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Why use Tracer?

Tracer gives you precise control over how transactions are validated across your financial ecosystem. With response times under 80ms (p99) and flexible configuration, you can enforce policies, apply spending limits, and maintain compliance—all without compromising user experience or writing complex code. At its core, Tracer provides two foundational capabilities:
  • Validation rules: Expression-based rules using CEL (Common Expression Language) that evaluate transaction context and return instant decisions—without requiring code deployments.
  • Dynamic spending limits: Configurable limits per transaction, per account, per portfolio, or per segment—with real-time usage tracking and automatic period resets.

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Solving control and compliance challenges

Tracer helps institutions evaluate spending policies, identify unauthorized transactions, and satisfy audit requirements. Whether you need to detect transactions that exceed spending caps, evaluate custom business rules, or maintain a complete audit trail for SOX/GLBA compliance, Tracer provides the speed, flexibility, and governance required for modern financial operations.

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Key capabilities

  • Real-time validation with response times under 80ms (p99)
  • Expression-based rule engine using CEL (Common Expression Language) for type-safe, analyst-friendly rules
  • Product-agnostic design supporting multiple transaction types:
    • Card transactions (debit, credit, prepaid)
    • Wire transfers (domestic, international, ACH)
    • PIX (instant, scheduled)
    • Cryptocurrency (bitcoin, ethereum, stablecoin)
  • Dynamic spending limits:
    • Per transaction, account, portfolio, or segment
    • Daily, monthly, or per-transaction periods
  • Real-time limit usage tracking with automatic period resets
  • Complete audit trail with 7+ year retention for SOX/GLBA compliance
  • Configurable fail-open architecture to prevent blocking legitimate transactions

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How it works

Tracer is built around three core contexts:
  1. Validation Context - Orchestrates validation requests, coordinates rule and limit evaluation, and records the audit trail.
  2. Rules Context - Manages rule definitions, compiles expressions, and evaluates rules against transaction context.
  3. Limits Context - Manages spending limit configurations, tracks usage counters, and enforces thresholds.
When a transaction is submitted for validation:
All active rules are evaluated, and if any DENY rule matches, Tracer returns a DENY decision. Limits are checked against current usage, and the decision is returned with a complete audit record. Your system is responsible for acting on this decision (e.g., blocking the transaction, showing an error to the user, or queuing for review).

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When to use Tracer

Tracer fits naturally into any workflow where you need to control how money moves through your institution.
  • Spending governance: Evaluate transactions against internal or customer-level spending policies
  • Transaction validation: Evaluate custom business rules and return decisions before transaction execution
  • Regulatory compliance: Produce audit-ready logs and ensure traceability
  • Customer protection: Detect overspending and return decisions that your system can act on

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Scope and design principles

Tracer is a transaction validation engine, not a complete fraud management system. It is a specialized component optimized for low-latency decisions (< 100ms) that validates pre-enriched payloads against configurable rules and limits. This focused scope enables Tracer to deliver predictable performance while integrating seamlessly with broader fraud prevention ecosystems.

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What Tracer focuses on

  • Rule-based validation: Deterministic, expression-based logic using CEL
  • Spending limits: Real-time enforcement with automatic period reset
  • Audit trail: Immutable records for compliance (SOX/GLBA)
  • Low-latency decisions: Synchronous API responses under 80ms (p99)

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What Tracer does not include

CapabilityReasonAlternative
Machine learning scoringML inference adds latency incompatible with sub-100ms targetIntegrate external ML services upstream and pass scores via metadata
Data enrichmentExternal calls during validation break latency guaranteesEnrich payloads in your integration before calling Tracer
Manual review workflowsCase management is outside core validation scopeBuild review queues in your system and use REVIEW decision as trigger
User interfaceAPI-first design enables flexible integrationBuild custom UIs or use third-party tools
Custom time windowsSimplicity over flexibility for initial releaseUse DAILY, MONTHLY, or PER_TRANSACTION periods
These boundaries keep Tracer fast, predictable, and focused on its core value: instant transaction decisions with complete audit trails.

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Integration

Integrating with Tracer is straightforward. Your authorization system sends validation requests with complete transaction context, and Tracer responds with a decision—typically in under 35ms. This Payload-Complete Pattern keeps things simple: all the context Tracer needs arrives in a single request, so there are no external calls during validation and latency stays predictable.
Tracer is designed as a single-tenant platform for MVP (one instance per client). Multi-tenant architecture with Access Manager integration is planned for Phase 2.