> For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL.
> For a complete documentation index, see https://docs.nvidia.com/nemo/guardrails/llms.txt.
> For full documentation content, see https://docs.nvidia.com/nemo/guardrails/llms-full.txt.
> For AI client integration (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), connect to the MCP server at https://docs.nvidia.com/nemo/guardrails/_mcp/server.

# NeMo Guardrails Microservice for Production

> Deploy guardrails as a production-ready microservice using the NeMo microservices platform.

The NeMo Guardrails microservice in the [NeMo microservices platform](https://docs.nvidia.com/nemo/microservices/latest/about/index.html) is the production-grade, high availability, scalable, end-to-end data flywheel deployment option, available for the [NVIDIA AI Enterprise plan](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/products/ai-enterprise/).

The NeMo microservices platform provides a fully-featured guardrails microservice that provides the same capabilities as the NeMo Guardrails library through its own API, as the guardrails microservice is built on top of the library.

| Capability                                |                   NeMo Guardrails Library API Server                   |         NeMo Guardrails Microservice        |
| ----------------------------------------- | :--------------------------------------------------------------------: | :-----------------------------------------: |
| REST API for guardrailed chat completions |                                    ✓                                   |                      ✓                      |
| Guardrails configuration management       |                 By managing the config folder structure                | Through the platform's config API endpoints |
| NeMo microservices platform integration   |                                 No need                                |                   Required                  |
| Production-grade reliability              | Limited (self-managed and no high availability support out of the box) |          Supported by the platform          |
| Support                                   |                          Open source community                         |          NVIDIA AI Enterprise plan          |

## When to Use Each Option

Use the following guidelines to decide when to use each option.

### NeMo Guardrails Library API Server

The [Guardrails API server](/run-guardrailed-inference/using-fastapi-server) included in the NeMo Guardrails library is suitable for:

* Direct integration of guardrails into your application.
* Proof-of-concept deployments.
* Development and testing environments.
* Evaluating guardrails configurations before production.

For this option, refer to the following topics:

* [Use the Guardrails API Server](/run-guardrailed-inference/using-fastapi-server)
* [Create Chat Completion](api:POST/v1/chat/completions)

### NeMo Guardrails Microservice

The NeMo Guardrails microservice is recommended for:

* Production deployments requiring enterprise-grade reliability.
* Organizations already using or planning to adopt the NeMo microservices platform.

The NeMo Guardrails microservice operates within the NeMo microservices platform ecosystem and requires other microservices to function. It is not a standalone solution.

For deployment instructions and API documentation for the NeMo Guardrails microservice, refer to [NVIDIA NeMo Microservices Documentation](https://docs.nvidia.com/nemo/microservices/latest/about/index.html).