Rules

Overview

Rules define what Protect does when a transaction meets specific conditions. You can create custom rules to allow, block, or review transactions based on risk score, card origin, payment amount, IP address, billing email, and more.

Rules are evaluated in order — the lowest order number is checked first. The first rule that matches determines the outcome for that transaction.

Rule actions

Action	What happens
Allow	Transaction proceeds without further review, even if other signals are elevated
Block	Transaction is automatically declined; no funds are captured
Review	Transaction is flagged and placed in the review queue for manual investigation

Default rules

Two rules are active on all accounts by default:

review if risk_level: 'medium'
review if risk_level: 'high'

These cannot be deleted but can be reordered relative to your custom rules.

Rule conditions

Condition	Description	Example
risk_score_gte	Risk score is greater than or equal to	block if risk_score_gte: 800
risk_score_lte	Risk score is less than or equal to	allow if risk_score_lte: 399
risk_level	Risk level is low, medium, or high	block if risk_level: 'high'
card_country_id	Card's country (2-letter ISO code)	block if card_country_id: ['NG']
billing_country_id	Customer's billing country (2-letter ISO code)	review if billing_country_id: ['PH']
payment_amount_gte	Payment amount is greater than or equal to (in currency units)	review if payment_amount_gte: 10000
payment_amount_lte	Payment amount is less than or equal to (in currency units)	allow if payment_amount_lte: 100
ip_address	Matches an exact IP address	block if ip_address: '123.45.67.89'
ip_address_cidr	Matches an IP address range in CIDR format	block if ip_address_cidr: '123.45.67.0/24'
billing_email	Matches an exact billing email address	block if billing_email: '[email protected]'

Logical operators

Combine multiple conditions in a single rule using AND or OR:

AND — all conditions must match
OR — at least one condition must match

Examples:

# Block only when both conditions are true
block if risk_score_gte: 700 AND card_country_id: ['NG']

# Review if either country matches
review if card_country_id: ['NG'] OR billing_country_id: ['NG']

# Single condition — no operator needed
block if card_country_id: ['US']

Managing rules

Create, edit, and reorder rules from the Rules section in the dashboard, or via the REST API
Rules are evaluated in ascending order number — lower numbers are evaluated first
Rules only apply to future transactions; existing processed payments are not affected
Review your rules regularly and adjust them as your transaction patterns evolve