Sync rules

A sync rule is a small piece of automation: when this happens, and the contact matches these conditions, send it to these destinations. Rules are how you route contacts from OpenContact out to your ESPs, CRMs, and lists.

Anatomy of a rule

1. Trigger

When the rule fires — a contact is created, updated, unsubscribed, bounced, complained, or added to a list. See Triggers for the full list and when to use each.

2. Filter

Optional conditions the contact must match for the rule to continue — e.g. custom_fields.plan is pro, or country is US. Leave it empty to run for every contact. You can also filter on email verification results (e.g. skip disposable or role addresses).

3. Destinations

One or more places to send the contact. A destination is either:

• A provider — upsert the contact into a connected ESP/CRM, optionally into a specific list/audience, with your own field mapping.
• An OpenContact list — add the contact to an internal list (free, and can drive further rules).

Fan-out vs router

A rule with multiple destinations runs in one of two modes:

• Send to all (fan-out) — every matching destination fires. Use this to mirror a contact into several tools at once.
• Route to first (router) — destinations are checked in order and only the first one whose condition matches fires. Use this to send EU contacts to one provider and US contacts to another, for example.

Field mapping

For provider destinations, map OpenContact fields to the provider’s fields — with transforms (lowercase, etc.), static values, and defaults. OpenContact suggests your contacts’ fields so mapping is quick.

Suppression policy

Each rule has a suppression policy. Set it to suppression wins globally to have an unsubscribe/bounce/complaint from any provider propagate a suppression to all of this rule’s destinations. See Suppression & compliance.

Test before you save

Every rule has a Test panel: dry-run it against a real or sample contact and see, per destination, whether it would fire and the exact fields that would be sent. Nothing leaves OpenContact during a test.