Hierarchical Routing
A scheduling strategy that dynamically assigns requests of varying complexity to LLMs of different scales. Using lightweight classifiers or cascading mechanisms, it substantially reduces inference costs while maintaining overall output quality.
Timeline (last 90 days)
When the number of tools exceeds ten, consider hierarchical routing—first let the agent choose a tool category, then choose a specific tool within the category, to avoid it getting lost in a long list.
Kumar opposes a wholesale model switch and recommends tiered routing: DeepSeek handles 85–90% of routine traffic (classification, drafting, retrieval QA, formatting), while frontier models handle the remaining 10–15% of complex tasks (ambiguous complaints, multi-step reasoning, low confidence).
Layered routing saves the integration tax (a unified API key, base URL and billing relationship) but adds a routing tax (roughly 2 milliseconds of classifier latency plus compute overhead).
Common implementations of tiered routing include rule-based length/perplexity thresholds, using small classifiers to predict query complexity scores, and cascade routing (where a weak model attempts first and then decides whether to escalate).
Tiered routing refers to using cheaper models to handle simple, high-frequency initial screening, and escalating complex or high-risk changes to more capable models.
A model with slightly lower accuracy but five times cheaper may outperform on the valid findings per dollar metric, provided tiered routing is used to cover high-risk scenarios.
All Facts (6)
When the number of tools exceeds ten, consider hierarchical routing—first let the agent choose a tool category, then choose a specific tool within the category, to avoid it getting lost in a long list.
50%UnverifiedKumar opposes a wholesale model switch and recommends tiered routing: DeepSeek handles 85–90% of routine traffic (classification, drafting, retrieval QA, formatting), while frontier models handle the remaining 10–15% of complex tasks (ambiguous complaints, multi-step reasoning, low confidence).
50%UnverifiedLayered routing saves the integration tax (a unified API key, base URL and billing relationship) but adds a routing tax (roughly 2 milliseconds of classifier latency plus compute overhead).
50%UnverifiedCommon implementations of tiered routing include rule-based length/perplexity thresholds, using small classifiers to predict query complexity scores, and cascade routing (where a weak model attempts first and then decides whether to escalate).
50%UnverifiedTiered routing refers to using cheaper models to handle simple, high-frequency initial screening, and escalating complex or high-risk changes to more capable models.
50%UnverifiedA model with slightly lower accuracy but five times cheaper may outperform on the valid findings per dollar metric, provided tiered routing is used to cover high-risk scenarios.
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