Exclusion Rules let you define account-wide rules that automatically prevent all Experiences from displaying on specific pages, keeping your product's critical flows clear and your team moving faster.
Exclusion Rules eliminate repetitive work, can prevent costly mistakes (typos, forgotten exclusions on critical pages), and ensure Experiences never conflict with key product moments.
Availability & Usage
🔐 Coming soon
📍 Applies to Tours, Tooltips, Embeddables, Microsurveys, Launchers
⚙️ Set from the Dashboard
What are Exclusion Rules?
Exclusion Rules are account-level controls that block all Chameleon Experiences from appearing on pages that match specific URL patterns. These cannot be overridden by individual URL Rules added to Experiences, ensuring control across your entire account.
ℹ Adding Exclusion Rules will block Experiences from showing on matched pages, but Chameleon still tracks users who visit those pages as MTUs. If you want to avoid tracking MTUs on specific domains (e.g., staging environments), configure those domains separately in your Environments. Learn more here.
How are Exclusion Rules different from URL Rules?
You can set URL Rules for every Experience in Chameleon that determines where it should show. You configure these individually, via the Builder under 'Display Rules'.
Exclusion Rules in the Dashboard work at a higher level and define where nothing should ever show, regardless of individual URL Rule settings on an Experience. When a URL matches an exclusion rule, all Experiences are blocked on that page.
Set your match type (contains, does not contain, starts with, etc.) and URL values once, and these rules will automatically apply to every Experience without requiring individual configuration.
👉 Combine individual URL Rules with global Exclusion Rules to control how you deliver in-app guidance. See more tips and best practices below.
How to use Exclusion Rules
Visit Governance → Exclusion Rules in Your Chameleon Dashboard.
Click Add URL Exclusion to create a new rule
Select your match type from the dropdown (contains, does not contain, exact match, etc.)
Enter the URL pattern or value you want to exclude
Click Add Rule to save and apply across all Experiences
ℹ If an Experience is affected by an Exclusion Rule, it will not show up when previewing via the Builder on the URLs that match your Exclusion Rule.
Common use cases
Protecting onboarding flows
Set an exclusion rule to prevent Tours or Surveys from interrupting new users during the critical first-time flows.
Preventing modal conflicts
If your product uses payment modals, you can create an exclusion rule for URLs that contain that parameter. This avoids competing overlays that can frustrate users.
Sensitive workflows
Block Experiences on URLs containing /billing, /payment, or /account-settings to ensure users can complete critical account management tasks without interruptions.
Working with Exclusions vs URL Rules
When to use Exclusion Rules:
Set Exclusions for pages where Experiences should never appear under any circumstances, such as:
Critical user flows (checkout, payment, onboarding setup)
Sensitive areas (billing, account deletion, admin panels)
Product modals or overlays (identified by URL parameters like
?modal=payment)Internal tools or staging environments (URLs containing
/internal/or/admin/)
When to use Experience-level URL Rules:
Use individual URL Rules for positive targeting, where specific Experiences should show:
Feature adoption Tours targeted to specific pages (
/new-feature)Modals that appear when certain elements exist (
.help-icon)Surveys triggered on particular user segments viewing specific URLs
Launchers that show based on page context
How they work together
Exclusion Rules are evaluated first - If a URL matches an exclusion rule, no Experiences will display.
URL Rules are evaluated second - If no Exclusion Rule blocks the page, then each Experience's Display Rules determine if it should appear.
Example workflow:
Your team wants to show a feature adoption Tour on /dashboard, but never wants ANY Experiences on /dashboard/checkout.
Set Exclusion Rule: URL contains
/dashboard/checkout→ blocks all ExperiencesSet URL Rule on Tour: URL contains
/dashboard→ Tour targets dashboard pagesResult: Tour shows on
/dashboard,/dashboard/settings,/dashboard/reportsbut automatically blocked on/dashboard/checkoutwithout needing to add "does not contain checkout" to every single Experience
Tips for using Exclusion Rules
Start with Exclusions for the obvious
Set up Exclusion Rules first for universally protected pages before building individual Experiences. This creates your "safety net" layer.
Add exclusions as you discover patterns
If you notice multiple Experiences need the same "does not contain" rule, promote that to an Exclusion Rule instead. Reduces maintenance and prevents mistakes.
Document your Exclusions
Keep a list of active Exclusion Rules and why they exist. When onboarding new team members or auditing Experience performance, knowing "nothing shows on /admin/* by design" prevents confusion.