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A Rule is the customer-facing intake gate. It describes what a customer is allowed to upload for a given product, drop-zone, or API endpoint, and decides — synchronously, while the customer waits — whether each file is accepted, accepted with warnings, or rejected. A Rule covers exactly four things: cardinality (how many files), acceptance (which file types), preflight (the check to run per type), and onFail (what to do when a check fails). It does not describe what happens after acceptance — fixing, optimizing, merging, exporting all belong to the Workflow. Rules live in Library → Upload Rules.

Where a Rule sits: the intake gate inside a workflow that's assigned to a product

Upload Rules list in the Library with file types and clone-template actions

Library → Upload Rules

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Create one

1

Open the Library

Go to Library → Upload Rules. Clone a template that’s close to your product, or click New Upload Rule.
2

Name it and add instructions

Give the rule a clear title. The optional upload instructions are shown to customers in the upload area.
3

Set cardinality

Choose how many files the customer must provide (below).
4

Accept file types

Add each file type you accept, with an optional max size and an optional check (below).
5

Save

Click Save. The rule can now be assigned to a Workflow.
Edit Upload Rule form showing count range, file type, preflight profile selection, and on-fail policy

Edit Upload Rule — cardinality and accepted file types

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Cardinality: how many files

Cardinality is how many files the rule requires and allows. Two modes:

Count range

A MIN and MAX — for example 1–1 for a single artwork, or 1–4 to allow up to four. The customer must provide at least MIN before the job can proceed.

Named slots

A defined role per file — for example Front and Back for a double-sided card. Each slot is its own labelled drop target.

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Accepted file types

Click Add File Type for each type you accept (PDF, PNG, JPG…), and optionally set a max file size. For each type you can decide whether — and how — to check the file.

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Preflight or validation

Toggle Run a preflight or a validation check against uploaded file, then pick what runs. This is the only check performed while the customer waits, so it stays fast; heavier transforms happen later in the Workflow.

Preflight against a Profile

Choose a Preflight Profile — a PDF type lists PDF profiles, a raster type lists Raster profiles. The file is checked against that profile’s checks.

Validation against a standard

Choose a conformance standard instead — PDF/A (1a–4f) or PDF/UA (accessibility). The file is validated for conformance rather than checked against your custom profile.
Preflight and validation are mutually exclusive per file type — you pick one. Only PDF and raster types can be checked; other types (vector, office) are converted to PDF at intake and processed downstream.TODO(filecheck): list the exact vector and office formats accepted for auto-conversion at intake.

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If the check fails

Set the onFail policy per file type: This policy is what Filecheck collapses into the canProceed flag your store reads. See Jobs.
Two layers decide the outcome. Each check inside a Preflight Profile has its own action (Reject / Warn / Auto-fix / Off), and the Rule adds this overall onFail policy on top. When they disagree — for example a check set to Reject under a Rule set to Accept with warnings — the resolved outcome is:TODO(filecheck): document which layer wins when a check action and the Rule’s onFail policy disagree.

Next: add this Rule to a Workflow

Assign the rule at a workflow’s intake stage and define the processing that follows.