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.

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.

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

Which "auto" Should I Use?

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?"}]}'

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.

How Variants Change the Scoring

Each variant uses different weights:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Learn More

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

• Full 13-factor scoring algorithm
• Mode pack weight tables
• Implementation file paths
• API endpoints
• Self-healing algorithm details