This article walks you through your first moderation run, from opening the app to reviewing your first results. You don't need any technical setup - Moderation works directly with the assets already in your Cloudinary Media Library.
When to use this
Follow this guide if you're opening Moderation for the first time, or if you want a refresher on the basic workflow before setting up rules and automations for your team.
Before you start
You need access to the Cloudinary Console. Moderation opens from there.
Make sure the assets you want to check are already uploaded to your Cloudinary Media Library.
The basic workflow
Set up your rules
Go to Rules and select Create Rule. You can start from scratch or pick a quick starter. See "Create a rule" for details.
Tip: Use the rule's Review threshold to control how much lands in "Needs review" - more review means more human control, less review means more automatic decisions.
Optionally, group rules into a policy
Go to Policies and select Create Policy to save a set of rules you'll reuse.Run moderation.
Click the Run Moderation button and choose One-time moderation. The wizard takes you through two steps:Select Assets - choose images or videos, browse folders, or search for specific assets.
Select Rules - pick the rules (or a policy) to apply.
Tip: Start with one or two rules on a small batch of assets. It's the fastest way to see how strict a rule is before applying it broadly.
Review the results.
The run opens automatically, and you can also find it later under Moderation Runs. Each asset comes back Approved, Rejected, or Needs review. Focus on the Needs Review tab - that's where a human decision is required. You can approve or reject any asset manually.Save the results as metadata (optional).
Use Save Metadata to Assets on the run page to write the results onto your assets in the Media Library, or turn on automatic saving in Settings.Tip: Give runs meaningful names (for example, "Spring campaign hero images") so they're easy to find later.
What happens next
Your first run appears under Moderation Runs with a status of Running while assets are being checked, and Processed when it finishes. Small runs usually finish in a few minutes; larger runs and video runs take longer.
Each run uses Moderation Actions from your plan's quota - roughly one action per asset per rule. You can see your usage anytime in Settings > Quota Usage.
When you're comfortable with one-time runs, consider setting up Ongoing moderation so new uploads are checked automatically.