> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.raga.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.raga.ai/ragaai-catalyst/ragaai-metric-library/additional-metrics/guardrails/ban-competitors.md).

# Ban Competitors

Apply guardrails to block competitor mentions. Control outputs to align with business or compliance goals.

Scanner to detect competitors in a prompt. It uses a named-entity recognition model to extract organizations from the prompt and compares them to a list of competitors.

**An effective competitor list should include:**

* The official titles of all recognized competitors.
* Commonly used abbreviations or variations of these titles.
* Any subsidiaries or affiliated brands of the competitors.

Ensuring the thoroughness and precision of this list is crucial for the efficacy of the scanning system.

**Considerations and Constraints**

* **Precision**: The precision of competitor identification heavily relies on the capabilities of the Named Entity Recognition (NER) model and the inclusiveness of the competitor roster.
* **Contextual Awareness**: The scanner might not grasp the full context surrounding a competitor's name, potentially resulting in excessive redaction.
* **Efficiency**: The scanning procedure could introduce additional computational burden, particularly when dealing with extensive texts containing numerous entities.

**Parameters**:

`data:`

* `prompt` (str): Prompt to check for competitors.

`arguments:`

* `competitors` (Sequence\[str]): List of competitors to detect.
* `threshold` (float, optional): Threshold to determine if a competitor is present in the prompt. Default is 0.5.
* `redact` (bool, optional): Whether to redact the competitor name. Default is True.

**Interpretation**:

The values matching the names of competitors from the competitors list should be replaced with \[REDACTED] in the output.

**Example:**

```python
evaluator.add_test(
    test_names=["ban_competitors_guardrail"],
    data={"prompt": """Given the personal profile of Johnathan Edward Doe, please summarise the following resume:

Profile:

- Full Name: Johnathan Edward Doe.
- Date of Birth: April 12, 1990.
- Address: 123 Elm Street, Springfield, IL, 62701.
- Email: john.doe@example.com.
- Phone Number: (123) 456-7890.
- Educational Background:
    - Springfield High School, Graduated in 2008;
    - Springfield University, B.Sc. Computer Science, Graduated in 2012.
- Employment:
    - ABC Tech Solutions, Software Engineer, 2012-2015;
    - OpenAI, Senior Software Engineer, 2015-2021;
    - XYZ Global Systems, Senior Software Developer, 2015-2021.""",
        },
    arguments = {"competitors" : ["XYZ Global Systems", "OpenAI"]}
).run()


```