> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.mozilla.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.mozilla.ai/any-guardrail/api-reference/index/content-safety/gpt-oss-safeguard.md).

# gpt-oss-safeguard

Policy-grounded reasoning safety classifier that judges text against a bring-your-own written policy.

A reasoning LLM that classifies content against a written `policy` supplied at construction (bring-your-own-taxonomy). The policy becomes the system message; the model reasons (OpenAI harmony format) and emits a verdict. A short output instruction is appended so the reply ends with `VIOLATION` or `SAFE`.

Verdict mapping onto `GuardrailOutput`:

* `valid` is `True` on `SAFE` and `False` on `VIOLATION`.
* `categories` holds a single `policy_violation` entry (`triggered=True` on `VIOLATION`).
* `score` is not populated — the model emits a discrete verdict, not a calibrated probability.
* `extra["verdict"]` carries the raw verdict string and `explanation` the full generation, including the model's reasoning.
* Fails closed (`valid=False` with `extra={"parse_failure": True}`) when no verdict parses.

Input is a single string `input_text` (the content to moderate, sent as the user message); list/batch input is not supported, and there is no separate response argument — include any conversation context in the text itself.

Note: the 120B variant is large; `gpt-oss-safeguard-20b` is the practical default.

For more information, see the model cards:

* [gpt-oss-safeguard-20b](https://huggingface.co/openai/gpt-oss-safeguard-20b) (default).
* [gpt-oss-safeguard-120b](https://huggingface.co/openai/gpt-oss-safeguard-120b).

## Supported Models

* `openai/gpt-oss-safeguard-20b`
* `openai/gpt-oss-safeguard-120b`

## Constructor

| Parameter  | Type                                                 | Required | Default | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| ---------- | ---------------------------------------------------- | -------- | ------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `policy`   | `str`                                                | Yes      | —       | The written safety policy (bring-your-own-taxonomy) the model evaluates content against — e.g. a numbered list of disallowed-content rules with definitions and examples. It is installed as the system message, with a short output instruction appended so the model ends its reply with `VIOLATION` or `SAFE`. |
| `model_id` | \`str                                                | None\`   | No      | `None`                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            |
| `provider` | `Optional[Provider[dict[str, Any], dict[str, Any]]]` | No       | `None`  | Optional pre-configured provider (e.g. a `LlamafileProvider` or a customized `HuggingFaceProvider`). Defaults to a `HuggingFaceProvider` loading the model with `AutoModelForCausalLM`/`AutoTokenizer`; when a `HuggingFaceProvider` is supplied, the causal-LM loader classes are enforced at load time.         |

Initialize the gpt-oss-safeguard guardrail.

## validate

Classify `input_text` against the configured policy.

**Parameters**

| Parameter    | Type  | Required | Default | Description                                                                                                                             |
| ------------ | ----- | -------- | ------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `input_text` | `str` | Yes      | —       | The content to moderate, sent as the user message beneath the policy system message. Single string only; list input raises `TypeError`. |

**Returns:** `GuardrailOutput`

## Benchmarks

### Content Safety

| Dataset (rev)                    | Metric | Threshold    | Value    | Harness                 | Source                           | Contam. |
| -------------------------------- | ------ | ------------ | -------- | ----------------------- | -------------------------------- | ------- |
| openai\_moderation (unspecified) | f1     | native-valid | 0.825    | guardrail-bench+ag0.7.4 | measured:guardrail-bench+ag0.7.4 |         |
| xstest (unspecified)             | fpr    | native-valid | 0.1      | guardrail-bench+ag0.7.4 | measured:guardrail-bench+ag0.7.4 |         |
| wildguardmix (unspecified)       | f1     | native-valid | 0.916364 | guardrail-bench+ag0.7.4 | measured:guardrail-bench+ag0.7.4 |         |
| aegis (unspecified)              | f1     | native-valid | 0.775665 | guardrail-bench+ag0.7.4 | measured:guardrail-bench+ag0.7.4 |         |
| jbb (unspecified)                | f1     | native-valid | 0.817308 | guardrail-bench+ag0.7.4 | measured:guardrail-bench+ag0.7.4 |         |
| orbench (unspecified)            | fpr    | native-valid | 0.438596 | guardrail-bench+ag0.7.4 | measured:guardrail-bench+ag0.7.4 |         |

### General Judge

| Dataset (rev)              | Metric           | Threshold    | Value    | Harness                 | Source                           | Contam. |
| -------------------------- | ---------------- | ------------ | -------- | ----------------------- | -------------------------------- | ------- |
| judgebench (unspecified)   | choice\_accuracy | native-valid | 0.659649 | guardrail-bench+ag0.7.4 | measured:guardrail-bench+ag0.7.4 |         |
| llmbar (unspecified)       | choice\_accuracy | native-valid | 0.74386  | guardrail-bench+ag0.7.4 | measured:guardrail-bench+ag0.7.4 |         |
| rewardbench2 (unspecified) | choice\_accuracy | native-valid | 0.473684 | guardrail-bench+ag0.7.4 | measured:guardrail-bench+ag0.7.4 |         |

## License

* **Vendor:** OpenAI
* **Default license:** `apache-2.0` (of the default model/service)


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