Model Cost Router

Optimize for total successful-task cost, not the cheapest single call.

Routing Heuristic

Work	Model tier
Search, inventory, mechanical edits	cheap/fast model or local tools
Design decisions, risky code, security	stronger model
Final review of broad changes	stronger model
Long-running monitoring	no model; use process/log checks
Repeated repo facts	markdown memory, not model tokens

Measurement Loop

1. Define the task and quality bar.
2. Run cheap path once.
3. Run strong review on the output.
4. Track elapsed time, fixes needed, and estimated tokens.
5. Keep routing only if quality and reliability are acceptable.

Guardrails

• Treat "17x cheaper" or similar claims as marketing until measured locally.
• Do not route secrets or proprietary code through unknown hosted tools.
• Prefer caching briefs and memory over re-sending context.
• Escalate model quality when failure would be more expensive than tokens.
• For production agents, bind model routing to gateway budgets, cache rules, trace metadata, and eval score gates; route to $auto-skill-build-agent-reliability-loop when cost decisions affect live users or tools.

Pair with $agent-observability to keep a local cost ledger.

Validation

• Cost claims are measured locally or marked unverified.
• The cheaper path is kept only if quality and reliability meet the task bar.
• Production budget/fallback policy is routed to $auto-skill-build-agent-reliability-loop.