Core Concepts
Customers & Instances
How customers and instances model your SaaS deployments.
Customers & Instances
Customers
A Customer represents an end client of your SaaS product.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
name | Customer display name |
slug | URL-safe identifier, unique per organization |
external_customer_id | Optional CRM reference (HubSpot, Salesforce, etc.) |
Customers are org-scoped and can have one or more Instances.
Instances
An Instance represents a specific deployment of your SaaS product for a customer.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
name | Instance display name |
slug | URL-safe identifier, unique per organization |
description | Free-form description |
customer_id | Parent customer |
license_id | The license governing this instance |
deployment_zone_id | Optional deployment zone (shared or dedicated) |
platform | Optional JSON metadata |
metadata | Optional JSON key-value pairs for custom instance data |
start_license_date | License start date |
end_license_date | License end date |
The Core Chain
Organization
└── Customer: "Acme Corp"
├── Instance: "Acme Production" (License: Enterprise)
└── Instance: "Acme Staging" (License: Development)Each instance independently:
- Has its own license (defining entitlements and quotas)
- Can be assigned to a deployment zone
- Has feature flags evaluated against it
- Tracks entitlement usage separately
- Has its own audit trail
Slugs
Every entity in Kaiten uses slugs — URL-safe identifiers that are unique within an organization. Slugs are used:
- In REST API paths (e.g.
GET /api/instances/acme-production) - In OFREP context variables (e.g.
tenantSlug) - In the dashboard URLs
Slugs can be auto-generated from the name or explicitly set at creation time.
See It in the Console
The Console lets you manage customers and instances visually — create, edit, and explore their licenses, feature flags, entitlement usage, and audit trails.