Boundaries and guardrails

Two different gates that run before models spend tokens.

	Boundaries (product scope)	Guardrails (safety / abuse)
Question	Is this about our product?	Is this injection / secret / oversized?
Config	boundaries.*	guardrails.*
Clear out	tier=boundary, refuse message	tier=guardrail
Modes	off / warn / block	block / warn / redact
ADR	ADR-0015	ROADMAP F2

Boundaries ladder (local-first)

1. B0 — topic / example overlap; cosine via the L1 embedder when available
2. B1 — cheap local judge when ambiguous
3. B2 — N-vote local quorum (quorum_votes) on still-ambiguous cases
4. B3 — optional frontier judge, hard-capped by frontier_judge_daily_budget_usd (off by default; warns at startup if enabled without a frontier)

Start with mode: warn, tune topics, then mode: block. Example: examples/boundaries/fintech-assist.yaml.

Next

→ Boundaries guide · Guardrails guide