Redactorr comes with 3,000+ built-in detection rules for common sensitive data like emails, SSNs, and API keys. But what about your organisation's unique identifiers?

That's where custom patterns come in.

Custom patterns are rules you create to tell Redactorr: "This format is sensitive in our organisation, please detect it."

Examples:

• Customer IDs: CUST-123456
• Project codes: PX-2024-089
• Internal employee numbers: EMP-2024-1089
• Custom API keys: mycompany_sk_sample_live_abc123
• Serial numbers: SN-A1B2C3D4

You'll see a form:

• Name: What to call this pattern (e.g., "Customer ID")
• Regex: The pattern to match (e.g., CUST-\d{6})
• Category: What type of data (PII, Credentials, Custom, etc.)
• Test: Sample data to verify your pattern works

If you're not familiar with pattern expressions, here's a quick primer:

In the "Test" box, paste sample data:

CUST-123456
CUST-999999
CUST-000001

Click "Test Pattern". Redactorr will show which strings match and which don't.

Click "Save". Your pattern is now active and will be included in all future detections.

Format: ACC-YYYY-NNNN Pattern expression: ACC-\d{4}-\d{4} Matches: ACC-2024-1089, ACC-2023-5678 Doesn't Match: ACC-24-01, ACCT-2024-1089

Format: PX-YYYY-NNN Pattern expression: PX-\d{4}-\d{3} Matches: PX-2024-001, PX-2025-456 Doesn't Match: PROJECT-2024-001, PX-24-1

Format: [email protected] Pattern expression: \w+\.\w+\.\d+@company\.com Matches: [email protected] Doesn't Match: [email protected] (no employee ID)

Format: SN-XXXXX (5 uppercase letters/digits) Pattern expression: SN-[A-Z0-9]{5} Matches: SN-A1B2C, SN-99999 Doesn't Match: SN-abc12 (lowercase), SN-123 (too short)

For extra accuracy, you can add a JavaScript validator function:

function validateCustomerId(value) {
  // Extract the number part
  const match = value.match(/CUST-(\d{6})/);
  if (!match) return false;

  const num = parseInt(match[1]);

  // Customer IDs must be between 100000 and 999999
  return num >= 100000 && num <= 999999;
}

This ensures "CUST-000001" (invalid) isn't detected, but "CUST-123456" (valid) is.

Edit: Click any pattern to modify its expression or name Disable: Toggle off patterns you don't need right now (keeps them for later) Delete: Remove patterns you'll never use again Export: Download all your custom patterns as JSON (for backup or sharing with team) Import: Load patterns from a JSON file

If your whole team needs the same custom patterns:

Now everyone has the same detection rules.

Start Simple Don't try to match every edge case on your first try. Start with the core pattern and refine as you test.

Use Test Data Keep a file of sample IDs to test against. This helps verify your pattern works before deploying.

Category Matters Assign the right category. "PII" shows up in red (high severity), "Custom" in blue (low severity).

Version Control Export your patterns regularly. If you break a pattern expression, you can restore from backup.

Combine with Whitelisting If your pattern is too broad and catches test data, whitelist the test patterns (like "CUST-000000").