model-routing

model-routing is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from cveralyon/axel-setup. It costs 80 tokens per session (1,091 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A routing guide for assigning different model tiers to subagents during multi-agent work. It matches broad exploration, mechanical checks, research, and bounded coding tasks with suitable models.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when coordinating two or more agents, choosing models for codebase exploration, filtering output, researching dependencies, or implementing a clearly scoped change.
Why use it?
It helps control cost and effort while keeping architecture, trade-off decisions, and final judgment with the main agent.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one. Also seen: mentions CLAUDE.md; mentions subagents; positional $N argument.

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/cveralyon/axel-setup/model-routing
Any agent
npx skills add cveralyon/axel-setup --skill model-routing
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/cveralyon/axel-setup

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for model-routing

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/cveralyon/axel-setup/model-routing.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/cveralyon/axel-setup/model-routing)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/cveralyon/axel-setup/model-routing"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/cveralyon/axel-setup/model-routing.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 80 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,091 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00080 $0.01091
Opus 5 $0.00040 $0.00545
Sonnet 5 $0.00016 $0.00218
Haiku 4.5 $0.00008 $0.00109

Measured 6d ago against content hash 33e0f18ffc58, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-06, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

model-routing scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 6d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

skills/model-routing/SKILL.md · 71 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 71 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Model Routing for Multi-Agent Orchestration

The main thread (Fable) is the orchestrator, architect, synthesizer, and final judge. Cheaper subagents do bounded, token-heavy work. Never delegate judgment.

Reserved for Fable (main thread, never spawn for this)

  • Decomposing ambiguous work into clean parallel slices.
  • Architecture, product, security, and payment-flow tradeoffs.
  • Reading conflicting subagent reports and deciding what matters.
  • Integrating partial implementations into one coherent plan.
  • Final review, risk assessment, and user-facing synthesis.

Routing Table

Set the model param explicitly on every Agent call. Default to sonnet when a task does not match a row.

Task type model Why
Broad codebase exploration, file/pattern discovery (Explore agents) sonnet High read volume, moderate judgment
Mechanical reduction: log filtering, test output triage, inventories, classification, link checking haiku Zero judgment, maximum volume
External docs research, dependency or vendor comparison sonnet Needs criteria but not deep tradeoffs
Bounded implementation from a precise, file-scoped spec (1 logical unit) sonnet Spec quality carries the work
Complex implementation, risky refactor, DB migrations, security or payment code opus Error cost exceeds the price delta
Code review, adversarial verification (excelsior-verifier, refute passes, skeptic agents) opus Must independently catch errors from other agents
Sub-coordinators that themselves spawn agents (cross-repo, debug session managers) opus Orchestration judgment without Fable price
Synthesis of conflicting findings, final verdicts, anything ambiguous fable (stay in main thread) This is the judgment layer

Cost anchors per 1M tokens (input/output): haiku $1/$5, sonnet $3/$15, opus $5/$25, fable $10/$50. Fable's tokenizer also emits roughly 30% more tokens for the same content, so its effective cost is about 2.6x opus. Every token kept out of the main thread is saved at the most expensive rate in the catalog.

Read the full file on GitHub · 71 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 6d ago First seen · 71 lines · 80 tokens per session scan A 33e0f18ffc58

Subscribe to this mod's changes

model-routing is a skill published in the GitHub repository cveralyon/axel-setup (4 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 80 tokens to every session and 1,091 once invoked, about $0.0004 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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