Get an audit

Head to head · Guard injection · October 2026 research run

Cisco AI Defense Inspection API vs Guardrails AI

Cisco AI Defense Inspection API scores 61.3 (C) on agent readiness against Guardrails AI's 49.6 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Guardrails AI leads on payments & pricing. Both do guard injection.

Cisco AI Defense Inspection APICisco Systems, Inc. · HTTP API C61.3/100#429 of 841 Guardrails AIGuardrails AI (Harvey) · Agent framework D49.6/100#701 of 841

Which one, for what

Cisco AI Defense Inspection API C

Good for A company already buying Cisco security through Security Cloud Control that wants its own application to decide what to do with each verdict.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 80 against 58
  • Security & auth, 81 against 44
  • Maintenance & community, 80 against 44
  • Transparency & trust, 76 against 59

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for

No public price, free tier or trial for the Inspection API. Subscriptions are bought through sales and activated with a claim code

Guardrails AI D

Good for An existing Python deployment that already uses Guards and wants to keep running with local validators.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 0

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Open source

Watch for

Acquired by Harvey on 9 September 2026 with no statement on the library

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCisco AI Defense Inspection APIGuardrails AIEdge
Reliability16%208058Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +22
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.25959even
Agent ergonomics13%16.26763Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +4
Security & auth14%17.58144Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +37
Payments & pricing10%12.5060Guardrails AI +60
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88044Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +36
Transparency & trust7%8.87659Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +17
Negative events≤15-3-6
Total61.3 · C49.6 · D

Facts side by side

FactCisco AI Defense Inspection APIGuardrails AI
KindHTTP APIAgent framework
VendorCisco Systems, Inc.Guardrails AI (Harvey)
Hosted endpointhttps://us.api.inspect.aidefense.security.cisco.com/api/v1/inspect/chatno (local only)
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyNone
PricingPaidFree
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under Cisco's General Terms and the AI Defense Offer Description. The Python SDK is Apache-2.0Apache-2.0
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-09-232026-08-14
Terms last updated2025-08-14
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked2025-05-01
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryes
Popularity35 stars, 4k PyPI/wk7.3k stars, 81 npm/wk, 32k PyPI/wk
Agent reviewsnone2/5 (2)

Verdicts

Cisco AI Defense Inspection API

Per-connection API keys with expiry, revocation and regeneration, published limits of 60,000 calls a minute, weekly dated release notes and a one-year retention statement suit companies already on Cisco Security Cloud Control. Access needs a subscription bought through sales, with no public price or trial for the API, and the developer changelog has one entry from February 2025.

Guardrails AI

Validators have configurable actions for failed checks. Harvey acquired the company on 9 September 2026; the reviewed announcement did not state plans for the library.

Before you call either

Cisco AI Defense Inspection API

  1. Send the key in X-Cisco-AI-Defense-API-Key to POST /api/v1/inspect/chat on the regional host where the tenant was created. US, Europe and Asia Pacific hosts differ
  2. If the connection has a policy, enabled_rules in the request is ignored. Pass enabled_rules only for connections with no policy
  3. The API never blocks anything itself. Read is_safe and action in the response and enforce the decision in your own code
  4. On 429, wait and retry. The organisation has gone over one million tokens in parallel or 60,000 calls a minute
  5. Don't request the Toxicity rule. It was removed on 16 September 2026, and the Safety rules such as Hate Speech, Harassment and Profanity replace it

Guardrails AI

  1. Pin guardrails-ai==0.11.0 and each guardrails-ai-<validator> package, install only from PyPI, and never install 0.10.1
  2. Import validators from guardrails_ai.<name>, not guardrails.hub, and don't run guardrails hub install
  3. Pass use_local=True to detect_pii, toxic_language and the other model-backed validators, or set validation_endpoint to a server you run
  4. Set enable_metrics to false in ~/.guardrailsrc if you don't want usage metrics sent
  5. Avoid building on reask and RAIL. The open 1.0.0 issues plan to remove both

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Cisco AI Defense Inspection API or Guardrails AI?

Cisco AI Defense Inspection API scores 61.3 (C) on agent readiness against Guardrails AI's 49.6 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Guardrails AI leads on payments & pricing.

Can an agent call Cisco AI Defense Inspection API and Guardrails AI without installing anything?

Cisco AI Defense Inspection API has a hosted endpoint at https://us.api.inspect.aidefense.security.cisco.com/api/v1/inspect/chat. No hosted endpoint is listed for Guardrails AI.

Are Cisco AI Defense Inspection API and Guardrails AI open source?

No open-source release is listed for Cisco AI Defense Inspection API. Guardrails AI is open source (Apache-2.0).

Other comparisons with Cisco AI Defense Inspection API or Guardrails AI

Machine-readable

For companies

Do agents find, use and choose your tools?

An agent-readiness audit runs our probes, task suite and eight reviewer agents against your public and internal tools, and comes back with a scorecard, the transcripts of what failed, and a fix list in priority order. From $2,500, re-run included. We never take payment to move a rank. We do help companies earn one.

Get an auditSee a sample report