cascade

Guard LLM tool calls with rules, scoring, and audit trails.

cascade is a lightweight governance layer for AI agent tool calls. It sits between your LLM and tool execution — evaluate every tool call against rules, rank survivors by strategy, and audit every decision.

Quick Start

from cascade import DecisionPipeline

pipe = DecisionPipeline()
result = pipe.guard(
    tool_calls=[
        {"id": "1", "name": "search", "confidence": 0.92},
        {"id": "2", "name": "delete", "confidence": 0.15},
    ],
    rules=[
        {"field": "confidence", "op": "gte", "value": 0.5},
        {"field": "name", "op": "nin", "value": ["delete"]},
    ],
    strategy="softmax",
    top_k=1,
)

if result["selected"]:
    safe = result["selected"][0]
    print(f"Safe: {safe['name']} ({safe['confidence']})")

Installation

pip install cascade

Zero external dependencies. Optional extras extend the feature set:

pip install cascade[openai]     # OpenAI SDK adapter
pip install cascade[anthropic]  # Anthropic SDK adapter
pip install cascade[langchain]  # LangChain adapter
pip install cascade[crewai]     # CrewAI adapter
pip install cascade[gemini]     # Gemini SDK adapter
pip install cascade[autogen]    # AutoGen adapter
pip install cascade[yaml]       # YAML policy files + cascade policy lint

Adapters

Framework-specific adapters let you plug cascade governance into your existing agent code with minimal changes. Each adapter is a thin (<80 lines) layer — zero impact on the core codebase.

# OpenAI — auto-govern every chat.completions.create
from openai import OpenAI
from cascade import DecisionPipeline
from cascade.adapters.openai import wrap_openai_client

client = wrap_openai_client(
    OpenAI(),
    pipeline=DecisionPipeline(),
    rules=[{"field": "name", "op": "nin", "value": ["delete_file", "exec"]}],
)

# LangChain — post-process agent output
from cascade.adapters.langchain import guard_agent_output

result = agent.invoke({"input": "search for papers on AI safety"})
result = guard_agent_output(result, pipeline=pipe, rules=[...])

Why cascade?

• Zero dependencies — pure Python, no pip wars
• Plugs into any LLM framework — OpenAI, LangChain, or custom
• Audit built in — every guard() auto-writes JSONL audit trails
• 5 selection strategies — softmax / linear / uniform / threshold / ucb1
• Self-emergence — C₃↔C₄ closed loop learns from outcomes
• Composite rules — all_of / any_of / not_ for complex policies
• Actions — block / redirect / transform for automated remediation

Policies

Define governance rules in YAML for repeatable, audit-friendly policies.

# policy.yaml
name: strict-tools
description: Block dangerous tools
rules:
  - field: name
    op: nin
    value: [delete_file, exec, rm]
  - field: confidence
    op: gte
    value: 0.7
  - all_of:
      - field: name
        op: eq
        value: code_interpreter
      - field: confidence
        op: gte
        value: 0.9

strategy: softmax
top_k: 1

cascade policy lint policy.yaml
cascade check --tool-calls @tools.json --policy policy.yaml

Composite rules (all_of / any_of / not_), @import directives, and full schema validation are supported.

Audit chain integrity

Every guard() decision is recorded in a SHA-256 hash-chained JSONL audit trail. Each entry links to its predecessor via prev_hash, making the log tamper-evident.

cascade audit verify

from cascade._audit import AuditTrail

trail = AuditTrail()
result = trail.verify()  # {'valid': True, 'entries': 42, ...}

C1–C4 Architecture

C1 (Gate)      : Rule engine — 11 operators + AND/OR/NOT composition
C2 (Trigger)   : Event triggers — condition callbacks + state machine
C3 (Selector)  : Selection pressure — uniform/linear/softmax/threshold ranking
C4 (Feedback)  : Feedback loop — binary/proportional/threshold reward
Linkage        : C₃↔C₄ closed loop — rewards adjust future selection

Docs

Integrations

Each adapter is opt-in — the core stays zero-dependency. All adapters live in src/cascade/adapters/ and import only what they need at runtime.

For custom framework integrations, use pipe.guard() directly:

response = client.chat.completions.create(..., tools=my_tools)
result = pipe.guard(
    tool_calls=[{"id": t.id, "name": t.function.name, ...}],
    rules=[{"field": "name", "op": "nin", "value": BLOCKED_TOOLS}],
)