by Amit Shekhar · 10 August 2026
How do LLM guardrails work?
How LLM guardrails work. We will also see why we need guardrails, where they sit on the input and output of a model, how they work through code, and the best practices we follow when using them in the real world.
Read on Outcome School ↗then come back to lock it in
Before you read, guessWhat are the safety checks surrounding an LLM designed to control?
Ten seconds, a guess, then read — a wrong guess still makes the answer stick.
What this article covers
- What is an LLM
- What are LLM guardrails
- Why do we need guardrails
- Where guardrails sit: input and output
- Types of guardrails
- A simple input guardrail with code
- A simple output guardrail with code
- Using another model as a guardrail
- A step-by-step walkthrough of a request
- Limitations of guardrails
- Best practices for guardrails
The article lives on outcomeschool.com. Read it there, then come back: the tutor in the margin has read it and will answer questions, and the questions below check what stayed.