routing2026-01-261 min read
Agent Routing and Failover Without Surprises
How to design provider/model routing with policy control, graceful degradation, and predictable costs.
title: Agent Routing and Failover Without Surprises
description: How to design provider/model routing with policy control, graceful degradation, and predictable costs.
date: 2026-01-26
tags: [routing, reliability, cost, production]
The hidden failure mode
Most routing systems fail “quietly”: they degrade quality or spike cost and nobody notices until the invoice arrives.
A robust routing policy
- primary model/provider per task type
- fallback chain (2–3 options)
- per-tenant overrides
- safety-first routing for risky actions
Degrade gracefully
When primary fails:
1. retry same provider (bounded)
2. switch provider same model class
3. switch model class (smaller/cheaper) with tighter scope
4. require human approval
Evidence you need
- route decision recorded per run
- reason codes (timeout, cost cap, policy deny)
- latency and error rates per provider
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