Sift Events API

openapi: 3.2.0
info:
  title: Sift Decisions Events API
  description: 'Sift is a digital trust and safety platform that uses machine learning to detect and prevent online fraud and abuse - payment fraud, account takeover, account abuse, content abuse, and promotion abuse. This definition covers Sift''s public REST APIs: the Events API (stream user activity), the Score API (real-time Sift Scores 0-100 per abuse type), the Decisions API (apply/retrieve accept/watch/block decisions), the Workflow Status API, the legacy Labels API, the Verification API (OTP step-up), and the PSP Merchant Management API.


    MODELED SPECIFICATION - IMPORTANT: Sift does not publish a single machine-readable OpenAPI document. This file was MODELED by API Evangelist from Sift''s public developer documentation (developers.sift.com) and its officially maintained open-source client libraries (sift-python, sift-ruby, sift-java), which encode the exact paths, HTTP methods, and per-API versions. Endpoint paths, methods, versions, and authentication are confirmed against those sources. Request and response bodies are REPRESENTATIVE: Sift documents example payloads and field dictionaries rather than full JSON Schemas for most resources, so the schema shapes here are modeled from documented examples and may not enumerate every optional field. See review.yml for the confirmed-vs-modeled breakdown.


    Versioning is per API family: Events, Score, and Labels are on v205; Decisions, Workflows, and PSP Merchant Management are on v3; Verification is on v1.'
  version: '2026-07-12'
  contact:
    name: Sift Developer Documentation
    url: https://developers.sift.com/docs
  x-modeled: true
  x-modeled-by: API Evangelist
  x-modeled-sources:
  - https://developers.sift.com/docs
  - https://developers.sift.com/docs/curl/apis-overview
  - https://github.com/SiftScience/sift-python
servers:
- url: https://api.sift.com
  description: Sift production API (single public host)
security:
- apiKeyBasic: []
tags:
- name: Events
  description: Stream user activity to Sift's machine learning models.
paths:
  /v205/events:
    post:
      operationId: postEvent
      tags:
      - Events
      summary: Send an event
      description: Records a user event (reserved types are prefixed with $, e.g. $create_account, $login, $create_order, $transaction, $chargeback, $content_status, plus custom events) so Sift can update its models. Set return_score=true to receive a Sift Score inline, or return_workflow_status=true to receive workflow decisions. The API key is supplied as $api_key in the body or via HTTP Basic auth.
      parameters:
      - name: return_score
        in: query
        required: false
        description: Return the user's Sift Score inline with the event response.
        schema:
          type: boolean
      - name: return_action
        in: query
        required: false
        description: Return actions triggered by the event.
        schema:
          type: boolean
      - name: return_workflow_status
        in: query
        required: false
        description: Return the status and decisions of any workflow run triggered by the event.
        schema:
          type: boolean
      - name: abuse_types
        in: query
        required: false
        description: Comma-separated abuse types to score against when return_score is true.
        schema:
          type: string
          example: payment_abuse,account_abuse,account_takeover
      requestBody:
        required: true
        content:
          application/json:
            schema:
              $ref: '#/components/schemas/Event'
      responses:
        '200':
          description: The event was accepted. status 0 indicates success.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/EventResponse'
        '401':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized'
components:
  schemas:
    AbuseScore:
      type: object
      properties:
        score:
          type: number
          format: float
          minimum: 0
          maximum: 1
          description: Score expressed 0-1 in the API payload; presented as 0-100 in the console.
        reasons:
          type: array
          items:
            type: object
            properties:
              name:
                type: string
              value:
                type: string
              details:
                type: object
                additionalProperties: true
    EventResponse:
      type: object
      description: Modeled response envelope for event and label ingestion.
      properties:
        status:
          type: integer
          description: 0 indicates the event was accepted.
        error_message:
          type: string
        time:
          type: integer
          format: int64
        request:
          type: string
        score_response:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/ScoreResponse'
    ApiError:
      type: object
      description: Modeled error envelope. Sift returns a numeric status and error_message.
      properties:
        status:
          type: integer
          description: Sift status code (0 indicates success; non-zero indicates an error).
        error_message:
          type: string
        time:
          type: integer
          format: int64
    Event:
      type: object
      description: A Sift event. Reserved fields are prefixed with $ (for example $type, $user_id, $api_key). Reserved event types include $create_account, $update_account, $login, $create_order, $update_order, $transaction, $chargeback, $content_status, $create_content, and more; custom events use an unprefixed type. This schema is modeled from documented examples and shows common fields rather than the full field dictionary.
      required:
      - $type
      - $api_key
      properties:
        $type:
          type: string
          description: The event type, e.g. $create_order or a custom type.
          example: $create_order
        $api_key:
          type: string
          description: Your Sift REST API key (may instead be supplied via HTTP Basic auth).
        $user_id:
          type: string
          description: The user this event is associated with.
        $session_id:
          type: string
        $order_id:
          type: string
        $user_email:
          type: string
        $ip:
          type: string
        $amount:
          type: integer
          format: int64
          description: Amount in micros (1/1,000,000 of the base currency unit).
        $currency_code:
          type: string
          example: USD
      additionalProperties: true
    ScoreResponse:
      type: object
      description: Sift Score response (modeled). Scores range 0-100; higher is riskier. The scores object is keyed by abuse type, each carrying a score and reason codes.
      properties:
        status:
          type: integer
        error_message:
          type: string
        user_id:
          type: string
        scores:
          type: object
          additionalProperties:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/AbuseScore'
          description: Keyed by abuse type - payment_abuse, account_abuse, account_takeover, content_abuse, promotion_abuse.
        latest_labels:
          type: object
          additionalProperties: true
  responses:
    Unauthorized:
      description: Missing or invalid API key.
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/ApiError'
  securitySchemes:
    apiKeyBasic:
      type: http
      scheme: basic
      description: HTTP Basic authentication using your Sift REST API key as the username and an empty password. Ingestion APIs (Events, Score, Labels) also accept the key as $api_key in the JSON request body. Account-scoped APIs (Decisions, Workflows, PSP Merchant Management) require your numeric Account ID in the path in addition to the API key.