ADR-024: Unified Routing Architecture

Status: COMPLETE (Full L1-L4 Observability Verified v0.12.1) Date: 2025-12-22 Decision Makers: Engineering, Architecture Council Review: Completed - All 4 models responded (Reasoning Tier)

Context

Three recent ADRs address different aspects of "routing" in the LLM Council system:

ADR	Focus	Key Decision
ADR-020	Query triage & model selection	Not Diamond for complexity classification, prompt optimization, wildcard seat
ADR-022	Tier-appropriate model pools	Quick/balanced/high/reasoning tiers with different model sets
ADR-023	Gateway routing	OpenRouter/Requesty/Direct API abstraction with fallback chains

Current Problem

These ADRs were developed independently and lack:

Clear layering model: Which decisions happen first?
Unified configuration: 15+ environment variables across the three ADRs
Interaction rules: How do escalation, tier selection, and gateway fallback compose?
Single source of truth: Developers must read 3 ADRs to understand the full picture

Identified Conflicts and Ambiguities

Issue	ADRs Involved	Ambiguity
Execution order	ADR-020, ADR-022	Does triage select tier, or does tier constrain triage?
Escalation semantics	ADR-020, ADR-022	Confidence escalation vs tier escalation vs gateway fallback
Auto-tier selection	ADR-020, ADR-022	Both propose automatic tier/complexity detection
Model selection	ADR-020, ADR-022	Wildcard seat vs tier pool selection
Canonical formats	ADR-020, ADR-023	Task Spec vs CanonicalMessage
Configuration explosion	All three	15+ env vars, no unified schema

Decision

Establish a Unified Routing Architecture that defines:

A four-layer execution model
Clear interaction rules between ADRs
A unified configuration schema
Consistent terminology

The Four-Layer Model

Council Recommendation: Hybrid Layer Ordering

The Council unanimously agreed on a hybrid approach:

Explicit tier (user specifies quick/balanced/high/reasoning): Tier first, triage operates within constraints
Auto tier (user specifies "auto"): Triage first to classify complexity, then tier selection

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                           USER REQUEST                                       │
│                    (query + confidence level hint)                           │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                    │
                          ┌─────────┴─────────┐
                          │ confidence level? │
                          └─────────┬─────────┘
                    ┌───────────────┼───────────────┐
                    ▼               ▼               ▼
              [explicit]        [auto]         [bypass]
                    │               │               │
                    ▼               ▼               ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  LAYER 1: TIER SELECTION (ADR-022)                                          │
│  ═══════════════════════════════════                                        │
│  Input:  User-specified confidence level OR "auto"                          │
│  Process: Select tier (quick/balanced/high/reasoning)                       │
│  Output: TierContract (model pool, timeout budget, constraints)             │
│                                                                              │
│  EXPLICIT PATH: User specifies tier directly                                │
│    → Create TierContract immediately                                         │
│    → Layer 2 operates WITHIN tier constraints                               │
│                                                                              │
│  AUTO PATH: User specifies confidence="auto"                                │
│    → Defer to Layer 2 for complexity classification                         │
│    → Layer 2 determines tier via Not Diamond                                │
│                                                                              │
│  BYPASS PATH: Debug/testing mode (requires authorization)                   │
│    → Skip Layers 1-3, direct to Layer 4                                     │
│    → Strict logging, never in production                                    │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                    │
                                    ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  LAYER 2: QUERY TRIAGE & MODEL SELECTION (ADR-020)                          │
│  ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════                        │
│  Input:  Query + TierContract (from Layer 1)                                │
│  Process:                                                                    │
│    1. Complexity classification (if auto-tier)                              │
│    2. Fast-path decision (single model vs full council)                     │
│    3. Prompt optimization (per-model adaptation)                            │
│    4. Wildcard seat selection (specialist from tier pool)                   │
│  Output: ResolvedModelSet + OptimizedPrompts                                │
│                                                                              │
│  Constraints:                                                                │
│    - Models MUST come from TierContract.allowed_pools                       │
│    - Can RECOMMEND escalation, not force it                                 │
│    - Escalation requires explicit user notification                         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                    │
                                    ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  LAYER 3: COUNCIL EXECUTION (Core)                                          │
│  ═════════════════════════════════                                          │
│  Input:  ResolvedModelSet + OptimizedPrompts                                │
│  Process:                                                                    │
│    - Stage 1: Parallel queries to selected models                           │
│    - Stage 2: Anonymized peer review (tier-appropriate)                     │
│    - Stage 3: Chairman synthesis                                            │
│  Output: CouncilResponse                                                     │
│                                                                              │
│  Note: Quick tier may use lightweight "sanity check" instead of             │
│        full peer review (per ADR-022 council recommendation)                │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                    │
                                    ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  LAYER 4: GATEWAY ROUTING (ADR-023)                                         │
│  ═══════════════════════════════════                                        │
│  Input:  ResolvedModelId + CanonicalMessage (per model)                     │
│  Process:                                                                    │
│    1. Map model → gateway (per MODEL_ROUTING config)                        │
│    2. Inject BYOK credentials if configured                                 │
│    3. Execute API call with fallback chain on failure                       │
│  Output: API Response                                                        │
│                                                                              │
│  Failure handling:                                                           │
│    - Infrastructure failure → try next gateway in chain                     │
│    - All gateways exhausted → raise TransportFailure                        │
│    - TransportFailure may trigger Layer 2 escalation (application policy)  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Execution Order (Definitive)

