Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://openlayer.com/docs/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Guardrails are runtime checks that help you enforce constraints on your AI system’s
inputs and outputs.
Guardrails vs. Tests
Guardrails complement tests, in particular in monitoring mode.
While your Openlayer tests run continuously on top of your live data and trigger a notification
in case of failure, guardrails validate inputs and outputs in real time and block or modify them if
they don’t meet your constraints.
Together, they give you both proactive coverage (through tests)
and reactive protection (through guardrails).
Guardrails are not a replacement for tests. They are a complementary tool to
help you ensure that your AI system is safe and compliant. Furthermore, it is
worth noting that guardrails introduce latency in your system, as they need to
validate inputs and outputs in real time.
Guardrails library
Openlayer has a Python library for guardrails. You can use one of the
built-in guardrails (such as the PII or prompt injection), or implement custom guardrails
following the interface defined in the BaseGuardrail class.
You can install it with:
pip install openlayer-guardrails
| Guardrail | Extra | Install command |
|---|
PIIGuardrail | pii | pip install openlayer-guardrails[pii] |
PromptInjectionGuardrail | prompt-injection | pip install openlayer-guardrails[prompt-injection] |
With Openlayer tracing
Guardrails work well with Openlayer tracing. In this case,
you can pass the desired guardrails to the trace decorator, and they will be applied
to the inputs and outputs of the traced function.
from openlayer_guardrails import PIIGuardrail
from openlayer.lib.tracing import trace
# Create the guardrail object with the desired configuration
pii_guard = PIIGuardrail()
# Apply to traced functions
@trace(guardrails=[pii_guard])
def process_user_data(user_input: str):
return f"Processed: {user_input}"
# PII is automatically handled
result = process_user_data("My email is john@example.com")
# Output: "Processed: My email is [EMAIL-REDACTED]"
Standalone usage
Openlayer guardrails can also be used standalone, without tracing. Here’s an example:
# Import the guardrail
from openlayer_guardrails import PIIGuardrail
# Create the guardrail object with the desired configuration
pii_guard = PIIGuardrail(
block_entities={"CREDIT_CARD", "US_SSN"},
redact_entities={"EMAIL_ADDRESS", "PHONE_NUMBER"}
)
# Call the guardrail on the data
data = {"message": "My email is john@example.com and SSN is 123-45-6789"}
result = pii_guard.check_input(data)
if result.action.value == "block":
print(f"Blocked: {result.reason}")
elif result.action.value == "modify":
print(f"Modified data: {result.modified_data}")
