Every prompt passes through 9 hardened stages. Optimized for maximum performance with minimal latency.
Note: These functions represent our current MVP core. We are scaling our features rapidly based on enterprise demand, implementing even more scanners and integrations every week.
01
Verified
Tenant Resolution
Identifies the company and employee from their personal proxy key. Zero-trust from the first byte.
02
Real-time
Rate Limiting
Sliding window rate limiter enforces per-user and per-organization quotas.
03
Universal
Request Parsing
Extracts prompt text from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Gemini formats — automatically, with no config needed.
04
Concurrent
Parallel Scanners
PII detection, secrets scanning, prompt injection (regex + ML), and indirect injection — all concurrent.
05
Instant
Policy Evaluation
Loads company-specific rules from cache. Decides: Allow, Block, Mask, or Warn. Hot-reloadable YAML.
06
Secure
Request Transformation
Replaces sensitive values with typed placeholders. JSON structure preserved. The LLM never sees raw PII.
07
Upstream
Upstream Forwarding
Forwards the sanitized request to the real LLM using the company key — employees never see the real key.
08
Hardened
Response Processing
Scans the AI response for jailbreak completions, harmful content, and data exfiltration attempts.
09
Async
Audit Event Emission
Asynchronously logs every event with SHA-256 hash chaining. Immutable, compliant, always-on.
Minimal
Pipeline Latency
Stages 1–6 and 8–9 run in your infrastructure. Stage 7 hits the LLM.
Your users notice nothing. Your security team sees everything.
Capabilities
The AI Security Stack. Modular. High-performance.
Nine specialized modules — deploy all or pick the ones your threat model
demands.
The two leading AI security companies were acquired by Check Point and Palo Alto Networks in 2025.
ShieldCore is the independent, complete alternative — with no enterprise lock-in.
Scroll to see full comparison
Product
Proxy
DLP
Anti-Inject
FS Monitor
Cost Control
Audit Trail
Self-Host
ShieldCore
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Lakera (Check Point)
Acquired 2025
API
✓
✓
✗
✗
~
✗
Prompt Security (Palo Alto)
Acquired 2025
✓
✓
✓
✗
~
~
✗
Silmaril (YC SP26)
Limited scope
✗
✗
✓
✗
✗
✗
~
✓ Full support
~ Partial / limited
✗ Not available
Y Combinator Summer 2026
The AI security standard every company needs. Built independent.
The problem is real. The regulation is incoming. The leading competitors were absorbed into $50B+ platforms
— leaving the mid-market without a complete, independent solution. ShieldCore fills that gap.