1. TIER SELECTION (ADR-022)
   ├── User specifies: confidence="balanced"
   └── Output: TierContract{models: [gpt-4o, sonnet, gemini-1.5-pro], timeout: 90s}

2. QUERY TRIAGE (ADR-020)
   ├── Input: query + TierContract
   ├── Complexity check → stays in balanced tier (no escalation)
   ├── Prompt optimization → per-model prompts
   ├── Wildcard selection → adds specialist from balanced pool
   └── Output: [gpt-4o, sonnet, gemini-1.5-pro, selected-specialist]

3. COUNCIL EXECUTION (Core)
   ├── Stage 1: Query all 4 models in parallel
   ├── Stage 2: Peer review
   └── Stage 3: Synthesis → CouncilResponse

4. GATEWAY ROUTING (ADR-023)
   ├── gpt-4o → OpenRouter (default)
   ├── sonnet → Requesty (per MODEL_ROUTING)
   ├── gemini-1.5-pro → OpenRouter
   └── specialist → Direct API (if configured)

Escalation and Fallback Rules

Three orthogonal failure-handling mechanisms exist:

Mechanism	Layer	Trigger	Action
Tier Escalation	L1→L2	Low confidence / complexity mismatch	Move to higher tier (quick→balanced→high)
Deliberation Escalation	L2	Fast-path confidence < 0.92	Single model → Full council
Gateway Fallback	L4	Transport failure (5xx, timeout, rate limit)	Try next gateway in chain

Council Recommendation on Gateway Failure: The Council unanimously agreed that gateway failures should NEVER automatically trigger tier escalation. Gateway failures are infrastructure issues, not query complexity issues. The correct action is:

Try next gateway in fallback chain
If all gateways exhausted → fail with clear error
User/application may manually retry at different tier if desired

Interaction Rules:

# Pseudo-code for escalation interaction (Council-revised)
async def execute_query(query: str, confidence: str) -> Response:
    tier = select_tier(confidence)  # Layer 1

    try:
        # Layer 2: Triage
        triage_result = await triage_query(query, tier)

        if triage_result.escalate_tier:
            # Tier escalation (ADR-022) - only for complexity mismatch
            tier = get_next_tier(tier)
            log_escalation("tier", reason=triage_result.escalation_reason)
            triage_result = await triage_query(query, tier)

        # Layer 3: Council execution
        models = triage_result.resolved_models
        council_result = await run_council(query, models, tier.timeout)

        return council_result

    except TransportFailure as e:
        # Gateway fallback exhausted (ADR-023)
        # COUNCIL DECISION: Never auto-escalate tier on gateway failure
        # Gateway failures are infrastructure issues, not complexity issues
        log_error("gateway_exhausted", error=e, tier=tier.name)
        raise GatewayExhaustedError(
            message="All gateways failed",
            attempted_gateways=e.attempted_gateways,
            suggestion="Retry later or check gateway health"
        )

