GUARDIAN

The composable token vault built for engineering sovereignty.

Guardian enables zero-downtime migration.
Deploy dedicated infrastructure clusters for data sovereignty and zero vendor lock-in.

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SAQ A descoping

API-first architecture

Dedicated infrastructure

No proprietary syntax

PROBLEM

PCI compliance is draining your team

Every hour spent on compliance controls, audit prep, and fragile SDK maintenance is an hour not spent building product.

SAQ D burden

Hundreds of security controls, file integrity monitoring, and annual on-site audits consuming engineering bandwidth.

Legacy SDK debt

Fragile, vendor-specific integrations that break with every provider update. Custom middleware nobody wants to maintain.

Proprietary syntax

Competitors force your team to learn custom configuration languages and pattern-matching rules instead of standard APIs.

Slow implementation

Weeks of integration work just to vault a card. Dense documentation and manual dashboard configurations slowing your team.

How It Works

Three steps. Zero raw data.

Guardian's proxy architecture intercepts sensitive data before it reaches your servers. Your backend only ever sees safe tokens.

Intercept

Inbound Proxy captures the raw PAN from the consumer's request.

Tokenize

Guardian stores the PAN securely and replaces it with a safe Hellgate Token.

Inject

Outbound Proxy resolves the token and injects the PAN directly to the PSP.

Your servers never touch, process, or store raw card data. Compliance burden drops from SAQ D to SAQ A instantly.

See the architecture that replaces months of compliance work.

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Why Guardian

Built different from alternatives

Guardian eliminates the compromises that come with existing vault and tokenization providers.

Standard APIs, no lock-in

Clean, programmable SDKs with handlers like client.use('CARD'). No proprietary syntax or pattern-matching rules to learn.

With vendor-independent tokens, route transactions to the best-performing acquirer by region, card type, or cost. Small improvements in auth rates translate to significant revenue at scale.

Security

Native fraud integration

Compose Guardian with Specter for Visa Decision Manager scoring. No manual engineering to connect third-party fraud engines.

Specter integrates natively with Visa Decision Manager, passing transaction telemetry for real-time risk scoring. Reduce chargebacks without exposing raw data or adding checkout latency.

Infra

Dedicated, not shared

Your own isolated infrastructure cluster. No resource contention, no noisy neighbors, predictable performance under load.

Engineering Factor

Typical Vault Provider

Hellgate Guardian

Compliance descoping

Partial descoping. Some require SAQ D controls depending on integration method.

Instant SAQ A descoping via proxy architecture. Raw data never touches your servers.

Integration approach

Proprietary pattern-matching syntax. Custom configuration languages with steep learning curves.

Standard JavaScript SDKs. Programmable handlers like client.use('CARD'). No proprietary syntax.

Fraud engine integration

Manual engineering required. Build custom payload formatting for each third-party engine.

Native composability with Specter. Visa Decision Manager integration without expanding PCI scope.

Infrastructure isolation

Shared multi-tenant environments. Resource contention under load.

Dedicated clusters per client. Complete data isolation and predictable performance.

Legacy integration support

Batch file transfers, Transparent Gateway APIs, and legacy SFTP proxies still supported.

Pure API-first proxy architecture. No legacy batch processing debt.

Future readiness

Architectures optimized for traditional browser checkout flows.

Headless APIs designed for AI agent commerce and machine-to-machine payment flows.

Based on publicly documented capabilities of leading vault and tokenization platforms. Hellgate capabilities per developer.hellgate.io.

Deep Dive

Infrastructure you can trust.

From compliance posture to network token lifecycle, Guardian is engineered for production-critical payment systems.

Compliance posture built in

Guardian supports targeted descoping from SAQ A through SAQ D and full RoC, depending on your chosen cluster configuration. Your environment drops to minimal compliance burden from day one.

PCI DSS Level 1 Certified

Active

SAQ A Descoping

Default

3DS / PSD2 SCA Ready

Integrated

Dedicated Infrastructure Isolation

Guaranteed

Network Token engine

Direct integration with Visa Token Service and Mastercard MDES. Dynamic cryptograms generated per-transaction increase issuer trust and improve authorization rates.

With vendor-independent tokens, route transactions to the best-performing acquirer by region, card type, or cost. Small improvements in auth rates translate to significant revenue at scale.

Routing decision tree illustration

Agentic commerce ready

Headless APIs designed for machine-to-machine commerce. Guardian serves as the secure token wallet for autonomous AI agents initiating payments without GUI checkout flows.

With vendor-independent tokens, route transactions to the best-performing acquirer by region, card type, or cost. Small improvements in auth rates translate to significant revenue at scale.

Routing decision tree illustration

built for what's next

Your vault needs to outlive the browser

AI agents don't click checkout buttons. Guardian's headless APIs are designed for machine-to-machine payment flows where no human is in the loop.

Traditional Checkout

Human opens browser and navigates to checkout page

Hosted form renders card fields inside an iframe

PSP SDK captures input and tokenizes within its own UI layer

Proprietary token is locked to that PSP's processing ecosystem

Agentic Payment Flow

AI agent initiates payment via API call. No browser, no GUI.

Guardian API resolves stored token programmatically

Outbound Proxy injects PAN and routes to optimal acquirer via

Hub

Universal token works across any processor. No vendor

dependency.

Architecture diagram showing AI agent connecting to
Guardian's headless API layer, with token resolution and
multi-acquirer routing paths. No browser or GUI in the
flow.

Headless by design

No iframes, no hosted forms, no DOM
dependencies. Every Guardian capability is
accessible through pure API calls.

With vendor-independent tokens, route transactions to the best-performing acquirer by region, card type, or cost. Small improvements in auth rates translate to significant revenue at scale.

Same security model

Agent-initiated transactions pass through the
same proxy architecture, vault, and compliance boundary as human-initiated flows.

With vendor-independent tokens, route transactions to the best-performing acquirer by region, card type, or cost. Small improvements in auth rates translate to significant revenue at scale.

Route-aware agents

Agents can leverage Hub's routing logic to
select the optimal acquirer per transaction,
applying the same cost and performance rules
as human flows.

With vendor-independent tokens, route transactions to the best-performing acquirer by region, card type, or cost. Small improvements in auth rates translate to significant revenue at scale.