Three different jobs
A lot of tooling discussions get fuzzy because they collapse different jobs into one bucket. Passive tracing, runtime guardrails, and hosted team operations solve related but different problems.
- Tracing: inspect runs and debug behavior
- Guardrails: stop loops, enforce budgets, keep control close to runtime
- Control plane: alerts, retention, remote kill, team workflows, governance
Where AgentGuard fits
The SDK is the free entry point for lightweight guardrails. The dashboard is the paid control plane when the same controls need to be shared, retained, and operated by a team.
That keeps the wedge clear: this is not trying to be generic observability for everything.
What to evaluate
If you are comparing tools, evaluate them by the failure mode you are trying to solve, not by how many dashboard widgets they have.
- Can it enforce a budget, not just report one?
- Can it catch loops before a human notices?
- Can a team operate it with alerts, retention, and remote kill?
When the paid dashboard is the right next step
The SDK should stay the first move. The dashboard becomes worth paying for when the same guardrails need to work as a hosted team system.
- You need alerts and history around the same controls.
- You need a shared operator surface for multiple people.
- You need governance and hosted operations, not just local instrumentation.
Try the small version first
Start with the free SDK, prove the guardrail locally, and only then move into the paid dashboard for alerts, retention, remote kill, team workflows, and governance.