Key Principles:

Tier escalation is explicit: Never silently upgrade tier (cost implications)
Gateway fallback is transparent: Retry same model via different gateway
Council escalation is autonomous: Fast-path can escalate to full council
Never cross-layer escalation without logging: All escalations are auditable

Unified Configuration Schema

The Problem

Current configuration across three ADRs:

# ADR-020 (6 vars)
LLM_COUNCIL_ROUTING_MODE=auto|full|lite|bypass
LLM_COUNCIL_PROMPT_OPTIMIZATION=true|false
LLM_COUNCIL_WILDCARD_MODEL=dynamic|<model-id>
NOT_DIAMOND_API_KEY=...

# ADR-022 (5 vars)
LLM_COUNCIL_MODELS_QUICK=...
LLM_COUNCIL_MODELS_BALANCED=...
LLM_COUNCIL_MODELS_HIGH=...
LLM_COUNCIL_MODELS_REASONING=...
LLM_COUNCIL_AUTO_TIER=true|false

# ADR-023 (6+ vars)
LLM_COUNCIL_ROUTER=openrouter|requesty|direct
LLM_COUNCIL_MODEL_ROUTING='{...}'
LLM_COUNCIL_FALLBACK_CHAIN=...
LLM_COUNCIL_BYOK=true|false
OPENROUTER_API_KEY=...
REQUESTY_API_KEY=...
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=...
OPENAI_API_KEY=...

17+ environment variables is unmanageable.

The Solution: Unified YAML Configuration

# llm_council.yaml - Unified Configuration
# Precedence: Explicit config > Environment variables > Defaults

council:
  # ==========================================================================
  # LAYER 1: Tier Selection (ADR-022)
  # ==========================================================================
  tiers:
    default: high  # Default tier when not specified

    pools:
      quick:
        models:
          - openai/gpt-4o-mini
          - anthropic/claude-3-5-haiku-20241022
          - google/gemini-2.0-flash-001
        timeout_seconds: 30
        peer_review: lightweight  # sanity check only

      balanced:
        models:
          - openai/gpt-4o
          - anthropic/claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022
          - google/gemini-1.5-pro
        timeout_seconds: 90
        peer_review: standard

      high:
        models:
          - openai/gpt-4o
          - anthropic/claude-opus-4-5-20250514
          - google/gemini-3-pro
          - x-ai/grok-4
        timeout_seconds: 180
        peer_review: standard

      reasoning:
        models:
          - openai/gpt-5.2-pro
          - anthropic/claude-opus-4-5-20250514
          - openai/o1-preview
          - deepseek/deepseek-r1
        timeout_seconds: 600
        peer_review: standard

    escalation:
      enabled: true
      notify_user: true  # Never silently escalate
      max_escalations: 2  # quick → balanced → high (stop)

  # ==========================================================================
  # LAYER 2: Query Triage (ADR-020)
  # ==========================================================================
  triage:
    enabled: false  # Opt-in; requires Not Diamond API key

    complexity_classification:
      enabled: true
      provider: not_diamond

    prompt_optimization:
      enabled: true
      verify_semantic_equivalence: true
      similarity_threshold: 0.93

    wildcard:
      enabled: true
      pool: domain_specialist  # code, reasoning, creative, multilingual
      fallback_model: null  # Use tier pool if specialist unavailable

    fast_path:
      enabled: true
      confidence_threshold: 0.92
      escalate_on_low_confidence: true

  # ==========================================================================
  # LAYER 4: Gateway Routing (ADR-023)
  # ==========================================================================
  gateways:
    default: openrouter

    providers:
      openrouter:
        enabled: true
        api_key: ${OPENROUTER_API_KEY}

      requesty:
        enabled: true
        api_key: ${REQUESTY_API_KEY}
        byok:
          enabled: false
          keys:
            anthropic: ${ANTHROPIC_API_KEY}
            openai: ${OPENAI_API_KEY}

      direct:
        enabled: true
        anthropic:
          api_key: ${ANTHROPIC_API_KEY}
        openai:
          api_key: ${OPENAI_API_KEY}
        google:
          api_key: ${GOOGLE_API_KEY}

    model_routing:
      # Route specific models to specific gateways
      "anthropic/*": requesty
      "deepseek/*": openrouter
      "openai/*": direct  # Use direct API for OpenAI

    fallback:
      enabled: true
      chain: [openrouter, requesty, direct]
      retry_on:
        - timeout
        - rate_limit
        - server_error  # 5xx
      do_not_retry_on:
        - auth_error  # 401/403
        - invalid_request  # 400
        - content_filter

