Architecture

Guardrails is designed as a layered, domain-driven system that cleanly separates concerns while remaining highly extensible.

This architecture enables Guardrails to scale from small projects to large enterprise platforms.

High-level system overview

At a high level, Guardrails consists of:

  1. Guardrails Engine
  2. Profiles & Configuration
  3. Execution Pipeline
  4. Analytics & Observability
  5. SDK & API Layer

Each layer is independently evolvable.

Guardrails Engine

The engine is responsible for:

  • Registering guardrails
  • Executing them in order
  • Handling short-circuiting (e.g. blocking)
  • Producing structured results

Key characteristics:

  • Stateless execution
  • Deterministic ordering
  • Typed inputs and outputs
  • Explicit execution stages (input, output, tool, general)

Profiles & configuration

Profiles define which guardrails apply and how they are configured.

Examples:

  • Default production profile
  • Enterprise security profile
  • Child safety profile
  • Custom organization profiles

Profiles are:

  • Versionable
  • Composable
  • Stored and compiled at runtime
  • Decoupled from execution logic

Execution pipeline

A typical execution flow:

  1. Input received
  2. Profile resolved
  3. Guardrails instantiated
  4. Guardrails executed sequentially
  5. Results aggregated
  6. Final decision returned

The pipeline supports:

  • Blocking
  • Warning
  • Redaction
  • Modification
  • Telemetry emission

Analytics & observability

Every execution can emit structured analytics events, including:

  • Guardrail execution results
  • Latency metrics
  • Profile usage
  • Failure reasons

Analytics is designed as:

  • Event-driven
  • Extensible
  • Queryable for dashboards
  • Safe for compliance use cases

SDK & API layer

The SDK provides:

  • Typed client interfaces
  • Retry and timeout handling
  • Consistent error modeling
  • Easy integration for developers

The API layer:

  • Exposes validation and management endpoints
  • Enforces authentication and authorization
  • Serves as the integration boundary

Architectural benefits

This architecture enables:

  • Independent evolution of guardrails
  • Safe customization without forks
  • Enterprise-scale observability
  • SDKs for multiple languages
  • Long-term maintainability

Next steps

  • Understand the building blocks → Core Concepts
  • Learn how guardrails are executed → Guardrails Overview
  • Explore analytics → Analytics Overview