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Who this is for: Partners and customers configuring and deploying a CDF project. New to CDF? Start with Plan your CDF implementation. Starting a project now? Follow Who creates what, then configure access management before you install the Cognite Toolkit.

Who creates what

A new CDF project is a handoff among Customer IT, Cognite, and your implementation team. Use this sequence from identity setup through installing the Cognite Toolkit. Customer IT creates groups in your identity provider (for example, Microsoft Entra ID security groups), adds guest users, and registers applications, then sends tenant and group object IDs to Cognite. Cognite provisions the CDF organization and projects and links them to the customer IdP. Your implementation team installs the Cognite Toolkit and deploys CDF groups bound to those object IDs — typically with the Foundation deployment pack.

Start here

Finish access management before you install the Cognite Toolkit.

Configure access management

Set up identity provider groups and application registrations — for example, with Microsoft Entra ID — before you install the Cognite Toolkit.

Plan your CDF implementation

Define objectives, set up your team, and work through the prerequisite checklist.

Follow resource naming conventions

Agree names for CDF resources, including access groups, before anyone creates them.

Understand security and reliability

Learn about security measures, high availability, and disaster recovery.

Then deploy

Deploy with the Cognite Toolkit

Define your CDF environment as YAML, then build, validate, and deploy.

Install deployment packs

Install pre-built deployment packs to accelerate CDF configuration.

Establish deployment workflows

Implement DevOps and DataOps practices to manage your deployment lifecycle.

Develop data models with NEAT

A complementary tool for domain experts to design and validate data models before deploying them through the Cognite Toolkit.
Last modified on August 26, 2026