  # ==========================================================================
  # Cross-Layer Settings
  # ==========================================================================
  credentials:
    # Consolidated API key references
    not_diamond: ${NOT_DIAMOND_API_KEY}
    openrouter: ${OPENROUTER_API_KEY}
    requesty: ${REQUESTY_API_KEY}
    anthropic: ${ANTHROPIC_API_KEY}
    openai: ${OPENAI_API_KEY}
    google: ${GOOGLE_API_KEY}

  observability:
    log_escalations: true
    log_gateway_fallbacks: true
    metrics_enabled: true

Environment Variable Overrides

For CI/CD and simple deployments, environment variables still work:

# Tier selection
LLM_COUNCIL_DEFAULT_TIER=high
LLM_COUNCIL_TIER_ESCALATION=true

# Triage
LLM_COUNCIL_TRIAGE_ENABLED=false
LLM_COUNCIL_FAST_PATH_CONFIDENCE=0.92

# Gateway
LLM_COUNCIL_DEFAULT_GATEWAY=openrouter
LLM_COUNCIL_GATEWAY_FALLBACK_CHAIN=openrouter,requesty,direct

# API Keys (always environment variables for security)
OPENROUTER_API_KEY=...
REQUESTY_API_KEY=...

Precedence: YAML config > Environment variables > Defaults

Terminology Standardization

Concept	Term to Use	NOT to Use	Layer
Selecting confidence level	Tier Selection	"routing"	L1
Choosing which models to query	Model Selection	"routing"	L2
Classifying query complexity	Triage	"routing"	L2
Choosing which gateway/API to use	Gateway Routing	"model routing"	L4
Moving to higher tier	Tier Escalation	"fallback"	L1→L2
Retrying via different gateway	Gateway Fallback	"escalation"	L4
Single model → Full council	Deliberation Escalation	"council escalation", "tier escalation"	L2

Note: The Council recommended renaming "Council Escalation" to "Deliberation Escalation" to avoid confusion with tier escalation and to more accurately describe the action (escalating the deliberation depth, not the council itself).

Canonical Data Flow

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                            DATA FLOW                                      │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

User Query (string) + Confidence Hint (string)
    │
    ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ TierContract                                                              │
│ {                                                                         │
│   tier: "balanced",                                                       │
│   allowed_models: ["gpt-4o", "sonnet", "gemini-1.5-pro"],                │
│   timeout_ms: 90000,                                                      │
│   peer_review_mode: "standard",                                           │
│   escalation_policy: {can_escalate: true, max: 2}                        │
│ }                                                                         │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
    │
    ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ TriageResult                                                              │
│ {                                                                         │
│   resolved_models: ["gpt-4o", "sonnet", "gemini-1.5-pro", "deepseek-v3"],│
│   optimized_prompts: {                                                    │
│     "gpt-4o": CanonicalTaskSpec,                                         │
│     "sonnet": CanonicalTaskSpec,                                         │
│     ...                                                                   │
│   },                                                                      │
│   fast_path: false,                                                       │
│   escalation_recommended: false                                           │
│ }                                                                         │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
    │
    ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ CanonicalMessage[] (per model)                                            │
│ {                                                                         │
│   role: "user",                                                           │
│   content: [{type: "text", text: "..."}],                                │
│   tool_calls: [],                                                         │
│   metadata: {task_id: "...", tier: "balanced"}                           │
│ }                                                                         │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
    │
    ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ GatewayRequest (per model)                                                │
│ {                                                                         │
│   model: "anthropic/claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022",                         │
│   gateway: "requesty",                                                    │
│   messages: [...],  // Gateway-specific format                           │
│   credentials: {api_key: "...", byok: null},                             │
│   fallback_chain: ["openrouter", "direct"]                               │
│ }                                                                         │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Council Answers to Open Questions

