# Chat and content moderation

Most moderation APIs score a message in isolation, against a fixed list of
harm categories. Your policy is usually more specific than that ("no sharing
phone numbers before a booking", "no reviews from people who never ordered"),
and the same words can be fine from one user and a red flag from another.
With SigWise you write the policy as signals, and every message is judged
together with its author's history.

## Write your policy as signals

```json
PUT /v1/signals/policy_violation
{
  "type": "choice",
  "instructions": "Does this user's latest content break the community rules?",
  "criteria": {
    "none": null,
    "contact_sharing": "shares phone numbers, emails or social handles to move off-platform",
    "harassment": "insults, threats or targeted abuse of another user",
    "spam": "repeated promotion, links or copy-pasted messages",
    "prohibited_item": "offers weapons, drugs or counterfeit goods"
  }
}
```

One signal per decision keeps each answer sharp. See
[Writing good signals](https://sigwise.ai/docs/guide/signals.md#writing-good-signals).

## Check before publishing

Send the message with `"wait": true` and only the signals the decision needs.
The API records it, scores the author inline, and returns the verdict:

```json
POST /v1/objects/user-42/events
{
  "wait": true,
  "signals": ["policy_violation"],
  "events": [{ "type": "message", "content": "text me on 555 0100, cheaper outside the app" }]
}
```

```json
{
  "object_id": "user-42",
  "analyzed": true,
  "answers": [
    {
      "signal": "policy_violation",
      "type": "choice",
      "choice": "contact_sharing",
      "probabilities": { "none": 0.03, "contact_sharing": 0.94, "harassment": 0.01, "spam": 0.01, "prohibited_item": 0.01 }
    }
  ]
}
```

Publish, hold for review or reject based on the answer. Set
`"include_history": false` to judge only the new content. See
[Direct moderation](https://sigwise.ai/docs/guides/moderation.md#failure-handling) for what to do when a check fails.

## Moderate in the background too

Not everything needs a blocking check. Send the rest of the activity
asynchronously, and let [rules](https://sigwise.ai/docs/guides/rules.md) alert your team when a user's
behaviour crosses a line over time. Rules fire after inline and background
analyses alike.

## Next steps

- [Direct moderation](https://sigwise.ai/docs/guides/moderation.md)
- [SigWise vs. moderation APIs](https://sigwise.ai/docs/compare/moderation-apis.md)