Auto Combo Guide

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Auto-Combo: Let OmniRoute Pick the Best AI for You

TL;DR: Set your model to auto and OmniRoute automatically picks the best AI provider for each request. No configuration needed.

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What It Does

Instead of choosing a specific AI model (like GPT-4o or Claude), you can let OmniRoute automatically pick the best one for each request. It considers:

• Health — Is the provider working right now?
• Speed — How fast is it?
• Cost — How much does it cost?
• Quality — Is it good at this type of task?
• Capacity — Does it have quota remaining?

OmniRoute scores all your connected providers and picks the best one. If it fails, it automatically tries the next one.

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Quick Start

Step 1: Set your model to auto in your IDE or CLI:

model: "auto"

Step 2: That's it! OmniRoute handles the rest.

Step 3 (optional): Use a variant for specific tasks:

model: "auto/coding"    # Best for code
model: "auto/fast"      # Fastest response
model: "auto/cheap"     # Cheapest option

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Which "auto" Should I Use?

If you want...	Use this	Best for	How it works
Best overall	auto	General questions, chat	Balances speed, cost, and quality
Best code	auto/coding	Writing code, debugging	Picks models good at coding tasks
Fastest response	auto/fast	Quick answers, low latency	Prioritizes speed over everything
Cheapest option	auto/cheap	Saving money	Picks the cheapest provider
Smartest model	auto/smart	Complex tasks	Quality-first + explores new models
Most available	auto/offline	When providers are busy	Picks providers with most capacity

Examples

# General chat — balanced
curl http://localhost:20128/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"auto","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Hello!"}]}'

# Code generation — quality-first
curl http://localhost:20128/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"auto/coding","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Write a Python function"}]}'

# Quick answer — speed-first
curl http://localhost:20128/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"auto/fast","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"What is 2+2?"}]}'

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How It Works (Simple Version)

When you send a request with model: "auto", OmniRoute:

1. Looks at all your connected providers — Every provider you've added (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, etc.)
2. Scores each one on 5 factors:
   • Is it working? (health)
   • Does it have capacity? (quota)
   • How much does it cost? (price)
   • How fast is it? (speed)
   • Is it good at this task? (quality)
3. Picks the best one — The highest-scoring provider gets your request
4. Auto-recovers — If it fails, OmniRoute tries the next one automatically

The Scoring System

Each provider gets a score from 0 to 1. The higher the score, the better the fit.

Factor	Weight	What it means
Health	20%	Is the provider working? (circuit breaker state)
Quota	15%	Does it have capacity remaining?
Cost	15%	How expensive is it? (cheaper = higher score)
Speed	12%	How fast is it? (lower latency = higher score)
Task Fit	8%	Is it good at this type of task?
Stability	5%	Is it consistent? (low error rate)
Tier	5%	Account tier (Ultra > Pro > Free)
Other	20%	Context affinity, connection density, etc.

How Variants Change the Scoring

Each variant uses different weights:

Variant	Prioritizes	Key Weights
auto	Balanced	health=20%, quota=15%, cost=15%
auto/coding	Quality	taskFit=37%, stability=15%
auto/fast	Speed	latency=32%, health=28%
auto/cheap	Cost	cost=37%
auto/smart	Quality + Explore	taskFit=37%, exploration=10%
auto/offline	Capacity	quota=37%, health=28%

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How It Handles Failures

OmniRoute has three layers of protection:

1. Auto-Fallback

If the best provider fails, OmniRoute automatically tries the next one. You don't need to do anything.

2. Self-Healing

If a provider keeps failing:

• Score < 0.2 → Excluded for 5 minutes
• Circuit breaker open → Auto-excluded
• More than 50% providers down → Incident mode (no exploration)

3. Emergency Fallback

If all providers fail, OmniRoute routes to stable free providers (like Kiro or Qoder) as a last resort.

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Multi-Account Support

If you have multiple accounts for the same provider (e.g., two OpenAI keys), OmniRoute treats each as a separate candidate. This means:

• Account A has quota remaining → use it
• Account B is rate-limited → skip it
• Account C is cheaper → prefer it

Each account is scored independently based on its own health, quota, and speed.

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Bandit Exploration

OmniRoute occasionally explores new providers to discover better options:

• Default: 5% of requests go to random providers
• Auto/smart: 10% exploration rate
• Disabled when more than 50% of providers are unhealthy

This helps OmniRoute learn which providers work best for your usage patterns.

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Common Questions

"Will it always pick the most expensive model?"

No. Cost is only 15% of the score by default. A cheap, fast, healthy provider can beat an expensive one. Use auto/cheap if you want to prioritize cost even more.

"What if a provider goes down?"

OmniRoute automatically skips it and tries the next one. If a provider keeps failing, it's excluded temporarily (5-30 minutes). You don't need to do anything.

"Can I see which provider was used?"

Check the response headers — OmniRoute includes the provider and model used in each response.

"Does it learn from my usage?"

Yes! The scoring system uses historical data (latency, error rates, success rates) to make better decisions over time.

"What's the difference between auto and auto/smart?"

• auto — Balanced, 5% exploration
• auto/smart — Quality-first (same weights as auto/coding), 10% exploration

Use auto/smart when you want the best quality and are okay with occasional exploration.

"Can I force a specific provider?"

Yes! Use a combo with priority strategy instead of auto. See the Technical Reference for details.

"How is this different from round-robin?"

Round-robin cycles through providers in order. Auto-combo scores each provider and picks the best one. It's smarter — it considers health, speed, cost, and quality.

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What's Next?

• Connect a Provider — Add your first AI provider
• Free Tiers Guide — Get free AI with no credit card
• Troubleshooting — Fix common issues
• Technical Reference — Deep dive into the scoring algorithm

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Learn More

For developers and contributors, see the Auto-Combo Technical Reference for:

• Full 12-factor scoring algorithm
• Mode pack weight tables
• Implementation file paths
• API endpoints
• Self-healing algorithm details