1. Layer Ordering: Tier vs Triage First?

Council Verdict: HYBRID APPROACH

Scenario	Order	Rationale
Explicit tier (user specifies)	Tier → Triage	User intent is clear; triage operates within constraints
Auto tier ("auto")	Triage → Tier	Need complexity classification to determine tier

2. Gateway Failure → Tier Escalation?

Council Verdict: NEVER (Option A)

Gateway failures are infrastructure issues, not query complexity issues. Auto-escalating tier would:

Increase cost without addressing root cause
Mask infrastructure problems
Confuse the separation of concerns

Correct behavior: Exhaust fallback chain → fail with clear error → let user/app decide.

3. Unified YAML Configuration?

Council Verdict: PROCEED with YAML

Benefits outweigh costs:

Single source of truth for complex configurations
Better documentation and validation
Environment variables remain for secrets and CI/CD overrides
Schema validation catches configuration errors early

4. Bypass Mode for Debugging?

Council Verdict: YES, with strict guardrails

bypass:
  enabled: false  # Must be explicitly enabled
  authorization: ["BYPASS_TOKEN", "admin_role"]  # Require auth
  logging: audit_all  # Every bypass logged
  environments: ["development", "staging"]  # Never production

Guardrails:

Requires explicit authorization token or role
All bypass requests logged to audit trail
Hard-blocked in production environment
Rate-limited to prevent abuse

5. Model Pool Staleness?

Council Verdict: Automated with human oversight

# Weekly automated fitness check
@scheduled(weekly)
async def evaluate_model_fitness():
    for tier, models in TIER_POOLS.items():
        for model in models:
            p95_latency = await get_model_latency_p95(model, days=7)
            if p95_latency > TIER_LATENCY_BUDGETS[tier] * 0.6:
                alert(f"{model} exceeds P95 budget for {tier}")
                # Don't auto-remove; flag for human review

6. ADR Conflicts?

Council Verdict: Architecturally compatible

No fundamental conflicts. ADR-020, ADR-022, and ADR-023 are complementary:

ADR-020 is the "Brain" (intelligence layer)
ADR-022 is the "Policy" (constraints layer)
ADR-023 is the "Nervous System" (transport layer)

ADR-024 documents how they interact; no redesign required.

Observability Requirements

Council Recommendation: All layers must emit structured observability data.

Required Metrics

observability:
  metrics:
    tier_selection:
      - tier_selected (counter, by tier)
      - escalation_count (counter, by from_tier, to_tier)
      - auto_tier_classification_latency_ms (histogram)

    triage:
      - fast_path_usage (counter, by used=true/false)
      - deliberation_escalation_count (counter)
      - wildcard_selection (counter, by specialist_type)

    gateway:
      - requests_total (counter, by gateway, model)
      - latency_ms (histogram, by gateway, model)
      - errors_total (counter, by gateway, error_type)
      - fallback_triggered (counter, by from_gateway, to_gateway)
      - circuit_breaker_state (gauge, by gateway)

  logging:
    escalations: always  # Every escalation logged with reason
    fallbacks: always    # Every gateway fallback logged
    bypass: audit_all    # Bypass mode logs everything

  tracing:
    enabled: true
    propagate_context: true  # Trace across all layers
    sample_rate: 0.1  # 10% of requests traced in production

Circuit Breaker Requirements

Council Recommendation: Implement circuit breakers at Layer 4 (Gateway) to prevent cascade failures.

