🧭 Cognitive Router - Context-Aware Intelligent Request Routing

🧭 Cognitive Router - Beyond Static Routing

Vision: Route requests based on deep contextual understanding, agent capabilities, real-time performance, cost optimization, and predicted outcomes - not just round-robin or random selection.

Beyond Load Balancing

Traditional routing: Round-robin, least connections, random
Our innovation: Cognitive understanding of request needs + agent capabilities = optimal routing

Intelligent Routing Engine

1. Multi-Dimensional Routing Decision

class CognitiveRouter {
  async route(request: Request): Promise<RoutingDecision> {
    // Analyze request context deeply
    const requestAnalysis = await this.analyzeRequest(request)
    
    // Evaluate all available agents
    const agentCapabilities = await this.evaluateAgents()
    
    // Predict outcomes for each agent
    const predictions = await Promise.all(
      agentCapabilities.map(agent =>
        this.predictOutcome(request, agent)
      )
    )
    
    // Multi-objective optimization
    const optimal = this.optimize({
      predictions,
      objectives: {
        quality: 0.40,      // 40% weight
        latency: 0.25,      // 25% weight
        cost: 0.20,         // 20% weight
        reliability: 0.15   // 15% weight
      },
      constraints: this.getConstraints(request)
    })
    
    return {
      selected_agent: optimal.agent,
      confidence: optimal.confidence,
      predicted_quality: optimal.predicted_quality,
      predicted_latency: optimal.predicted_latency,
      predicted_cost: optimal.predicted_cost,
      reasoning: optimal.explanation,
      fallback_options: optimal.alternatives
    }
  }
}

2. Request Understanding Engine

class RequestAnalyzer {
  async analyzeRequest(request: Request): Promise<RequestProfile> {
    // Semantic understanding
    const semantic = await this.semanticAnalysis(request.content)
    
    // Complexity estimation
    const complexity = await this.estimateComplexity(request)
    
    // Domain detection
    const domain = await this.detectDomain(request)
    
    // User intent classification
    const intent = await this.classifyIntent(request)
    
    // Historical context
    const history = await this.getUserHistory(request.user_id)
    
    return {
      semantic_vector: semantic.embedding,
      topics: semantic.topics,
      entities: semantic.entities,
      complexity: {
        score: complexity.score,
        factors: complexity.factors,
        estimated_tokens: complexity.tokens
      },
      domain: {
        primary: domain.primary,
        secondary: domain.secondary,
        confidence: domain.confidence
      },
      intent: {
        type: intent.type,
        urgency: intent.urgency,
        requires_expertise: intent.expertise_needed
      },
      user_profile: {
        history: history.interactions,
        preferences: history.preferences,
        satisfaction_trend: history.satisfaction
      }
    }
  }
}

3. Agent Capability Matching

class CapabilityMatcher {
  async matchAgentToRequest(
    request: RequestProfile,
    agents: Agent[]
  ): Promise<MatchScore[]> {
    return Promise.all(
      agents.map(async agent => {
        // Domain expertise match
        const domainMatch = this.matchDomain(
          request.domain,
          agent.specializations
        )
        
        // Complexity handling
        const complexityMatch = this.matchComplexity(
          request.complexity,
          agent.capabilities
        )
        
        // Historical performance
        const historicalMatch = await this.matchHistorical(
          request,
          agent.performance_history
        )
        
        // Current load & capacity
        const capacityMatch = await this.matchCapacity(
          request.estimated_tokens,
          agent.current_load
        )
        
        // Collective memory insights
        const memoryMatch = await this.matchFromMemory(
          request.semantic_vector,
          agent.successful_patterns
        )
        
        return {
          agent: agent,
          scores: {
            domain: domainMatch,
            complexity: complexityMatch,
            historical: historicalMatch,
            capacity: capacityMatch,
            memory: memoryMatch
          },
          overall: this.calculateOverall({
            domain: domainMatch,
            complexity: complexityMatch,
            historical: historicalMatch,
            capacity: capacityMatch,
            memory: memoryMatch
          })
        }
      })
    )
  }
}

Innovation Features

1. Predictive Routing

// Predict outcome BEFORE routing
class PredictiveRouter {
  async predictAndRoute(request: Request): Promise<RoutingDecision> {
    const candidates = await this.getCandidateAgents(request)
    
