Custom Rules

Custom rules let you extend Sieve’s built-in moderation with your own wordlists, regex patterns, and allowlists. Rules are processed in Tier 0 (local Rust/WASM) for near-zero latency.

Create a Rule

The operation to perform. Use create to add a new rule.

The rule type. One of:

wordlist — Match against a list of exact words or phrases.
regex — Match against a regular expression pattern.
allowlist — Exempt specific words or phrases from being flagged.

The pattern to match. For wordlist and allowlist, pass an array of strings. For regex, pass a single regex pattern string.

Rule evaluation priority. Higher values are evaluated first. Default is 0.

The action to take when the rule matches. One of flag or block.

Example: Create a Wordlist Rule

curl -X POST https://api.getsieve.dev/v1/config/rules \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer mod_live_abc123..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "action": "create",
    "type": "wordlist",
    "pattern": ["bad_word_1", "bad_word_2", "bad_phrase"],
    "priority": 10,
    "moderation_action": "block"
  }'

const response = await fetch("https://api.getsieve.dev/v1/config/rules", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "Authorization": "Bearer mod_live_abc123...",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    action: "create",
    type: "wordlist",
    pattern: ["bad_word_1", "bad_word_2", "bad_phrase"],
    priority: 10,
    moderation_action: "block",
  }),
});

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.getsieve.dev/v1/config/rules",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer mod_live_abc123..."},
    json={
        "action": "create",
        "type": "wordlist",
        "pattern": ["bad_word_1", "bad_word_2", "bad_phrase"],
        "priority": 10,
        "moderation_action": "block",
    },
)

Response

{
  "rule_id": "rule_a1b2c3",
  "type": "wordlist",
  "pattern": ["bad_word_1", "bad_word_2", "bad_phrase"],
  "priority": 10,
  "moderation_action": "block",
  "created_at": "2026-03-28T12:00:00Z"
}

Example: Create a Regex Rule

curl -X POST https://api.getsieve.dev/v1/config/rules \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer mod_live_abc123..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "action": "create",
    "type": "regex",
    "pattern": "\\b(buy|sell)\\s+\\w+\\s+(cheap|free)\\b",
    "priority": 5,
    "moderation_action": "flag"
  }'

const response = await fetch("https://api.getsieve.dev/v1/config/rules", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "Authorization": "Bearer mod_live_abc123...",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    action: "create",
    type: "regex",
    pattern: "\\b(buy|sell)\\s+\\w+\\s+(cheap|free)\\b",
    priority: 5,
    moderation_action: "flag",
  }),
});

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.getsieve.dev/v1/config/rules",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer mod_live_abc123..."},
    json={
        "action": "create",
        "type": "regex",
        "pattern": r"\b(buy|sell)\s+\w+\s+(cheap|free)\b",
        "priority": 5,
        "moderation_action": "flag",
    },
)

List Rules

To list all rules, send a request with action set to list:

curl -X POST https://api.getsieve.dev/v1/config/rules \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer mod_live_abc123..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"action": "list"}'

Delete a Rule

To delete a rule, send a request with action set to delete and include the rule_id:

curl -X POST https://api.getsieve.dev/v1/config/rules \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer mod_live_abc123..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "action": "delete",
    "rule_id": "rule_a1b2c3"
  }'