SERVICES · DEFENSIVE

Agentic Guardrails

Runtime constraints that limit what your AI agents can do — even when their reasoning is compromised.

Agentic Guardrails is a defensive engineering engagement. We design and implement runtime constraints around your AI agents so that even when an agent is manipulated, its capacity to cause damage is bounded. Tool-scoping, action allowlists, blast-radius limits, and rate caps — engineered to your specific agent graph, not pasted from a generic policy.

// THE PROBLEM

What we're solving when you hire us for this

Most defensive AI engineering focuses on preventing agents from being manipulated. That's a losing battle — sufficiently sophisticated injection will eventually succeed against any model. The realistic defensive question is: when an agent is manipulated, what can it actually do? An agent with unrestricted tool access can drain accounts. An agent with scoped, rate-limited, allowlisted tool access cannot.

Agentic Guardrails engineers that scoping. We don't try to make agents un-manipulable. We make manipulated agents unable to cause material damage. The engagement produces runtime configuration, policy code, and monitoring infrastructure that survives in production beyond the engagement window.

// HOW WE RUN IT

The five phases of an Agentic Guardrails engagement

Capability Inventory

We document every tool, API, and action your agents can invoke, including indirect access through chained calls. The output is a written capability map showing the full blast radius of a compromised agent.

Duration 3–5 days · Output: capability map

Risk Tier Assignment

Each capability is assigned a risk tier based on impact (data exposure, financial action, irreversibility) and reachability (how easy it is to invoke). High-tier capabilities require stronger guardrails.

Duration 2–3 days · Output: tiered capability map

Guardrail Design

We design the runtime constraints: tool allowlists per agent, rate limits per action, approval gates for irreversible operations, blast-radius bounds. Design is reviewed and approved by your engineering team before implementation.

Duration 4–5 days · Output: design document + approval gate

Implementation

We work with your engineering team to implement the guardrails — either directly (we write the policy code) or in advisory mode (we design, your team implements). Implementation includes monitoring and alerting for guardrail trips.

Duration 7–10 days · Output: deployed guardrails + monitoring

Validation & Handoff

We test the guardrails against the threat model — confirming that intended operations still work and unintended ones are blocked. Final deliverable includes a runbook for ongoing maintenance and tuning.

Duration 3–4 days · Output: validation report + runbook

// WHAT YOU RECEIVE

Deliverables, named and specific

Capability Map

Complete inventory of agent tool access, API surface, and indirect-call chains. Useful as ongoing reference as your agent system evolves.

15–25 pages · Markdown + diagram

Guardrail Design Document

Runtime constraints specified per agent, per capability, with rationale for each policy decision. Reviewed and approved by your engineering team before implementation.

Design document + policy code

Implementation Artifacts

Deployed policy code, configuration, and monitoring rules. Either committed directly to your repository or delivered as patches your team applies.

Code + configuration

Monitoring & Alerting

Alerts for guardrail trips so your team knows when constraints are activating in production — and can distinguish expected limits from unexpected abuse.

Monitoring rules + alert routing

Operations Runbook

Documentation for tuning guardrails as your agent system evolves — when to loosen, when to tighten, and how to test changes before deploying them.

Runbook + playbooks

Engineering Handoff Session

Working session with your team to walk through the deployed guardrails, the runbook, and the process for updating constraints as the system changes.

90-minute session + recording

// ENGAGEMENT SHAPE

Specific numbers, not approximations

// DURATION

3–5 weeks

Implementation phase varies

// TEAM SIZE

2 practitioners

Minimum, both senior

// CADENCE

Daily async updates

By 18:00 client timezone

// ENGAGEMENT MODE

Advisory or implementer

Per SOW preference

// SCOPE

Per-agent, per-capability

Written in SOW

// STARTING PRICE

$24,500

Advisory mode; implementation higher

// ARTIFACT DELIVERY

Continuous

Code committed as designed

// RUNBOOK HANDOFF

End of engagement

Includes 30-day support

// WHEN THIS IS RIGHT

Honest fit criteria

// THE RIGHT FIT

—

Your agents have access to high-impact tools (financial, data access, customer-facing actions) and you need defensible scoping.

—

You've run Adversarial Probing or Multi-Agent Attack Simulation and need to act on the findings — this is the engagement that hardens.

—

Your engineering team understands the value of runtime constraints but doesn't have the bandwidth to design and deploy them in-house.

—

Regulatory or insurance requirements demand documented runtime constraints on AI agent behavior.

// THE WRONG FIT

—

Your agents are read-only with no tool calls or actions — guardrails have nothing to constrain.

—

You haven't yet tested your agents for vulnerabilities — guardrails are downstream of knowing where attacks succeed. Run probing first.

—

Your engineering team can't make changes during the engagement — implementation requires their active participation.

—

You want guardrails that are absolute and prevent all manipulation — runtime constraints bound damage; they don't prevent compromise.

// RELATED ENGAGEMENTS

Where this connects to the rest of our work

Adversarial Probing

Run this first to understand which capabilities are exposed before designing guardrails against them.

DETAILS →

Multi-Agent Attack Simulation

If your system has multiple agents, run this to map cross-agent attack paths before designing graph-aware guardrails.

DETAILS →

Neural Hardening

Companion engagement for hardening the inference infrastructure that runs underneath your agents.

DETAILS →

Agentic Guardrails engagements start from $24,500. Reply within 24h. NDA before scope.

BOOK THIS ENGAGEMENT →