Prova vs LangSmith
LangSmith is the cockpit for one framework. Prova is the audit and enforcement layer for all of them, signed.
BOOK A CALLLangSmith is the eval and tracing surface for teams building on LangChain: run hierarchy, per-node cost, dataset-driven evals. Prova is framework-neutral (LangGraph, CrewAI, AutoGen, Vercel AI SDK, MCP, custom), enforces at the gateway, auto-rolls-back a regressing deploy, and turns every decision into an Ed25519-signed receipt an auditor can verify without trusting Prova or LangChain.
| Feature | Prova | LangSmith |
|---|---|---|
| Run hierarchy + per-step traces | Yes | Yes |
| Per-node cost in LangGraph runs | Yes | Yes |
| Framework-neutral (CrewAI, AutoGen, Vercel AI SDK, MCP) | Yes | No |
| Gateway-side enforcement (block before model call) | Yes | No |
| Ed25519-signed receipts, verifiable offline | Yes | No |
| Auto-rollback on a signed regression | Yes | No |
| Cross-customer fleet benchmark | Yes | No |
| EU AI Act / FDA / SEC / HIPAA evidence export | Yes | No |
| Dataset-driven evals + prompt versioning | No | Yes |
| Self-hosted / air-gapped | Yes | Yes |
Where Prova is different
Framework-neutral, not LangChain-bound
LangSmith assumes your runtime is LangChain. Move to CrewAI, AutoGen, Vercel AI SDK, MCP, or a custom orchestrator and you start over. Prova ingests from all of them under one signed schema, so a framework migration does not break your audit trail.
Enforce, not just observe
LangSmith traces. Prova traces AND enforces at the gateway, returning action=block when a policy or budget cap is breached, and auto-reverts a deploy when a release regresses. The signed receipt is the artifact your regulator asks for.
Receipts survive vendor lock-in
Every Prova receipt is Ed25519-signed against a published public key. A regulator three years from now can verify the receipt your auditor saw, with no Prova in the loop. Trace exports from LangSmith are not signed in the same sense.
Use LangSmith for eval, prompt iteration, and LangChain-native tracing. Use Prova for the cross-framework control plane, enforcement, and the signed audit trail. They complement: LangSmith for dev cycles, Prova for production governance.