhance AI features when enabled.
Best Practices for Organization Setup
Initial Setup
- Choose a Clear Name: Use your company name or project name for clarity
- Add Description: Explain the organization’s purpose and scope
- Configure AI Settings: Enable AI for most cases, disable for sensitive data
- Sync with Auth Provider: Ensure provider_org_id is set for SSO integration
- Set Metadata: Add website, industry, and location for complete profile
Multi-Organization Strategies
Single Organization (Recommended for Most)
- One organization per company or product
- All teams work within shared workspace
- Simplifies user management and collaboration
- Use personas to distinguish user roles
Multiple Organizations (For Complex Enterprises)
- Separate organizations for different products or business units
- Complete data isolation between units
- Each organization has independent users and settings
- Useful for partners, contractors, or subsidiaries
- Consider using separate organizations for testing/training environments to keep them isolated from production data
Security Best Practices
- Review User Access: Regularly audit users in your organization
- Use Status Controls: Deactivate or suspend organizations when not in use
- Configure AI Carefully: Disable AI for sensitive requirements at resource level
- Monitor Auth Sync: Verify provider_org_id matches auth provider configuration
- Audit Trail: Review organization changes in audit logs regularly
Performance Considerations
Organizations are designed for scale:
- Users: No hard limit—supports thousands of users per organization
- Requirements: Optimized for tens of thousands of requirements
- Queries: Organization filtering is indexed for fast performance
- Data Volume: Catalio maintains performance even with large datasets across multiple resource types
Next Steps
Now that you understand organizations, explore how to:
- Manage Users - Add team members and configure roles
- Define Requirements - Create your first requirement within your organization
- Set Up Auth - Configure SSO and auth provider integration
Pro Tip: Start with a single organization and default AI settings enabled. As you learn the platform, you can create additional organizations for demos or separate projects. Avoid over-fragmenting your data—use personas and components to organize within a single organization.
Support
Questions about organizations and multi-tenancy? We’re here to help:
- Documentation: Continue reading about Users and Requirements
- In-App Help: Look for the 🤖 AI assistant throughout the platform
- Email: support@catalio.com
- Community: Share best practices with other Catalio users