L12 - Routing, Planning & Policy¶
L12 covers model routing, agent planning, policy enforcement, budget constraints, fallback paths, privacy rules, ensemble selection, and evaluator feedback loops. It is where the system decides what to do next and under what constraints.
L12Routing, Planning & Policy
- Routing
- Planning
- Budgets
- Policy checks
What belongs here¶
L12 sits above individual model and tool capabilities. It may choose between providers, split work across ensembles, enforce cost limits, apply privacy policy, or select a planner strategy.
Representative projects¶
| Project | Why it might fit | Adjacent layers |
|---|---|---|
| LiteLLM | Proxy and routing layer across model providers with budgets and access controls. | L12 routing, L13 transport |
| OpenRouter | Model routing and provider abstraction for many model endpoints. | L12 routing, L7 inference |
| LangGraph | Graph-based orchestration for controllable agent workflows. | L12 planning, L14 memory |
| Microsoft AutoGen | Multi-agent framework for planning and collaboration patterns. | L12 planning, L16 applications |
| CrewAI | Agent orchestration framework centered on roles, tasks, and crews. | L12 planning, L16 applications |
| Open Policy Agent | General policy engine that can inform AI routing and authorization decisions. | L12 policy, L15 governance |
| MCP-AQL spec | Public protocol work that introduces routing cues, semantic operation choices, and execution policy questions above basic tool invocation. | L12 routing, L10 invocation |
| DollhouseMCP approvals and workflow policy | Human review paths and execution constraints that make policy visible in the product rather than hiding it in infrastructure. | L12 policy, L15 governance |
Boundary questions¶
- Does routing belong in L12 when it is implemented inside an inference gateway?
- Should agent planning be modeled separately from application logic, or is that distinction too artificial?
- How should policy decisions reference identity, memory, governance, and provider constraints without collapsing layers?
Signals to watch¶
- Provider routing becoming a normal architectural layer rather than a helper library.
- Planner frameworks converging around durable graph execution.
- Privacy, cost, and latency policies becoming explicit inputs to routing decisions.