Context
A context describes the frame in which you work with a third party — a contract, a tender, a project, a regulation — and under which your evaluations are triggered, qualified and monitored.
A context behaves like a third party: it is a primary entry point. Unlike dossiers and documents, which can only be attached to a third party, a context can exist on its own. It is not mandatory to track a third party or to add a dossier: existing integrations remain valid.
Why a new object?
The platform is built around three objects: Third party, Dossier and Document. The dossier is the container for every document request — but depending on how it was used, it ended up carrying two incompatible roles.
One dossier per contract, with its reference and end date, gathering every request of any kind for that contract.
A dossier triggered by a rule, defined by its functional coherence: Anti-corruption, Undeclared work, Cyber, Baseline, Onboarding…
Reference, end date, purchase amount, relationship type: contract data now lives here.
The dossier becomes again a rule-triggered compilation of evaluations, freed from any imposed contractual reference.
Position in the data model
A context can be created independently, without being attached to a third party, and third parties are attached to it afterwards — just as a context can be attached to a third party from its own record. The relationship is many on both sides.
- A single context can be associated with several third parties.
- A single third party can be associated with several contexts.
- A context is bound to exactly one context template.
- Contexts sit above dossiers, in their own standalone Contexts view.
Possible paths
The context opens two additional navigation paths without invalidating the existing one:
The context template
Before creating a context, you define a context template in the account configuration, where it can be created, edited and deleted. A context has the same type as its template and is bound to exactly one of them — the template sets the vocabulary ("Contract", "Zero Deforestation", "Conflict Minerals") and the set of attributes to fill in.
So as not to degrade current usage, adding a context manually is only possible on an account for which at least one context template is configured. Accounts with no template keep exactly the current behaviour.
Context attributes
Like third-party and dossier attributes, context attributes are filled in by the user.
Multi-Tier Supply Chain Discovery
A context can also trigger a cascading declaration of the supply chain: the supplier is asked to declare its own subcontractors, who are asked in turn, until the whole chain has been discovered. Each declared third party carries its rank within the context — 1 for the direct supplier, 2 for its subcontractor, and so on — and automatically joins the client's portfolio.
The context object is available to every account; the Supply Chain Discovery option is reserved for accounts that have subscribed to it.
What about the API?
The Context endpoints are now documented: they ship in the Postman collection and in the API documentation, split across two sections — Contexts and Third parties contexts, 25 endpoints in total. The Changelog page tracks the rollout schedule.
The typical flow
- List the context models available on your account, to get the model name to use.
- Create the context from that model, setting its reference, description and attributes.
- Attach third parties, either at first level or as a full supply-chain tree.
- Follow up on the context: attributes, compliance dossiers and notes.
Context endpoints
Lists the context models available on your account. The modelName returned here is what you pass when creating a context.
Lists the account's contexts. active=true returns ongoing contexts, active=false archived ones. Filterable by modelId, paginated with limit and offset.
Full detail of one context: reference, description, attribute values and attached third parties.
Creates a context from one of your models. The optional supplyChainDepth parameter enables the supply-chain tree and sets how many sub-tier levels are allowed; omit it for a flat context.
Updates one attribute value of the context. The attribute is identified in the URL, the new value goes in values. Send [null] to clear it.
Archives (stops) the context. A reason can be given via deactivationReason.
Re-activates a previously archived context.
Context third party endpoints
A context third party is a third party from your portfolio attached to a context. Each one has its own identifier — the context third party id — distinct from the third party's own id, and that is the one you reuse to attach a child, create a dossier or add a note.
Lists the third parties attached to the context, i.e. the supply-chain tree. withAttributes=true includes each third party's attribute values.
Attaches one or more third parties to the context. The body is a list; without parentId the third parties are attached at first level, with parentId they are placed below another third party in the tree.
Detail of one third party within the context.
Attribute values of one third party within the context.
Updates one attribute value of a third party within the context, following the same mechanics as context attributes.
Creates a compliance dossier for a third party within the context. dossierTypeCode is required; dossierReference, description and thirdpartyEmail are optional.
Removes (archives) a third party from the context. Its sub-suppliers are archived along with it.
Re-activates a third party previously archived in the context.
parentId expects the context third party id — the id field returned by the context third parties listing — and not the third party's own identifier in your portfolio. The parent third party must also allow its supply chain to be declared.
Context notes
A context and each of its third parties accept notes — plain free-text comments, returned most-recent first. The CRUD is identical to the other objects: see the Notes section of the Dossier guide.