Shipping LLM Features Safely: Guardrails That Matter

Production is where LLMs meet reality: real users, real edge cases, real liability.

The 5 guardrails

1. Specification before prompt. Define inputs/outputs/constraints.
2. Structured outputs. Prefer JSON schemas; reject invalid parses.
3. Policy & safety checks. Layer filters for PII, toxicity, jailbreaks.
4. Evaluation. Track semantic correctness and format adherence.
5. Observability. Log prompts, latency, usage, and outcomes.

If it isn’t observable, it isn’t reliable.