    // Predict outcome for each candidate
    const predictions = await Promise.all(
      candidates.map(async agent => {
        // Use collective memory
        const similarCases = await memory.findSimilar(
          request.semantic_vector,
          { agent_id: agent.id, limit: 100 }
        )
        
        // Predict quality
        const qualityPrediction = await this.predictQuality(
          request,
          agent,
          similarCases
        )
        
        // Predict latency
        const latencyPrediction = await this.predictLatency(
          request.complexity,
          agent.current_load
        )
        
        // Predict cost
        const costPrediction = await this.predictCost(
          request.estimated_tokens,
          agent.pricing
        )
        
        return {
          agent,
          predicted_quality: qualityPrediction,
          predicted_latency: latencyPrediction,
          predicted_cost: costPrediction,
          confidence: this.calculateConfidence(similarCases)
        }
      })
    )
    
    // Route to best predicted outcome
    return this.selectBest(predictions)
  }
}

2. Adaptive Learning Router

// Router learns from routing decisions
class AdaptiveLearningRouter {
  async learn() {
    // Collect routing outcomes
    const outcomes = await this.getRecentOutcomes({
      timeRange: '24h'
    })
    
    // Analyze routing decision quality
    const analysis = outcomes.map(outcome => ({
      decision: outcome.routing_decision,
      actual_quality: outcome.actual_quality,
      actual_latency: outcome.actual_latency,
      actual_cost: outcome.actual_cost,
      prediction_error: this.calculateError(outcome)
    }))
    
    // Update routing model
    await this.updateRoutingModel(analysis)
    
    // Adjust routing weights
    this.adjustWeights({
      based_on: analysis,
      optimization_goal: 'minimize_regret'
    })
  }
}

3. Context-Aware Load Balancing

// Not just even distribution - smart distribution
class ContextAwareLoadBalancer {
  async balance(request: Request): Promise<Agent> {
    const agents = await this.getAvailableAgents()
    
    // Consider not just current load, but type of load
    const loads = await Promise.all(
      agents.map(async agent => {
        const currentRequests = await this.getCurrentRequests(agent)
        
        // Calculate cognitive load (not just request count)
        const cognitiveLoad = this.calculateCognitiveLoad({
          requests: currentRequests,
          complexity_scores: currentRequests.map(r => r.complexity)
        })
        
        // Calculate context switching cost
        const contextSwitchCost = this.calculateSwitchCost(
          currentRequests,
          request
        )
        
        return {
          agent,
          numerical_load: currentRequests.length,
          cognitive_load: cognitiveLoad,
          context_switch_cost: contextSwitchCost,
          total_load: cognitiveLoad + contextSwitchCost
        }
      })
    )
    
    // Route to agent with lowest TOTAL load (not just request count)
    return loads.sort((a, b) => 
      a.total_load - b.total_load
    )[0].agent
  }
}

4. Specialty Routing

routing_policies:
  high_value_customer:
    condition: customer.ltv > 50000
    route_to:
      - agent.sales.senior
      - agent.sales.enterprise
    fallback: agent.sales.standard
    
  technical_complexity:
    condition: request.complexity > 0.8
    route_to:
      - agent.support.technical
      - agent.support.senior
    fallback: agent.support.standard
    
  multilingual:
    condition: request.language != 'en'
    route_to:
      - agent.multilingual.{language}
    fallback: agent.multilingual.translation_enabled
    
  urgent:
    condition: request.urgency == 'critical'
    route_to:
      priority_agents: true
      max_wait_time: 5s
    fallback: escalate_to_human

Integration with Your Stack

OSSA Extension

# schemas/v0.1.9/cognitive-routing.yaml
paths:
  /route/cognitive:
    post:
      description: Cognitive routing decision
      requestBody:
        content:
          application/json:
            schema:
              properties:
                request: object
                preferences: object
                constraints: object
                
  /route/analyze:
    post:
      description: Analyze routing decision quality
      
  /route/policies:
    get:
      description: Get routing policies
    post:
      description: Update routing policies

Agent-Protocol Integration

interface CognitiveRoutingProtocol {
  analyzeRequest(request: Request): Promise<RequestProfile>
  matchCapabilities(profile: RequestProfile): Promise<MatchScore[]>
  predictOutcome(request: Request, agent: Agent): Promise<Prediction>
  selectOptimal(predictions: Prediction[]): Promise<RoutingDecision>
  learn(outcome: RoutingOutcome): Promise<void>
}

