Exclusion rules

An exclusion rule controls whether products matching a tag or vendor sync into the catalog at all. It acts during sync, before an offer exists: read How catalog rules work first if you have not.

The two effects

Field	What it does
excluded	Matching products stop syncing into the catalog. A product dropped this way never becomes an offer, so no other rule or setting applies to it.
unpublished	Matching products still sync, but stay unpublished.

excluded and unpublished are mutually exclusive: setting one to true automatically clears the other.

Exclusion takes effect as products sync

Exclusion rules are applied as products sync, not when the rule is saved, and tag and vendor rules treat products that already synced differently:

• A tag exclusion does not remove products that already synced. They stay in the catalog as they are, purchasable and visible.

• A vendor exclusion archives an already-synced offer the next time that product is updated on the merchant's platform and syncs. Until then, the offer stays as it is.

This is the most common surprise with exclusion rules. Adding a tag rule reads like "remove these products from the catalog," and that is not what happens: it only stops matching products from syncing in from now on.

Products that already synced

If products already in the catalog need to come out now, contact the Violet team. Cleanup of previously synced products is handled by Violet support today; there is no API or self-serve path for it.

If the goal is only to stop the products from being purchased, a tag-based availability rule with available: false applies to products already in the catalog as they next sync.

Writes replace the whole rule

The write is a literal PUT: the request body replaces the entire rule, and omitted fields are cleared rather than preserved. Always send both fields explicitly.

Example

Stop products tagged discontinued from syncing into the catalog from now on:

PUT /merchants/{merchant_id}/catalog-rules/exclusions/tags/discontinued

{
  "excluded": true,
  "unpublished": false
}

Or let products from a vendor keep syncing while staying unpublished until someone publishes them:

PUT /merchants/{merchant_id}/catalog-rules/exclusions/vendors/Retro%20Toys

{
  "excluded": false,
  "unpublished": true
}

Delete a rule to stop it applying to future syncs:

DELETE /merchants/{merchant_id}/catalog-rules/exclusions/{dimension}/{key}

Endpoint details are in Merchant Configuration Resources.

Related

• How catalog rules work explains why excluded products never see any other rule.

• Offer publishing and visibility covers what unpublished means for offers generally.