Subscription

AnterisLab Guard is the open-source client SDK for the AnterisLab policy engine. The SDK source is free to read, audit, and self-host as a client. The policy engine and the kill switch run in the AnterisLab cloud, and talking to them requires an active subscription.

This document explains what the free tier includes, what happens when it expires, and how to upgrade.

Free tier (trial)

The trial gives you enough to evaluate the SDK against a real control plane.

The per-action limit is an example of a policy the control plane enforces on the trial: an action above 100 EUR is denied, regardless of what the rest of your policies say. It exists so that a trial cannot be used for high-value operations.

The kill switch is a paid feature. In the trial, a Guard configured with killSwitch will fail at the first evaluation with a configuration error.

Activating the trial

You can activate the trial from two places:

• The pricing page — https://anterislab.com/pricing.
• The dashboard — Profile section, where your current plan is shown.

What happens when the trial expires

At the end of the 14 days, the control plane returns 402 on the next evaluation. The SDK surfaces this as GuardQuotaError:

import { Guard, GuardQuotaError } from '@anterislab/guard';

const guard = new Guard({ apiKey: process.env.ANTERISLAB_API_KEY });

try {
  await guard.wrapFn(myAction, { agent: 'billing-bot', toAction: () => ({ ... }) })();
} catch (error) {
  if (error instanceof GuardQuotaError) {
    // The plan quota is exhausted. Upgrade to continue.
    console.error(`quota exhausted: plan=${error.plan} limit=${error.limit} used=${error.used}`);
  }
}

402 is terminal. The SDK does not retry it, and failOpen: true does not bypass it. Quota exhaustion is a decision, not an availability problem.

What happens when the monthly quota is exhausted

The trial includes 500 evaluations per month. If your agent uses them all before the month ends, the control plane returns 402 on the next evaluation in the same way as an expired trial.

Upgrading

Upgrade from the same two places:

• Pricing page — https://anterislab.com/pricing.
• Dashboard — Profile section, where your current plan is shown and can be changed.

After upgrading, the next evaluation succeeds without any change to your code. The API key remains the same.

What changes after upgrading

Paid plans relax the trial limits. The specific limits depend on the plan. In general, upgrading unlocks:

• More evaluations per month.
• More agents, and more API keys.
• Higher rate limits.
• Longer audit retention.
• Higher (or no) per-action limit.
• The kill switch.
• Priority support.

See https://anterislab.com/pricing for the exact numbers of each plan.

The kill switch and subscription

The kill switch is not available in the trial. Configuring it during the trial will fail at the first evaluation with a configuration error.

If your code optionally enables the kill switch, gate it behind a check so the same code runs in trial and in production:

const killSwitchEnabled = process.env.ANTERISLAB_PLAN !== 'trial';

const guard = new Guard({
  apiKey: process.env.ANTERISLAB_API_KEY,
  ...(killSwitchEnabled
    ? {
        killSwitch: {
          tenant: 'acme',
          agent: 'billing-bot',
          baseUrl: 'https://www.anterislab.com',
          apiKey: process.env.ANTERISLAB_KILLSWITCH_KEY,
        },
      }
    : {}),
});

Do I need a subscription to develop?

No. The SDK ships with a public mock for tests and local development. No subscription, no API key, no network.

import { Guard } from '@anterislab/guard';
import { createMockFetch, approvedVerdict } from '@anterislab/guard/mock';

const mock = createMockFetch({ status: 200, body: approvedVerdict() });
const guard = new Guard({ apiKey: 'test-key', fetchImpl: mock.fetch });

See testing.md for the full mock API. Use the trial when you want to evaluate the SDK against the real control plane, with your own policies.

Error classes related to subscription

See error-handling.md for the recommended reaction to each.

See also

• Quick start — start with the mock, no subscription required.
• Error handling — how to react to 402 and 401/403.
• Kill switch — the feature that requires a paid plan.