Circuit Breaker Configuration

gateways:
  circuit_breaker:
    enabled: true
    thresholds:
      failure_rate: 0.5      # Open circuit if >50% failures
      slow_call_rate: 0.8    # Open if >80% calls exceed timeout
      slow_call_duration_ms: 30000
    window:
      type: sliding_window
      size: 100  # Last 100 calls
    states:
      half_open:
        permitted_calls: 10   # Allow 10 test calls
      open:
        wait_duration_ms: 60000  # Wait 1 minute before half-open

Per-Gateway Circuit Breakers

class GatewayCircuitBreaker:
    def __init__(self, gateway_id: str, config: CircuitBreakerConfig):
        self.state = CircuitState.CLOSED
        self.failure_count = 0
        self.success_count = 0
        self.last_failure_time = None

    async def call(self, request: GatewayRequest) -> Response:
        if self.state == CircuitState.OPEN:
            if self.should_attempt_reset():
                self.state = CircuitState.HALF_OPEN
            else:
                raise CircuitOpenError(self.gateway_id)

        try:
            response = await self.execute(request)
            self.on_success()
            return response
        except GatewayError as e:
            self.on_failure()
            raise

    def on_failure(self):
        self.failure_count += 1
        if self.failure_rate > self.config.failure_rate_threshold:
            self.state = CircuitState.OPEN
            log_circuit_state_change(self.gateway_id, "OPEN")

Interaction with Fallback Chain

Gateway A [CLOSED] → try request
                   ↓ success → return
                   ↓ failure → check fallback
                              ↓
Gateway B [OPEN]   → skip (circuit open)
                              ↓
Gateway C [CLOSED] → try request
                   ↓ success → return
                   ↓ failure → exhaust chain → raise error

Key Behavior:

Open circuits are skipped in fallback chain
If all circuits open → fail immediately (don't wait for timeouts)
Circuit state is per-gateway, not per-model
Health check endpoints can preemptively test circuits

Implementation Strategy

Phase 1: Documentation Alignment - COMPLETE

Add cross-references between ADR-020, ADR-022, ADR-023
Update each ADR with layer assignment and interaction rules
Standardize terminology across all three

Phase 2: Unified Configuration - COMPLETE

Implement llm_council.yaml parser with Pydantic
Add validation schema for tiers, gateways, triage
Maintain backwards compatibility with env vars
Environment variable substitution (${VAR_NAME} syntax)
Automatic config discovery (cwd, ~/.config/llm-council/)

Phase 3: Layer Interfaces - COMPLETE

Define TierContract dataclass (already existed, verified)
Define TriageResult dataclass (already existed, verified)
Define GatewayRequest dataclass (already existed, verified)
Implement layer boundaries in code (layer_contracts.py)
Add validation functions for L1→L2→L3→L4 boundaries
Add observability hooks (LayerEvent, emit_layer_event)
Add boundary crossing helpers (cross_l1_to_l2, etc.)

Phase 4: Integration Testing & Execution Wiring

Test tier escalation paths
Test gateway fallback with tier interaction
Test auto-tier selection via Not Diamond
CRITICAL FIX (v0.11.1): Wire council.py to use gateway_adapter
- Previous: council.py imported directly from openrouter (gateway layer was dead code)
- Fixed: council.py now imports from gateway_adapter (enables CircuitBreaker, fallback)
- Added 4 gateway wiring tests to prevent regression

Phase 5: Full Observability Wiring (v0.12.1)

L3_COUNCIL_START and L3_COUNCIL_COMPLETE events in council.py
L4_GATEWAY_RESPONSE and L4_GATEWAY_FALLBACK events in router.py
L2_FAST_PATH_TRIGGERED event in fast_path.py (Issue #64)
L2_WILDCARD_SELECTED event in wildcard.py (Issue #65)
Gateway fallback chain iteration with circuit breaker integration

Success Metrics

Metric	Target	Measurement
Configuration clarity	Single source of truth	User can understand full routing from one doc
Env var reduction	<10 for common cases	Count required env vars for basic setup
Layer independence	Each ADR testable independently	Unit tests per layer
Escalation visibility	100% logged	All escalations in audit trail

References

Council Review Summary

Status: APPROVED WITH MODIFICATIONS

Reviewed by: Gemini 3 Pro (38s), Claude Opus 4.5 (66s), Grok-4 (80s), GPT-5.2-pro (144s)

Council Verdict: All 4 models responded. Unanimous approval with the following required modifications incorporated into this document.

