A system and method for dynamically determining a set of relevant rule instances based on a set of context attribute values comprising a directory server, an attribute data store, and a rules engine. The directory server includes rule instances having hierarchical structure. The attribute data store has a hierarchical structure and is configured to provide a set of hierarchically relevant context attribute values optimized from the rule instances, based on the set of context attribute values. The rules engine is configured to provide the set of context attribute values to the attribute data store in accordance with the context from the context provider, and to determine a set of relevant rule instances, based on the hierarchically relevant context attribute values from the attribute data store.