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The bcat compliance gate enforces one of the most fundamental OpenRTB rules: if a publisher declares that certain content categories are blocked on their inventory, no bid in the response may carry a creative from those categories. The bcat field on the bid request is a publisher’s explicit blocklist. Ignoring it exposes the exchange to brand safety incidents and breaches the supply-side contract.

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Usage

import { createEngine, gates } from "@pecta/core";

const engine = createEngine({
  gates: [
    gates.rtb.tmaxGuard({ bufferMs: 15 }),
    gates.rtb.bcatCompliance(),
    // ...
  ],
  timeout: 15,
});

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How it works

The gate reads the top-level bcat array from ctx.input (the bid request) and builds a set of blocked IAB category strings. It then iterates every bid in the response and checks each entry in bid.cat[] against that set. The first match causes an immediate failure. 
{
  "name": "rtb.bcat-compliance",
  "passed": false,
  "reason": "blocked category in response: IAB25-2",
  "latency_ms": 1
}

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Skipping behaviour

The gate returns passed: true, skipped: true when:
  • The request has no bcat field, or bcat is an empty array — there is nothing to enforce
  • The response contains no bids — there is nothing to check
bcat contains IAB content category codes such as IAB25 (non-standard content) or IAB26 (illegal content). The values come from the publisher or SSP configuration and vary per auction. The gate performs exact string matching against whatever values are present in the request.

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Example: blocked category in bid

A publisher blocks gambling and adult content: 
{
  "bcat": ["IAB9-7", "IAB25-3"],
  "imp": [{ "id": "imp-001", "bidfloor": 1.00 }]
}
A bid response carries a creative tagged with one of the blocked categories: 
{
  "seatbid": [
    {
      "bid": [
        {
          "id": "bid-1",
          "impid": "imp-001",
          "price": 1.20,
          "cat": ["IAB9-7"]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}
The gate finds IAB9-7 in both the blocked set and the bid’s cat array and returns passed: false.

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Options

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name
string
default:"rtb.bcat-compliance"
Override the gate’s name in evaluation results and telemetry.
bcat matching is exact — IAB9 and IAB9-7 are treated as distinct values. If a publisher blocks IAB9 but your bid carries IAB9-7, the gate will not catch it. Normalise category granularity to match what your publishers declare.