Buildkit Commands

# Routing analysis
buildkit router analyze-decision --request REQ-001
buildkit router why-routed --request REQ-001 --agent agent-005
buildkit router optimize --metric quality
buildkit router test-policy --policy high_value --simulation

# Learning & optimization
buildkit router learn --from-outcomes --timerange 7d
buildkit router benchmark --compare-strategies
buildkit router tune-weights --objective minimize_latency

# Policy management
buildkit router policy create --name technical_support --config policy.yaml
buildkit router policy test --name technical_support --requests 1000
buildkit router policy deploy --name technical_support --canary 10%

Studio-UI Dashboard

Cognitive Routing Center:

Real-time routing decisions with explanations
Request analysis visualization
Agent capability heat maps
Prediction accuracy tracking
Routing policy editor
A/B test results

Performance Analytics:

Routing decision quality over time
Prediction vs actual comparison
Agent utilization heat maps
Cost optimization tracking
Latency optimization trends

Advanced Features

1. Multi-Agent Orchestration

// Route to multiple agents for complex requests
class MultiAgentOrchestrator {
  async orchestrate(complexRequest: Request): Promise<Response> {
    // Decompose complex request
    const subtasks = await this.decompose(complexRequest)
    
    // Route each subtask to specialist
    const routingDecisions = await Promise.all(
      subtasks.map(subtask =>
        this.routeSubtask(subtask)
      )
    )
    
    // Execute in parallel or sequence
    const results = await this.execute(routingDecisions, {
      strategy: 'parallel_where_possible'
    })
    
    // Synthesize responses
    return this.synthesize(results)
  }
}

2. Fallback Cascade

// Intelligent fallback chain
class FallbackRouter {
  async routeWithFallback(request: Request): Promise<Response> {
    const fallbackChain = await this.buildFallbackChain(request)
    
    for (const option of fallbackChain) {
      try {
        const response = await this.tryRoute(request, option.agent, {
          timeout: option.timeout,
          retry: option.retry_config
        })
        
        // Validate response quality
        if (await this.validateQuality(response, option.min_quality)) {
          return response
        }
      } catch (error) {
        // Try next in chain
        continue
      }
    }
    
    // All options exhausted
    throw new NoViableRouteError()
  }
}

3. Cost-Aware Routing

// Optimize for cost while maintaining quality
class CostOptimizedRouter {
  async routeWithBudget(
    request: Request,
    budget: CostBudget
  ): Promise<RoutingDecision> {
    const candidates = await this.getCandidates(request)
    
    // Filter by budget
    const withinBudget = candidates.filter(agent =>
      this.predictCost(request, agent) <= budget.max_cost
    )
    
    // Among budget-compliant options, select best quality
    return this.selectBest(withinBudget, {
      objective: 'maximize_quality',
      constraint: 'cost <= budget'
    })
  }
}

Integration Points

OPA Policy Enforcement (#7)

Route through policy engine
Enforce rate limits
Check data boundaries
Validate provider selection

Agent-Brain Collective Memory (#13)

Query successful patterns
Learn from historical routing
Share routing insights

Compliance-Engine Predictive Quality (#4)

Predict routing outcome quality
Prevent poor routing decisions
Optimize for predicted success

Agent-Mesh (#7, #8)

Service discovery
Load balancing
Circuit breaking
mTLS security

Success Metrics

95% routing decisions optimal in retrospect
30% improvement in quality-adjusted latency
25% cost reduction while maintaining quality
99% request satisfaction with routing
<10ms routing decision time
Zero routing-related outages

Implementation Timeline

Week 1-3: Request analysis engine
Week 4-6: Capability matching system
Week 7-9: Predictive routing
Week 10-12: Adaptive learning
Week 13-15: Context-aware load balancing
Week 16-18: Multi-agent orchestration
Week 19-20: Studio-UI dashboards

Related Issues

#7 (Security + Policy - foundation)
agent-mesh #7 (Service mesh)
agent-brain #13 (Collective memory)
compliance-engine #4 (Predictive quality)
agent-buildkit #28 (Agent DNA)

Priority: Critical - Core routing intelligence
Innovation Level: 🧭 Breakthrough
Status: Design phase

This creates truly intelligent routing! 🧭✨