Sift Events API

openapi: 3.2.0
info:
  title: Sift 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.
  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'
    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
    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
    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.