Agent models and routes

Every agent thinks with one model, set on its Model tab. Routes let it use another model for some of its work: a fast, cheap model for routine Portal requests, say, and a stronger one for everything else. Company admins change models and routes; everyone in the company can see them and what they cost.

Only models your AI keys cover can be chosen. See AI keys and models.

Choose the agent's model

1. Open the agent and select the Model tab.
2. Choose its Model, and a Fallback model that answers straight away when the main one fails or its provider is down. A fallback from a different provider gives the best cover.
3. Set a Temperature and the Longest reply (output tokens), or leave them empty for the model's defaults, then select Save charter.

Send some work to another model

A route says which work it takes and which model does it. At the start of every session, Everdeck looks at the task the agent is working on and tries the routes in order: the first route that matches picks the model. Work that no route matches, and every session without a task, uses the agent's own model.

1. On the Model tab, select Add route.
2. Say which work it takes. A task matches the route when any one of these is true:
   • Task labels: the task has one of these labels.
   • Where the task came from: the Portal, Slack, Microsoft Teams, a webhook, a recurring task, or another agent. A task made through the API or MCP, synced from a tracker, or found by Intake checking an app on a schedule (a watched endpoint, or a trigger Everdeck checks for) came from none of these: it matches a route only by its labels, request type or playbook.
   • Portal request types: someone asked for it as one of these request types.
   • Playbooks: the task runs one of these playbooks.
   • Portal chat: answers in the Portal's chat. A chat route takes only chat, never a task.
3. Choose the route's Model, and if you like its own Fallback model, Temperature and Longest reply (output tokens). Left empty, these use the model's own defaults, not the agent's.
4. Use Up and Down to put the routes in order, then select Save charter.

An agent can have up to 10 routes. Saving checks each new or changed route: its models must be on Everdeck's list (or listed by your own server's key) and reached by an AI key the company uses. If one isn't, the save names the route and what's missing.

If a route's key is removed later, sessions that would take that route use the agent's own model instead, so the agent keeps working. Each session in Activity shows the model it used, and which route chose it.

An agent without routes works exactly as before.

See what a change would cost

The Model tab shows the Estimated cost a month as you edit: Now, with the saved setup, and With your changes, with what is in the editor, for all the agent's work and for each route.

The estimate takes the sessions the agent ran in the last 30 days, works out which route each one's task would take today, and prices its tokens at that model's list price. A session is priced on its main model, not its fallback. An agent that is less than 30 days old has its days so far scaled up to a month. Your AI provider bills the real amount; see Agent budgets for the limits that stop spending.

With fewer than 5 sessions in the last 30 days there isn't enough history for a monthly figure. The tab says so, and shows what one typical session (30,000 tokens in, 2,000 out) costs on each model instead.

On the Agents page, Est. this month shows each agent's estimate on its current models, worked out the same way.

Run routine work on your own computer

In early access: an account owner or admin can assign the agent to a Mac running Everdeck Desktop, with an open model on the computer. The Model tab has two tabs, Cloud for the models above and Desktop for the computer, and opens with a line saying how the agent runs:

• On the cloud: the models above answer everything.
• First on a computer, with the cloud as backup: the computer answers the sessions that use the charter's model; a session a route sends to another model uses that model. Outside work, requests with files and fallbacks always use the models above, and so does any request while the computer is offline, paused or busy. Without an AI key for the model above, the agent runs only on its computer until you add one, and you can activate it without any key.
• Only on its computer: untick Use the cloud model when the computer can’t answer on the Desktop tab. The agent needs no AI key, its work waits whenever the computer can't answer, and outside work and files stop with a note on the task (see Everdeck Desktop).

The Desktop tab also has Folders it can read: the folders shared in Everdeck Desktop on the agent's computer, of which an owner or admin ticks the ones the agent may list, search and read. It starts with none. See Let agents read folders on your Mac.