---
title: "Routing Engine"
description: "The Broker routes tasks to the most cost effective handler. It tries cheaper options first before falling back to expensive LLM calls. The broker compares the incoming task against registered skill patterns: When a task "
resource: https://www.aiagents.nexus/docs/broker/routing
generated: { by: "process:nexus-agent-assets", at: 2026-09-07T09:13:03Z }
status: stable
---

# Broker Routing Engine

The Broker routes tasks to the most cost-effective handler. It tries cheaper options first before falling back to expensive LLM calls.

## Routing Cascade

```
Incoming Task
     │
     ▼
┌─────────────┐
│ Skill Match  │ ← Pattern matching against registered skills
│ (free, <1ms) │
└──────┬──────┘
       │ no match
       ▼
┌─────────────┐
│ WASM Handler │ ← Execute local WASM binary
│ (~$0.001)    │
└──────┬──────┘
       │ no handler
       ▼
┌─────────────┐
│ LLM Fallback │ ← Send to language model API
│ (~$0.03+)    │
└─────────────┘
```

## How Skill Matching Works

The broker compares the incoming task against registered skill patterns:

```yaml
skills:
  - name: summarize
    handler: ./skills/summarize.wasm
    patterns:
      - summarize
      - summary
      - tldr
  - name: classify
    handler: ./skills/classify.wasm
    patterns:
      - classify
      - categorize
      - label
```

When a task like "summarize the quarterly report" arrives, the broker:

1. Tokenizes the task string
2. Matches against skill patterns
3. Calculates a confidence score (0.0 - 1.0)
4. Routes to the skill if confidence >= threshold (default 0.7)

## Testing Routes

Preview where a task would be routed without executing:

```bash
naos broker route "summarize the quarterly report"
```

Output:

```
ROUTING DECISION
Task:       "summarize the quarterly report"
Route:      skill → summarize
Confidence: 0.93
Est. Cost:  $0.00
Est. Time:  <1ms
```

## Configuration

```yaml
broker:
  enabled: true
  routing:
    preferSkill: true
    llmAsLastResort: true
    confidenceThreshold: 0.7
```