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Tripwires

Tripwires are the core mechanism by which Guardrails enforce safety policies. When a guardrail detects a violation, it triggers a tripwire that blocks execution by default.

How Tripwires Work

  1. Automatic Execution: Guardrails run on every API call
  2. Tripwire Detection: Violations trigger tripwires
  3. Default Behavior: Tripwires raise GuardrailTripwireTriggered exceptions
  4. Custom Handling: Suppress tripwires to handle violations manually

Default Behavior: Blocking

Tripwires raise exceptions by default:

Python 

from pathlib import Path
from guardrails import GuardrailsAsyncOpenAI, GuardrailTripwireTriggered

client = GuardrailsAsyncOpenAI(config=Path("guardrails_config.json"))

try:
    response = await client.responses.create(
        model="gpt-5",
        input="Tell me a secret"
    )
    print(response.llm_response.output_text)

except GuardrailTripwireTriggered as exc:
    print(f"Guardrail triggered: {exc.guardrail_result.info}")

Suppressing Tripwires

Handle violations manually with suppress_tripwire=True:

Python 

response = await client.responses.create(
    model="gpt-5",
    input="Tell me a secret",
    suppress_tripwire=True
)

# Check guardrail results
for result in response.guardrail_results.all_results:
    if result.tripwire_triggered:
        print(f"Guardrail '{result.info.get('guardrail_name')}' triggered!")

Tripwire Results

The GuardrailTripwireTriggered exception contains:

  • tripwire_triggered (bool): Always True
  • info (dict): Guardrail-specific information

Python 

except GuardrailTripwireTriggered as exc:
    result = exc.guardrail_result
    guardrail_name = result.info.get('guardrail_name')
    stage = result.info.get('stage_name')

Next Steps