Both are inline gateways for AI, but they watch different traffic. PolicyLayer governs the MCP tool calls your agents make (the actions they take on your systems). DeepInspect governs the prompt and response traffic flowing to LLM providers, with data-loss prevention and compliance forensics. Here is where each one fits.
Two inline gateways, two surfaces. One watches what leaves in a prompt; the other watches what an agent does with a tool.
PolicyLayer is the gateway your MCP traffic runs through. Connect your servers and every tool call is checked against deterministic, deny-by-default policy before it executes: allow, deny, rate-limit, or require approval, with argument-level rules, per-identity scopes, and a per-call audit log. It is purpose-built for MCP, with a server and tool directory and per-tool risk classification.
DeepInspect is an inline gateway for AI usage. It sits between users or apps and the model provider, detects sensitive data (PII, PHI, PCI) in prompts and responses, and redacts, tokenizes, or blocks it, then writes signed forensic records mapped to regulatory frameworks. It also offers model cost routing and agent and MCP governance.
The dimensions enterprise teams weigh when they choose where to put an AI gateway.
| PolicyLayer | DeepInspect | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary surface | MCP tool calls: the actions an agent takes on your systems | Prompt and response traffic to LLM providers: what the model sees and returns |
| What it inspects | The tool and its arguments, against your policy | Prompt and response content for sensitive data (PII, PHI, PCI) |
| Primary action | Allow, deny, rate-limit, or require approval on the call | Redact, tokenize, or block sensitive content in the payload |
| Policy model | Deterministic, deny by default, argument-level rules in a visual editor and as code | Deterministic detectors plus natural-language policies evaluated by a model at request time |
| MCP coverage | MCP-native: gateway, server and tool directory, per-tool risk classification | Tool calls governed as enforcement events within a broader model-governance product |
| Model cost routing | Out of scope; PolicyLayer governs tool calls, with a token-cost directory for context | Tier-based model routing, failover, and per-actor token accounting |
| Audit | Every tool call logged with the tool, its arguments, and the decision | HMAC-signed, tamper-evident forensic records mapped to compliance frameworks |
| Compliance framing | MCP security, risk, and incident context, plus a compliance reference | Heavy framework mapping: EU AI Act, HIPAA, 21 CFR Part 11, GLBA, PCI DSS, SOC 2 |
| Buyer | Platform and security teams running MCP agent fleets | CISOs and compliance teams governing AI usage in regulated industries |
| Deployment | Hosted control plane and gateway; route your MCP servers through it | Self-hosted, SaaS, or air-gapped, in front of the model provider |
| Best fit | Governing what agents do through MCP servers | Stopping sensitive data leaving in prompts and proving model-usage compliance |
Agents refund, merge, run SQL, and change infrastructure through MCP servers, and you want a deterministic check on the call before it runs.
You want a gateway built for MCP, with a server and tool directory, per-tool risk, and argument-level policy across all of them.
Destructive or sensitive tool calls wait for human sign-off, with every call recorded and attributable.
You want to connect servers, write policy, and ship, without a services-led compliance engagement.
Staff and apps paste PII, PHI, or PCI into LLMs, and you need detection and redaction on the prompt and response content itself.
You want signed forensic records explicitly mapped to EU AI Act, HIPAA, 21 CFR Part 11, GLBA, or PCI DSS for auditors.
Routing simple calls to cheaper models, failover across providers, and per-actor token accounting at the model layer.
The surfaces are complementary. DeepInspect can govern what data leaves in a prompt to a model; PolicyLayer governs what an agent does with a tool call against your systems. A team with both prompt-content and tool-action risk can run them at their respective layers.
Whatever your agents touch, the same engine, audit, and access model is doing the work underneath every rule you write.
Rules run as code, not model judgement: argument-level conditions, quotas, deny-by-default. The same call gets the same decision every time.
Writing policies →Your security or compliance team writes and attaches policy without ever holding the upstream credentials or grant tokens.
Roles →Every call is logged with its decision and the rule that fired, attributed to the identity, in an append-only record. Argument values are redacted, never stored.
Logs & security →Upstream secrets are encrypted at rest and injected by the gateway. The agent only ever holds a scoped token.
Logs & security →Every person and agent connects with its own scoped grant. Rotate or revoke any one of them instantly, without disrupting the rest.
Core concepts →Hosted gateway. Point your clients at it, register a server, issue a token. Nothing to install.
Quick start →Not in the prompt-content sense. PolicyLayer can redact fields from tool results, but its focus is governing the MCP tool call itself: allowing, denying, rate-limiting, or gating the action against deterministic policy. DeepInspect focuses on detecting sensitive data in prompt and response content.
No. DeepInspect sits on the path between users or apps and the LLM provider, inspecting prompts and responses. PolicyLayer sits on the path between agents and MCP servers, inspecting tool calls. Different traffic, different layer.
PolicyLayer. When an agent calls a tool to move money, change code, or alter infrastructure, PolicyLayer evaluates that specific call against your policy before it runs, with argument-level rules and approval gates.
Yes. They operate at different layers. Run DeepInspect on prompt-content risk to the model and PolicyLayer on tool-action risk through MCP servers.
Deterministic, deny-by-default policy on every MCP tool call: approval gates, per-identity scopes, argument-level rules, and a tamper-proof audit log. Route your existing MCP servers through the gateway, live in minutes.
Instant setup, no code required.