LangGuard
Deterministic runtime AI governance control plane
LangGuard is a deterministic runtime AI governance control plane. Two engines work across the full agent lifecycle: SCOPE-MCP maps and compliance-classifies an agent's action surface before it ships, and Arbiter deterministically authorizes every agent action before it executes — clearing safe actions with no added latency and routing anything that crosses a Segregation-of-Duties boundary or policy threshold to a named approver. The authorization is the governance; the audit trail is automatic.
Runlayer
Enterprise MCP gateway
Runlayer is an enterprise MCP gateway that routes every MCP request through a governed proxy — deterministic access policy (PBAC), agent identity and token brokering, shadow-MCP discovery (Watch), and an ML-based threat scanner (Guard). MCP is its entire center of gravity.
How they compare
Twelve criteria that decide whether an enterprise can prove — not just hope — that its AI agents stay inside policy.
| Criterion | LangGuard | Runlayer |
|---|---|---|
| Deterministic, rule-based authorization | ● | ◐ |
| Pre-execution enforcement | ● | ● |
| Segregation of Duties enforcement | ● | ○ |
| Excessive-agency prevention / least privilege | ● | ● |
| Design-time action-surface mapping | ● | ○ |
| Compliance-classified tools catalog | ● | ◐ |
| Full lifecycle coverage (design-time + runtime) | ● | ◐ |
| Named-approver human-in-the-loop routing | ● | ◐ |
| SOX / GDPR / financial-GRC control mapping & evidence | ● | ◐ |
| AI-specific standards (ISO 42001, EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, OWASP LLM) | ◐ | ○ |
| Immutable / tamper-evident audit ledger | ● | ● |
| GRC / internal-audit / IT-governance buyer fit | ● | ◐ |
Where Runlayer is strong
- Deep MCP focus — an 18,000+ server catalog across 300+ AI clients
- Deterministic PBAC access control with least-privilege intersection of agent/user/server policies
- Shadow-MCP discovery (Watch) and agent identity, including a 1Password partnership
- SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and GDPR, with tier-1 backing and MCP-protocol credibility
Where LangGuard pulls ahead
- The risk/threat layer (Guard) is ML-based and probabilistic, not fully deterministic
- No Segregation-of-Duties enforcement
- Runtime-only — no design-time action-surface mapping before an agent ships
- Catalog is an enablement registry, not compliance-classified; no SOX or ISO 42001 mapping
- Human approval is access-request based, not per-action routing to a named approver
The bottom line
Runlayer is a capable enterprise mcp gateway. But securing how an agent operates is not the same as governing what it is allowed to do. LangGuard makes a deterministic, rule-based authorization decision on every action before it executes — enforcing Segregation of Duties, routing risky actions to named approvers, and emitting audit-grade SOX/GDPR evidence. It is the governance control plane that sits above the layer Runlayer operates in.
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LangGuard maps your complete agent action surface in minutes. Free for the first five managed agents. All Scopes — Finance, IT, Procurement, HR — included from day one. No policy writing required.
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