When are custom thresholds worth it for Footer has everything it needs?
When are custom thresholds warranted?
Override `requiredFooterElements` when your footer standard is broader than the legal minimum. Adding elements is the right move when your organisation has decided every commercial send must route to a preference centre, carry a privacy link, or show the company registration details. It is also useful in the other direction for a specific campaign family: narrowing the list for operational mail lets you keep the check in the set without demanding an opt-out that should not be there.
When should you stay on Standard?
Stay on the default pair when your obligation is the legal minimum, because adding elements you do not actually require turns compliance findings into style findings and dilutes both. Keep it when auditing across brands or clients that have different footer conventions, since a shared minimum is what makes those results comparable. If a single element matters intensely — the opt-out, say — the dedicated check for it is a better instrument than a longer list here.
What do you trade away?
Each element you add is another way for a correct send to fail, and elements that are not legally required tend to be the ones a campaign editor legitimately drops. A long list also weakens the signal: when a footer must satisfy six things, the finding becomes a checklist result rather than a clear defect, and people start skimming it. Narrowing the list for a campaign family carries the opposite risk, since a narrowed configuration applied to the wrong send quietly stops checking something that was required.
Community Standard vs org Custom
The Standard pair reflects statutory duty rather than preference, which is why it is short and why it is the version worth citing externally. A Custom list is your organisation's own footer policy and belongs with whoever owns it — legal, brand, or both — with a record of why each element is required. Review it when your obligations change, because a footer policy written for one jurisdiction quietly becomes wrong when you start sending into another.
Worked override examples
A company that requires a preference-centre route on every marketing send sets `requiredFooterElements` to include that alongside `address` and `unsubscribe`, so a footer offering only a hard opt-out fails. A regulated business adds its company registration details to the list, making one audit serve as evidence for a compliance file. A team auditing operational notices narrows the list to `address` only, keeping the check useful on mail where an unsubscribe link would itself be the defect.
How does an agent call it with parameters?
{
"type": "email",
"validations": [
{
"id": "email-footer-complete",
"parameters": {
"requiredFooterElements": []
}
}
]
}