> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.layerlens.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.layerlens.ai/1.-introduction/public-vs-premium-by-intent.md). # Public vs Premium — by user intent Public vs Premium organized by user intent — Select, Build / Instrument, Observe, Evaluate, Improve, Govern. This page answers "what do I do with each tier" by walking through the six user intents that map to the [Stratix Workflow](/1.-introduction/the-stratix-workflow.md). Each intent gets a same-axis comparison between **Stratix Public** (free, anonymous) and **Stratix Premium** (logged-in workspace). ## Select — pick the model > "Which model should I use to build this feature?" | Surface | What you can do | Limitation | | ----------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Public** | Browse the [leaderboard](/5.-select-pick-the-model/leaderboard.md). Compare candidates head-to-head on the [public benchmarks catalog](/5.-select-pick-the-model/benchmarks-catalog.md). Test a prompt against any catalog model (rate-limited, anonymous). | Public benchmarks are general-capability. They won't decide for your specific domain (pricing in your tariff, citing your jurisdiction, summarizing your documents). | | **Premium** | Everything Public does — and your dashboard's catalog augments with **BYOK custom models** you've registered. Author **custom benchmarks** from your own data and run any candidate model against them. The selection narrowed by Public gets confirmed by a domain-aligned private benchmark. | None for the intent. | ## Build / Instrument — wire your code > "How do I get observability into what my AI is actually doing?" | Surface | What you can do | Limitation | | ----------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Public** | Read the docs. Use the SDK's free tier (anonymous test calls). | No persistent traces, no organization-scoped workspace. | | **Premium** | Install the Python SDK (`pip install layerlens --extra-index-url https://sdk.layerlens.ai/package`) with your API key. Use `@trace`, `span()`, `instrument_openai()`, `instrument_anthropic()`, framework-specific callbacks (LangChain handler, etc.). Traces persist in your workspace. | Some framework adapters in private preview — see [Integrations](/1.-introduction/01-introduction.md). | ## Observe — see real production behavior > "What's my AI actually doing in production?" | Surface | What you can do | Limitation | | ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------- | | **Public** | n/a — Public is for catalog browsing, not production observability. | No persistent trace ingestion at all. | | **Premium** | Ingest traces from any application via SDK, CLI, or REST. Browse, search, and filter traces in the dashboard. Drill into individual traces with full span trees. Real-time and historical views. | None. | ## Evaluate — score the outputs > "Is this output good? Against my benchmark, my rubric, my labels?" | Surface | What you can do | Limitation | | ----------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Public** | View public evaluations (2,000+ pre-run scoring runs across the catalog). Read methodology. Reproduce scores in your own workspace if you upgrade. | Cannot run an evaluation on your data. Cannot author or run scorers / judges. | | **Premium** | Run private evaluations on your benchmarks. Author **LLM-backed scorers** (model + prompt) reusable across evaluations. Author **LLM judges** (versioned, GEPA-tunable). Apply judges to traces directly via **trace evaluation**. | None. | ## Improve — tune prompts, judges, models > "My evaluation isn't where I need it. What do I tune?" | Surface | What you can do | Limitation | | ----------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------- | | **Public** | n/a — improvement is workflow-internal. | No iteration loop available on Public. | | **Premium** | Iterate on prompts and re-evaluate against the same benchmark. Run **GEPA optimization** to tune judges against labeled examples — typically lifts judge agreement-with-humans from 60–70% to 85–95%. Maintain prompt versions as first-class artifacts. | None. | ## Govern — enforce gates in CI/CD and across the org > "How do I make sure regressions never reach production?" | Surface | What you can do | Limitation | | ----------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------- | | **Public** | n/a — governance requires your team and your CI/CD. | Not applicable. | | **Premium** | Wire evaluations into CI/CD as quality gates (drop-in [GitHub Actions](/6.-build-wire-your-code/cicd-github-actions.md), GitLab, Buildkite recipes). Run **continuous trace evaluation** on production samples with threshold alerts. SSO + role-based access (Enterprise tier). Audit log of every evaluation (Enterprise tier). | None. | ## Summary table | Intent | Public | Premium | | ---------- | :---------: | :-----: | | Select | ● | ● | | Instrument | (read-only) | ● | | Observe | — | ● | | Evaluate | (browse) | ● | | Improve | — | ● | | Govern | — | ● | ## Where to next * [The Stratix Workflow](/1.-introduction/the-stratix-workflow.md) — the six-stage spine these intents map to * [Stratix Public](/1.-introduction/01-introduction.md) — full Public surface * [Stratix Premium](https://github.com/LayerLens/gitbook-full/blob/main/05-select/catalog/premium-workspace-overview.md) — full Premium surface * [Public vs Premium feature matrix](/5.-select-pick-the-model/public-vs-premium-1.md) — feature-by-feature table * [Pricing](/1.-introduction/01-introduction.md)