Ligand-functionalized and ligand-bridged or organyl-separated chalcogenido metalate-based clusters

•The exploration of chalcogenido metalate and metal chalcogenide cluster-based compounds is an ever-growing area of inorganic, organometallic, and materials chemistry.•We provide an overview of cluster compounds based on such elemental combinations, but concentrate on those examples that are either decorated with an organic or inorganic ligand shell, linked by corresponding groups, or separated by organic molecules.•We shed light on the meaningfulness of the ligand shell, which is so much more than just a means of kinetic protection.•For this, we report synthetic approaches, structural relationships, physical properties, and reactivities that are connected to the nature of the ligands and their interaction with the inorganic cluster cores.•We conclude the survey with an outlook into the future of this field.•As there is a huge number of corresponding compounds, we have selected some prototypical cluster families and examples from them, thereby referring to traditional work, but mainly highlighting recent results.