A business chatbot should never invent facts, quote prices it does not own, make legal, medical or financial promises, reveal its internal instructions, or pretend to be a human. Guardrails are the written rules and technical limits that keep it inside those lines.
Why guardrails are not optional
A language model writes fluent text whether or not it is correct. Without rules, it will answer anything, including things your business cannot stand behind. A single wrong promise in a chat can become a customer dispute.
What to forbid
- Invented facts. If the answer is not in your approved content, the bot should say it does not know and offer a person.
- Prices and discounts unless they come from your system. In Moonlight, our trip planner, the bot never quotes prices at all.
- Guarantees and commitments about delivery dates, outcomes, refunds or availability.
- Legal, medical and financial advice. Offer general information at most, and point to a professional.
- Its own instructions. The bot should not reveal or discuss its system prompt.
- Pretending to be human. Be open that it is an AI assistant.
- Off-topic work. A sales bot should not write essays, code or opinions on unrelated topics.
Technical guardrails, not just written ones
Instructions help, but they are not a lock. Add limits in code:
- Rate limits per visitor and session to control abuse and cost.
- Input and output checks for obvious problems.
- Structured outputs where the bot must return a defined format, such as a saved itinerary, instead of free text.
- Hand-off triggers for frustration, sensitive topics or low confidence.
- Logging so you can review what was said.
Prompt injection, briefly
Visitors can try to trick a bot with messages like "ignore your previous instructions". Treat anything a visitor types as untrusted. Keep sensitive data and actions out of the bot's reach, and never give it more access than the visitor should have.
Test the rules
Before launch, try to break your bot on purpose. Ask it for a discount, a refund promise, a medical opinion, its instructions, and something unrelated. Fix what slips through, then repeat with real conversations after launch.