Guardrails

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Checks around the AI

Priya puts checks around the Garden Guide before it reaches more players. A guardrail is a check that runs before or after the AI. An input check looks at what the player typed. An output check looks at the answer before the player sees it.

A free safety check

OpenAI's moderation models "detect harmful content in text and images", and "The moderation endpoint is free to use". Its categories include "harassment", "self-harm" and "sexual/minors". Any studio can run it on what goes in and what comes out.

Quick check

A player types something hurtful to the Garden Guide. Where can Priya's guardrail catch it?

  1. An input check, before the AI answers
  2. Only after the AI answers
  3. Nowhere: the AI decides
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An input check, before the AI answers

An input check stops it before the AI reads it at all.

Shard Garden's guardrails

Pick the guardrail

A player asks the Garden Guide to do their maths homework. What happens?

  1. A friendly note: it only helps with Shard Garden
  2. It does the homework
  3. The player is banned
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A friendly note: it only helps with Shard Garden

The topic guardrail keeps the guide on the game, kindly.

Fail safely

If a guardrail or the AI service is down, the guide says "The Garden Guide is resting. Try the help page." It never skips a check to answer faster.

Quick check

If the safety check is slow, it is fine to skip it and show the answer.

Show the answer

False

A slow answer is better than an unsafe one. When checks fail, the guide rests.

Count what is blocked

A dashboard counts blocked questions and answers each day. A sudden jump means a new trick, a bug or a change in the model, and the team looks the same day.

Quick check

On Priya's dashboard, blocked answers jump from 20 a day to 2,000 after a model update. What comes first?

  1. Roll back the update and read the blocked answers
  2. Turn off the guardrail
  3. Nothing: the guardrail did its job
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Roll back the update and read the blocked answers

The guardrail caught them this time. Something changed, and the safe move is to undo it first.

Answers that feel quick

Players notice waiting. A long answer can start appearing at once.

Bolt says: Next: response time and streaming.

Fact-checked 12 October 2026