Consensus Recommendations (Incorporated)

1. Hybrid Layer Ordering

Verdict: Approved - Use contextual ordering

Explicit tier selection → Tier first, triage operates within constraints
Auto tier selection → Triage first to classify complexity
Added bypass path for debugging/testing scenarios

2. Gateway Failure Handling

Verdict: Option A - Never auto-escalate tier

Gateway failures are infrastructure issues. The correct response is:

Exhaust fallback chain
Fail with clear error
Let user/application decide next steps

Tier escalation should only occur for complexity mismatches, not transport failures.

3. YAML Configuration

Verdict: Proceed with YAML

Benefits (single source of truth, validation, documentation) outweigh costs (schema maintenance, parsing). Environment variables remain for secrets and simple deployments.

4. Bypass Mode

Verdict: Yes, with guardrails

Bypass mode enabled for debugging/testing with:

Explicit authorization required
Audit logging of all bypass requests
Hard-blocked in production environments
Rate limiting to prevent abuse

5. Terminology Standardization

Verdict: Rename "Council Escalation" → "Deliberation Escalation"

Avoids confusion between escalating the tier (resource allocation) vs escalating deliberation depth (single model → full council).

Required Updates to Underlying ADRs

The Council identified specific updates needed in the underlying ADRs:

ADR	Required Update	Priority
ADR-020	Add constraint: models must come from `TierContract.allowed_pools`	High
ADR-020	Clarify: triage determines tier only when `confidence="auto"`	Medium
ADR-022	Document explicit vs auto tier selection policy	High
ADR-022	Add P95 latency validation for tier pool membership	Medium
ADR-023	Add circuit breaker requirement per gateway	High
ADR-023	Add canonical model identity mapping section	Medium
ADR-023	Define error taxonomy for fallback triggering	Medium

Architectural Principles Established

Layer Sovereignty: Each layer owns its decision; no layer overrides another
Explicit Escalation: All escalations are logged, user-visible, and auditable
Failure Isolation: Gateway failures don't cascade to tier changes
Constraint Propagation: Tier constraints flow down; lower layers cannot violate
Observability by Default: Every layer emits metrics, logs, and traces

Rollback Triggers

automatic_rollback:
  unified_config:
    - parse_errors > 5%
    - validation_failures > 10%
  layer_integration:
    - escalation_rate > 30%
    - cross_layer_timeout_rate > 15%
  circuit_breakers:
    - false_positive_rate > 10%  # Circuit opens when gateway is healthy
    - recovery_time > 5_minutes

Implementation Revision (Council-Informed)

Phase	Original	Council Revision
Phase 1	Documentation Alignment	Add layer sovereignty contracts
Phase 2	Unified Configuration	Add schema validation and migration tooling
Phase 3	Layer Interfaces	Add observability hooks at each boundary
Phase 4	Integration Testing	Add chaos engineering tests for circuit breakers

Context​

Current Problem​

Identified Conflicts and Ambiguities​

Decision​

The Four-Layer Model​

Execution Order (Definitive)​

Escalation and Fallback Rules​

Unified Configuration Schema​

The Problem​

The Solution: Unified YAML Configuration​

Environment Variable Overrides​

Terminology Standardization​

Canonical Data Flow​

Council Answers to Open Questions​

1. Layer Ordering: Tier vs Triage First?​

2. Gateway Failure → Tier Escalation?​

3. Unified YAML Configuration?​

4. Bypass Mode for Debugging?​

5. Model Pool Staleness?​

6. ADR Conflicts?​

Observability Requirements​

Required Metrics​

Circuit Breaker Requirements​

Circuit Breaker Configuration​

Per-Gateway Circuit Breakers​

Interaction with Fallback Chain​

Implementation Strategy​

Phase 1: Documentation Alignment - COMPLETE​

Phase 2: Unified Configuration - COMPLETE​

Phase 3: Layer Interfaces - COMPLETE​

Phase 4: Integration Testing & Execution Wiring​

Phase 5: Full Observability Wiring (v0.12.1)​

Success Metrics​

References​

Council Review Summary​

Consensus Recommendations (Incorporated)​

1. Hybrid Layer Ordering​

2. Gateway Failure Handling​

3. YAML Configuration​

4. Bypass Mode​

5. Terminology Standardization​

Required Updates to Underlying ADRs​

Architectural Principles Established​

Rollback Triggers​

Implementation Revision (Council-Informed)​