restarules-sdk

Validate and evaluate AI agent compliance against RestaRules venue conduct rules.

What is RestaRules?

RestaRules is an open standard that lets restaurants publish machine-readable conduct rules for AI agents. Restaurants host a JSON file at /.well-known/agent-venue-rules.json defining what AI agents are and aren't allowed to do — disclosure requirements, allowed channels, rate limits, party size policies, deposit requirements, and more. This SDK lets developers validate those rules files and evaluate whether a proposed agent action is compliant.

Installation

The SDK is not yet published to npm. To use it locally:

git clone https://github.com/selfradiance/restarules.git
cd restarules/sdk
npm install

Then reference it from your project:

const { validateRules, evaluateCompliance } = require('./path/to/restarules/sdk');

Quick Start

const { validateRules, evaluateCompliance } = require("./path/to/restarules/sdk");

// 1. Validate a rules file
const rules = {
  schema_version: "0.3",
  venue_name: "Example Restaurant",
  venue_url: "https://example.com",
  last_updated: "2026-03-09",
  effective_at: "2026-03-09",
  default_policy: "deny_if_unspecified",
  disclosure_required: { enabled: true, phrasing: "I am an AI assistant." },
  allowed_channels: ["phone", "web"]
};

const validation = validateRules(rules);
console.log(validation.valid);   // true
console.log(validation.errors);  // null

// 2. Evaluate compliance for a proposed action
const decision = evaluateCompliance(rules, {
  channel: "phone",
  partySize: 4,
  action: "booking_request",
  attempts: 1
});

console.log(decision.channel);      // { result: "ALLOWED" }
console.log(decision.disclosure);   // { required: true, phrasing: "I am an AI assistant." }

API Reference

validateRules(rules)

• rules (object) — A parsed RestaRules JSON object.
• Returns { valid: boolean, errors: array|null }.
• Uses JSON Schema Draft 2020-12 validation via Ajv.

evaluateCompliance(rules, params)

• rules (object) — A validated RestaRules JSON object.
• params (object) — The proposed agent action:
  • channel (string|null) — The channel the agent intends to use (e.g., "phone", "web", "sms")
  • partySize (number|null) — Party size for the booking
  • action (string|null) — The action identifier. For rate limit checks, this matches against rate_limits[].action (venue-facing labels like "booking_request", "inquiry"). For channel checks, this matches against allowed_channels_by_action keys (agent-facing action types like "create_booking", "cancel_booking"). For booking window checks, must be "create_booking" to trigger enforcement. See spec Section 4 (Action Vocabularies) for the full explanation of the two vocabularies.
  • attempts (number|null) — Number of attempts the agent has made for this action
  • targetTime (string|null) — ISO 8601 datetime of the proposed booking (e.g., "2026-03-20T19:00:00-05:00"). Required for booking_window enforcement when action is "create_booking". MUST be timezone-qualified (with UTC offset or Z suffix) — naive timestamps without timezone offsets produce environment-dependent results and MUST NOT be used
  • currentTime (string|null) — ISO 8601 datetime to use as "now" for booking window calculations (e.g., "2026-03-20T14:00:00-05:00"). Defaults to the actual current time if omitted. Useful for deterministic testing. MUST be timezone-qualified when provided
• Returns an object with decisions for each rule section:

| Property | Description | |---|---| | disclosure | { required, phrasing } — whether the agent must identify itself | | channel | { result, source, allowedChannels } — "ALLOWED", "DENIED", or "NOT_CHECKED". source is "per_action_override" or "base" indicating which channel list was used. allowedChannels lists the effective channels | | partySize | { result, autoMax } — "ALLOWED", "ESCALATE_TO_HUMAN", "DENIED_DEFAULT_POLICY", or "NOT_CHECKED" | | escalationConditions | Array of non-party-size escalation triggers | | rateLimit | { result, limit, windowValue, windowUnit, appliesTo, countingScope } — "WITHIN_LIMITS", "EXCEEDED", "DENIED_DEFAULT_POLICY", or "NOT_CHECKED". countingScope is "per_agent" (default), "per_user", or "per_session" | | thirdParty | { defined, noResale, noTransfer, identityBound } or { defined: false, defaultPolicyResult } | | complaintEndpoint | URL string or null | | venueMetadata | { currency, timezone } | | depositPolicy | { defined, required, amount, currency, refundable } or { defined: false, defaultPolicyResult } | | userAcknowledgmentRequirements | { defined, policies, skippedPolicies } or { defined: false, defaultPolicyResult }. skippedPolicies lists any policy names that reference absent fields (silently skipped, null when none) | | cancellationPolicy | { defined, penaltyApplies, windowMinutes, penaltyAmount, currency } or { defined: false } | | noShowPolicy | { defined, fee, currency, gracePeriodMinutes } or { defined: false } | | bookingWindow | { defined, enforced, result, reason, minHoursAhead, maxDaysAhead } — result is "ALLOWED", "DENIED", or "NOT_EVALUATED". enforced is true only when action is create_booking, targetTime is provided, and venue_timezone is present |

Permission fields respect default_policy when absent — returning "DENIED_DEFAULT_POLICY" or "ALLOWED" depending on the venue's setting. Informational fields (complaintEndpoint, cancellationPolicy, noShowPolicy) never block actions.

Schema Version

This SDK validates against RestaRules schema v0.3. Rules files with schema_version "0.1", "0.2", or "0.3" are accepted.

Links

• RestaRules specification
• Live demo rules file
• License: MIT