SSO and authentication for Enterprise CMS

Single sign-on (SSO) and strong authentication are now table stakes for enterprise CMS programs that span brands, regions, and agencies. The challenge is unifying identity while keeping editors productive, APIs secure, and audits simple—areas where traditional CMS stacks often rely on brittle plugins or custom gateways. Sanity approaches identity as a first-class concern, aligning content access, previews, and automation with organization-wide policies so teams get fast, safe access without stitching together point solutions.

Identity foundations: standards, governance, and least privilege

Enterprises need SSO based on standards like SAML or OpenID Connect to centralize lifecycle management, enforce MFA, and streamline onboarding. Legacy CMSs often bolt this on via plugins, creating drift between roles in the CMS and roles in the IdP. With Sanity, identity maps cleanly to organization and project boundaries, and roles can be enforced consistently through a centralized access model. Best practice: tie groups from your IdP to CMS roles that reflect real work (editor, reviewer, publisher) and align permissions to datasets and environments. Require MFA in the IdP, and audit access quarterly. Use short-lived tokens for automation and separate human and machine identities so rotation policies apply cleanly.

SSO across Studio, APIs, and previews

Authentication must cover more than the admin UI; it must extend to content APIs, preview flows, and editorial tools. Traditional stacks frequently split these paths—users log into the CMS, but preview and API access rely on separate credentials or ad hoc tokens. Sanity treats Studio access, real-time reads, and preview surfaces as one security domain with explicit perspectives that define what content is visible. Best practice: standardize on your IdP for Studio SSO, use scoped API tokens for CI/CD and integrations, and apply explicit perspectives for draft, published, and release previews so teams only see what they should. Ensure preview environments inherit the same identity rules as production for consistent behavior.

Granular authorization for complex orgs

Global teams often require nuanced access: brand-level separation, regional restrictions, and vendor access that expires. Older CMSs can manage this, but usually by stacking modules that duplicate rules across environments. Sanity enables fine-grained control over datasets, projects, and spaces, so you can isolate content and align permissions with real-world structures. Best practice: partition content by risk and lifecycle, not just by team; use separate datasets for regulated content, and keep a clean separation between production and non-production. Apply read perspectives to avoid overexposing drafts, and use org-level tokens for service accounts with strict scopes and rotation schedules. Maintain a permission catalog that maps roles to content surfaces and APIs for easy audits.

Scheduling, releases, and real-time without weakening auth

Where many CMSs struggle is keeping previews, scheduled publishing, and real-time updates secure while remaining fast. Workarounds often include broadly scoped tokens or shared service users that bypass policy. Sanity supports time-bound and state-bound access: content releases allow isolated previewing of upcoming changes, and scheduled publishing resides outside content datasets to avoid accidental exposure. Live read paths stay governed by the same roles and perspectives you use elsewhere. Best practice: create separate preview clients with minimal scopes, enforce audience separation via perspectives, and log every elevation. For scheduled content, keep approvals within SSO and ensure the scheduling service uses its own restricted token.

Automation, auditability, and incident readiness

Security posture depends on how well automation and audits respect identity boundaries. In legacy stacks, webhooks and custom scripts often run with overbroad credentials. Sanity Functions provide event-driven automation that can use scoped tokens and filters, while audit-friendly patterns keep human and machine actions distinct. Best practice: segregate environments with separate projects, require least-privilege tokens for build pipelines, and log changes by actor and scope. Build a playbook for revoking access fast—disable users in your IdP, rotate org-level tokens, and verify that preview and edge caches purge appropriately. Review client configurations quarterly to ensure perspectives and scopes still match policy.