---
title: Dismissal Rules
description: Suppress a recommendation you've judged not applicable so it stops reappearing in future audits, and manage those rules from the Revision Plan.
---

Every audit re-derives its recommendations from scratch. That means a recommendation you've already considered and rejected — one that doesn't apply to your app, or that you tried and it didn't work — comes back on the next run. A dismissal rule tells Apptonomy to suppress that specific recommendation going forward, so your audit surfaces only the work you actually still care about.

A dismissal is keyed to the recommendation's identity (its engine and target), not to a single audit. Once you dismiss it, it stays suppressed across every future audit for that project until you restore it.

## Before you start

- You need the **editor** role on the project. Dismissing and restoring are mutations.
- You need an audit with recommendations open in front of you — dismissal starts from a specific recommendation, not from a settings screen.

## Dismiss a recommendation

### 1. Find the recommendation

Open an audit and locate the insight or action you want to suppress.

### 2. Dismiss with a reason

Click the dismiss control (the archive-box icon) on the item. A dialog asks **Why are you dismissing this recommendation?** Pick the reason that fits:

- **Not applicable**
- **Already done**
- **Tried, didn't work**
- **Bad recommendation**
- **Other**

For the first four, the dismissal saves as soon as you pick. **Other** opens a short note field — a memo is required so there's a record of why. The note also helps the engine learn what to skip.

### 3. Undo if needed

A confirmation toast appears with an **Undo** action right after you dismiss, in case you clicked the wrong item.

## Manage your dismissal rules

All of a project's dismissal rules live in one place: the **Revision Plan** page. Filter the list by **Dismissed rules** to see every recommendation you've suppressed, each showing its reason and any memo.

From that list you can:

- **Edit the reason** — change the reason tag or memo on an existing rule. If you switch a rule to **Other**, a memo becomes required.
- **Restore** — remove the rule so the recommendation is eligible to appear in future audits again.

:::note[Reasons are a signal, not just a label]
The reason you pick is recorded with the rule. Beyond keeping your own list readable, the reasons feed telemetry that informs how recommendations are tuned — so choosing an accurate reason (rather than always reaching for "Other") is worth the extra second.
:::

## Verify it worked

After dismissing, the item drops out of the current view and appears under **Dismissed rules** in the Revision Plan. On your next audit, that recommendation no longer surfaces. If you restore a rule, the recommendation becomes eligible again the next time an audit would produce it.

## Troubleshooting

### A dismissed recommendation came back

Dismissal is scoped to a specific recommendation identity — its engine plus the exact target it points at. If the recommendation reappears with different wording, it's most likely a different target (a new keyword, a different screenshot, a changed field), which is a genuinely new recommendation rather than the one you dismissed. Dismiss the new one if it also doesn't apply. Also confirm the rule is still present under **Dismissed rules** and wasn't restored.

### I can't dismiss or restore

Both actions require the **editor** role and an active subscription. If the organization's trial has expired or its subscription is canceled, the mutation is blocked until billing is resolved.

## Related

- [Understanding your report](/docs/audits/understanding-your-report)
- [Audit History](/docs/audits/history)
- [Audit Engines](/docs/audit-engines/overview)