Decisions and outcomes

Every check — an entity condition or a project restriction — resolves to one of three outcomes:

Decision	Meaning
Allow	The check passes.
Soft deny	The check couldn't be completed — usually because information it needed wasn't available. Checkout may prompt for that information or retry; it isn't a final "no."
Hard deny	The check fails outright.

How outcomes combine on one item

An item can have several checks running against it at once — more than one entity condition, plus project restrictions when the purchase is against a project. The item is only allowed through if every one of its checks allows it; a single denial from any check denies the item. When more than one check fails, all of the failures are reported together, not just the first one, so everything that needs addressing is visible at once.

Reason codes

Each denial carries a machine-readable reason code identifying exactly what failed:

Check	Reason code	Meaning
Any entity condition	condition.unknown	The item references a condition checkout doesn't recognize — the id doesn't exist, is disabled, or hasn't reached checkout yet (soft deny); see Entity condition
Age restriction	age_restriction.missing_context	Shopper's age wasn't available (soft deny)
Age restriction	age_restriction.underage	Shopper is below the minimum age
License requirement	license_requirement.missing_context	Shopper's licenses weren't available (soft deny)
License requirement	license_requirement.license_missing	Shopper's licenses don't include the required one
License requirement	license_requirement.level_insufficient	Shopper holds the license, but not at the minimum level (lower, missing, or not a whole number)
Project restriction	project_restriction.project_unreachable	The project's restrictions couldn't be looked up (soft deny)
Project restriction	project_restriction.property_missing	The item was missing a property a restriction needed, and wasn't allowed to be
Project restriction	project_restriction.whitelist_not_met	Item property's value wasn't in the allowed list
Project restriction	project_restriction.blacklist_not_met	Item property's value was in the denied list
Project restriction	project_restriction.item_not_whitelisted	Item id wasn't in the allowed list
Project restriction	project_restriction.blacklisted_item	Item id was in the denied list

See the API reference for the exact response shape these appear in.

Things worth knowing

• An unrecognized condition doesn't hide the others. The item's other checks still run and report their own outcomes — an unknown id next to a failed age check reports both the soft deny and the hard deny.
• A condition.unknown result carries no rule, since checkout can't tell which check the condition would have been.
• Unknown project restriction types work the other way round. An unrecognized restriction type on a project passes, while an unrecognized entity condition holds the item back — see Project restrictions.