Marketplace Instances
A marketplace instance is a workspace inside your organisation for a specific marketplace role.
When you create an instance, you choose whether it is a developer instance or a provider instance. That choice controls the workflows available inside the dashboard.
Developer instances are used to create, package, price, release, and publish apps or algorithms. Provider instances are used to discover published products, create listings, sell products to customers, review purchases, and install purchased products onto devices.
Most organisations start with one developer instance, one provider instance, or one of each. Larger organisations often create multiple instances to separate teams, storefronts, customer groups, permissions, or commercial workflows.
Role Type
Choose the role type first because it defines what the instance is for.
| Instance type | Use it for | Typical users |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Building and publishing marketplace products. | Product teams, app developers, algorithm developers. |
| Provider | Listing, selling, purchasing, and installing products. | Providers, commercial teams, operations teams, storefront teams. |
A developer instance does not replace a provider instance. They represent different sides of the marketplace workflow. An organisation that both builds products and sells products may have both types.
Why Use Multiple Instances
Multiple instances are useful when one organisation needs clear separation inside Marketplace.
Create separate instances when you need to:
- separate developer workflows from provider workflows,
- group listings for different storefronts,
- sell different product sets to different customer groups,
- give teams different permissions,
- keep regional, brand, partner, or business-unit activity separate,
- avoid mixing purchases, devices, and installs across operational teams.
If the same people manage the same products, listings, customers, and devices, one instance is usually enough. If teams need different access or different storefront catalogues, use separate instances.
Common Patterns
One developer instance
Use one developer instance when a single product team publishes all apps and algorithms for the organisation.
One provider instance
Use one provider instance when the organisation has one storefront, one catalogue strategy, and one operations team managing purchases and installs.
One developer and one provider instance
Use both when your organisation builds products and also sells products to customers. The developer instance manages product creation and publishing. The provider instance manages listings, checkout, purchases, and installs.
Multiple provider instances
Use multiple provider instances when different storefronts or customer groups need different catalogues, pricing, access, or install operations.
For example, one provider instance might back a public customer storefront, while another supports a private partner catalogue with different listings and permissions.
Multiple developer instances
Use multiple developer instances when product teams need to work independently, have different approval paths, or manage separate product families.
For example, a large organisation might give its computer vision team one developer instance and its fleet optimisation team another, so each team manages its own products, releases, and publishing access.
What An Instance Groups
An instance keeps related marketplace work together.
For developer instances, that includes:
- products,
- product metadata and images,
- releases and versions,
- pricing,
- publish state.
For provider instances, that includes:
- discovered products,
- provider listings,
- storefront catalogue selection,
- checkout sessions,
- purchases,
- entitlements,
- device install workflows.
Customers usually do not need to understand instances. They only see the products, checkout, and device experience exposed through your storefront or customer-facing workflow.
Typical Setup
- Decide whether the instance is for developer workflows or provider workflows.
- Create the marketplace instance in the dashboard.
- Add the users or teams that should work in that instance.
- For developer instances, create products, releases, pricing, and publish state.
- For provider instances, create listings, connect storefront workflows, review purchases, and manage installs.
Finding the Instance ID
For dashboard-only workflows, you usually just select the marketplace instance by name.
For API or storefront work, store the marketplaceInstanceId in your backend configuration. Provider storefront and catalogue APIs require it so requests are scoped to the correct provider instance. Do not expose this as a customer-facing concept.