| name | research-router |
| description | Cost-routing helper. Reads RESEARCH_MODEL from config and decides whether a bulk-research call should run on Claude or be delegated to a cheaper model (DeepSeek Pro/Flash via OpenRouter). Reserves Claude for ground-truth, meeting-prep, draft-outreach, recommendation engine. Skills that produce many cheap research artifacts (discovery, ecosystem, financials briefs) call this first. |
| disable-model-invocation | false |
| allowed-tools | Read, Bash(test *) |
Research Router
Most career-os work is reasoning over user-specific context — Claude is right. But bulk web-shaped research (domain enumeration, ecosystem mapping, public-financials briefs) is cost-dominated. This skill is the routing decision: should this call use Claude, or hand off to a cheaper model.
The skill itself doesn't call any model — it returns a routing decision the caller acts on.
Inputs
$ARGUMENTS:
- Required:
--task=<task-name> — the calling skill or task type (e.g. discover-by-domain, brief-company-financials, meeting-prep).
- Optional:
--override=<model> — force a specific routing target.
Procedure
1. Load config
Read config.yaml (or workspace config). Keys:
RESEARCH_MODEL — claude (default) | deepseek-pro | deepseek-flash | auto.OPENROUTER_MCP — name of installed OpenRouter MCP, if any.
If config missing, default to claude and note "no router configured."
2. Classify task
Two sets:
Always Claude (high-context, user-specific reasoning):
ground-truth, meeting-prep, draft-outreach, suggest-companies, route-capture, weekly-plan, weekly-log, self-healing-context.
Routable (bulk, web-shaped, structurally similar across runs):
discover-by-domain, discover-by-geography, discover-remote-friendly, companies-like-x, chunked-discovery.brief-company-financials, brief-recruitment-profile, brief-glassdoor-signal.find-conferences, find-communities, find-jobs-boards, find-hackathons, map-investors.salary-research, branding-assessment.
3. Decide
| RESEARCH_MODEL | Always-Claude task | Routable task |
|---|
claude | claude | claude |
deepseek-pro | claude | deepseek-pro |
deepseek-flash | claude | deepseek-flash |
auto | claude | deepseek-flash if OPENROUTER_MCP set, else claude |
--override wins over the table.
4. Return routing decision
Print one line:
route: <claude|deepseek-pro|deepseek-flash> via <claude|openrouter:<mcp>>
reason: task=<task> RESEARCH_MODEL=<value>
Caller reads stdout and dispatches accordingly.
Guardrails
- Never silently route an "Always Claude" task — those are quality-load-bearing.
- If
RESEARCH_MODEL=deepseek-* but OPENROUTER_MCP not configured, downgrade to claude and warn.
- Routing is per-call; not sticky across a session.
Failure modes
- Config unreadable → default to claude.
- Unknown task name → return
route: claude with reason: unknown task, defaulting to claude.
