Model dispatch

When an agent runs, it points at a model slug from the catalog — but the slug is not the call. Between "the agent wants anthropic/claude-opus-4-7" and an actual request to a provider, connect0 runs a dispatch step that resolves the slug, checks your account's rules, picks a credential, and routes the request. Knowing what happens there explains why a run sometimes uses a different model than you pinned, or fails before any tokens are spent.

Resolution happens before the call

On every model call the runtime resolves the requested slug against your account, in order:

1. Denylist — if you've blocked the slug, the call is rejected.
2. Allowlist — if your account is in allow-only mode and the slug isn't listed, the call is rejected.
3. Retired — a model the provider has removed is rejected.
4. Deprecated — if the model is deprecated and points at a successor, the runtime substitutes the successor and logs it.
5. Otherwise the model resolves and the call proceeds.

Because this runs before the request goes out, a disallowed or retired model fails cleanly at resolve time rather than erroring mid-run. See Why did my run fail? for how that surfaces.

Which credential is used

The resolver then picks the credential:

• If you have an active BYOK key for the model's provider, your key is used and the call bills only the orchestration fee.
• Otherwise the platform's pooled key is used and the call bills the full model price.

How the request is routed

The catalog entry records how connect0 talks to that model — a native provider path for the models where connect0 has a first-party client, or a shared aggregator route for the long tail. This is why "add a new model" is usually just a catalog entry, not new code: the routing is data on the row, not a per-provider integration. BYOK only applies to the native-path models.

What gets recorded

Every dispatched call records usage — the units consumed (tokens, images, seconds), the resolved price, and whether it was BYOK or pooled — which rolls up into your credit spend and the Spend view. The model actually used is snapshotted on the run so a replay stays accurate even after the catalog changes.

Where to go next

• The model catalog for how entries are structured.
• Choosing a model to pin and govern the model an agent dispatches to.