Risk & governance
Guardrail
A technical or procedural control that constrains system behaviour.
Definition
Guardrails include input checks, output filters, permissions, policy engines, deterministic validation and human approval steps.
Why it matters
Guardrails are part of the system under test and must be evaluated for both missed risks and blocked legitimate work.
Related concepts
- System under test
The complete configuration being evaluated—not only the model.
- Human in the loop
A person reviews, approves or corrects AI-assisted work.
- False positive
A system flags something as present or risky when it is not.