CAIN-42 MCPGateThe niche: testing AI agent guardrails
Teams that wrote rules for their agents (Claude Code hooks, OPA/Rego, Cedar, allow lists) and have never had anyone try to break them.
Why this niche exists now
- Many teams now write guardrail rules for agents.
- Rules are usually written once and never attacked.
- Bypass tricks are well known to attackers.
What people use today, and where it falls short
| What teams do today | Where it falls short |
|---|---|
| Write rules and hope | Untested. |
| A manual pen test | Expensive and slow for a rule set. |
| Unit tests by the rule author | Same blind spots as the author. |
What makes Policy Red-Team different
- Generates whole families of bypasses.
- Writes the smallest fix.
- Proves the fix with a second independent implementation.
- Honest results: PATCHED is not "safe".
How big is the opportunity?
Do not quote market-size statistics on a call. Most published figures are surveys or vendor estimates, and a smart buyer will ask for the source. Size the opportunity per prospect instead, with these questions:
- Do your agents have rules?
- Has anyone tried to bypass them?
- Which systems do the rules protect?
If the honest answers are "no" or "not yet", they are not a buyer today. Note it and move on; that is good selling, not failure.
Explain the niche in 30 seconds
Teams that wrote rules for their agents (Claude Code hooks, OPA/Rego, Cedar, allow lists) and have never had anyone try to break them.
Policy Red-Team attacks a company's AI agent rules with known bypass tricks, writes the smallest fix, and proves it with a second independent implementation.
Practise saying this out loud until you can do it without reading. Then say it in your own words.
Words your buyers use
These are the phrases people in this niche type into search engines and use in posts and job ads. Use them to find prospects (page 3) and to talk their language:
guardrail bypass OPA policy testing Cedar policy path traversal agent allowlist
Sell it together with
Buyers rarely have just one problem. When this product fits, these often fit too:
| Product | Why it goes together |
|---|---|
| CODEGUARD | the gate whose rules it attacks |
| Fail-closed doctrine | what happens when checks break |
| KEYSTONE | proof-of-fix pattern |
Rule: open with one product. Mention a second only after the first is agreed.
Next: who buys and where to find them →
FIRME AI CORPORATION · CAIN-42 is a Byzantine trust fabric. Numbers marked "our own check" were run by us, not by an independent party. Nothing on these pages is a certification.