Abstract: A method and system for determining document content based actions. A rule engine is provided with a document to be acted on, preferably in XML format. The rule engine is also provided with a set of rules and associated actions to be taken upon special conditions. The document is evaluated according to the rules and the document contents; each of the rules is parsed into a parse tree, the document is further evaluated, including, for the provided document, populating the parse tree with at least a portion of the document contents, to create a content-populated parse tree. The portion of the actions to be initiated is selected based on the content-populated parse tree. Actions could include, by way of example, security control or further routing of the document.