How routing works
By default, Flowstate Router passes each request to the model the tool asked for. Two optional features can change that: intelligent routing and outage failover. An admin turns each on. Both are off until then.
Intelligent routing
Intelligent routing can move a simple prompt to a cheaper model from the same provider and family. A quick question doesn’t need the most capable model.
- It’s set per workspace, separately for people and for agents.
- It only moves a request to a cheaper model in the same family. It doesn’t switch provider.
- It looks at what the prompt asks for. It leaves complex work on the model the tool requested.
Decisions are made per thread
Flowstate decides once per conversation thread, not once per request. Then it keeps that choice while the provider’s prompt cache is warm.
This matters because AI providers keep recently used context in a cache, and a cached prompt costs less to reuse. Switching models in the middle of a thread would throw that cache away. Keeping the decision stable means routing doesn’t make a conversation more expensive by discarding cached context.
If a later turn needs a more capable model, Flowstate moves the thread back up.
Outage failover
If an AI service isn’t responding, Flowstate can send the request to a Flowstate-hosted model instead, so people can keep working.
- It needs your explicit consent. Flowstate doesn’t send requests to its own models until you give it.
- It’s for outages. It isn’t a way to choose cheaper models.
Failover models are different from the model the tool asked for. Decide whether that’s acceptable for your work before you consent.
Every decision is recorded
Flowstate records what happened to each request:
- The model the tool asked for.
- The model that answered.
- Whether the request was moved to a cheaper model, and why.
- Whether it failed over.
These records are kept for every request, whether or not session transcripts are on. They hold no conversation content. Admins use them to check that routing behaves as expected.
What routing doesn’t do
- It doesn’t guarantee savings. What you save depends on how people use AI.
- It doesn’t change the AI account people sign in with.
- It doesn’t route when it can’t recognise the person. Those requests are refused.