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Real-time agent evaluation and automated guardrails for production AI

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TL;DR - Prefactor

  • Scores every agent run in real time for quality, drift, and risk, then acts on it automatically or with human approval.
  • Closes the gap between observability and intervention, pauses, blocks, or throttles agents at runtime, not after the fact.
  • Drops into existing stacks in minutes with TypeScript and Python SDKs, native integrations for LangChain, leading LLM providers, Vercel AI, OpenClaw, and LiveKit.
Pricing: Free forever
Best for: Individuals & startups
3.0/5 across review platforms

What is Prefactor?

Editorial review
Prefactor is a real-time agent evaluation platform that closes the gap between observing an AI agent's behavior and intervening when something goes wrong. It scores every agent run for quality, drift, and risk the moment it happens, then wires those evaluations directly into action, pausing a risky run for human approval, blocking a policy violation at runtime, or throttling a misbehaving agent. Unlike traditional observability tools that stop at dashboards and alerts, Prefactor enforces guardrails automatically or with human-in-the-loop approval, all through TypeScript and Python SDKs that integrate with frameworks like LangChain, leading LLM providers, Vercel AI, OpenClaw, and LiveKit. The platform captures every model call, tool use, and decision as spans and traces, attaching cost, latency, and data-risk metadata. Custom spans can pull context from external datasources like GitHub, Jira, or internal APIs to ground evaluations in real-world context. Prefactor supports LLM-as-judge, technical checks, and qualitative metrics as native evals, and can trigger actions like hold, approve, or block via SDK or API. It is designed for teams running production agents that need reliability beyond dashboards, catching failures live, not charting them after the fact.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Enforces guardrails at runtime, not just after analysis, catches failures live.
  • Supports complex multi-agent and multi-layer architectures with per-layer risk tracking.
  • Integrates deeply with popular agent frameworks and voice stacks without requiring pipeline changes.

Cons

  • Requires SDK instrumentation, which may add overhead for simple or low-volume agent deployments.
  • Human-in-the-loop features may introduce latency for time-sensitive agent actions.

Ratings Across the Web

3(4,913 reviews)

Ratings aggregated from independent review platforms. Learn more

Key Features

Real-time agent evaluation with LLM-as-judge, technical, and qualitative metrics on every run.Runtime enforcement: block, throttle, or require human approval for risky actions via SDK or API.Custom spans to attach context from any datasource (GitHub, Linear, Jira, databases, internal APIs) to agent runs.Human-in-the-loop handoff built into span structure for support agents and voice agents.PII detection and automatic redaction of sensitive data in agent conversations.Per-layer risk profiling for multi-tier agents (e.g., conversational vs. background agent).p95/p99 tracking per span type for latency, cost, and quality together.Proactive alerts on real patterns like spikes in negative feedback, not single events.

Pricing Plans

Free Trial

Pricing checked Jul 29, 2026

Free

Free

  • 1,000,000 free spans for the first 50 sign ups
  • US$2,500 of usage, on us

Reviews

3.0/5

Across 4,913 verified user reviews on trustpilot

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Prefactor FAQ

How does Prefactor help catch failures in production AI agents?

Prefactor scores every agent run in real time for quality, drift, and risk, and can automatically pause, block, or throttle based on those scores. This means failures are caught and acted on live, not just charted after the fact.

How does Prefactor differ from Arthur AI?

Unlike Arthur AI, which focuses on observability and dashboards, Prefactor enforces guardrails at runtime by wiring evaluations directly into actions like pausing a risky run or blocking a policy violation. Prefactor also supports complex multi-agent architectures with per-layer risk tracking.

What trade-offs should teams consider when using Prefactor?

Prefactor requires SDK instrumentation, which may add overhead for simple or low-volume agent deployments. Additionally, human-in-the-loop features may introduce latency for time-sensitive agent actions.

What kind of user or team benefits most from Prefactor?

Teams running production AI agents that need reliability beyond dashboards will benefit most from Prefactor. It is designed for developers building agents with frameworks like LangChain, Claude, Vercel AI, or LiveKit who need to catch and respond to failures in real time.

How is Prefactor priced?

Prefactor is free to use with no paid plan required. This allows teams to implement real-time agent evaluation and guardrails without upfront cost.

Can Prefactor integrate with external data sources for evaluation context?

Yes, Prefactor supports custom spans that can pull context from external data sources like GitHub, Jira, or internal APIs to ground evaluations in real-world context. This enables more accurate and relevant scoring of agent behavior.

How does Prefactor enforce guardrails after scoring an agent run?

After scoring each run, Prefactor can trigger actions such as holding a run for human approval, approving it automatically, or blocking it entirely. These actions are executed via the SDK or API, allowing teams to define custom policies for runtime enforcement.

Does Prefactor support multi-agent architectures?

Yes, Prefactor supports complex multi-agent and multi-layer architectures by tracking risk per layer. This allows teams to monitor and enforce guardrails across different components of a distributed agent system.

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