hermes-skills/skills/devops/model-failover-and-credit-tracking/references/admin-ai-fallback-plan-2026-07-14.md

Admin-AI Fallback Plan — 2026-07-14

Session lesson

During the app1 admin-ai migration, the working model catalog was not enough proof of health. Real /v1/chat/completions probes showed which routes were actually usable.

Verified outcomes at the time of this plan:

• deepseek-v4-pro via admin-ai: usable; reasoning models need enough max_tokens or they may appear blank/length-limited.
• deepseek-chat via admin-ai: usable.
• gpt-5.5 via admin-ai: blocked by OpenAI insufficient quota.
• claude-opus-4-8 and claude-sonnet-4-6 via admin-ai: blocked by Anthropic usage limits until 2026-08-01.
• Gemini worked technically, but Germaine had eliminated Gemini from the normal Sho'Nuff model plan. Do not reintroduce it as a normal fallback just because it is available.
• Ollama/llama3.x is deprecated for Sho'Nuff production routing. Do not use it as automatic fallback or for LLM cron jobs.

Target fallback shape

Use explicit tier names so same-router fallback is not confused with provider diversity:

1. Primary: deepseek-v4-pro via admin-ai.
2. Same-router model fallback: deepseek-chat via admin-ai.
3. Independent direct provider fallback: add and test a direct provider such as Qwen/DashScope or Direct DeepSeek.
4. Aggregator fallback: deepseek/deepseek-chat via OpenRouter.
5. Manual escalation only: GPT/Claude after quota/usage limits are fixed.
6. Manual emergency only: old AI box / DNS rollback. Ollama is not automatic fallback.

During migration stabilization, it is acceptable to place the independent direct provider before the same-router fallback:

deepseek-v4-pro/admin-ai -> qwen-direct -> deepseek-chat/admin-ai -> openrouter

Long term, once app1 admin-ai proves stable:

deepseek-v4-pro/admin-ai -> deepseek-chat/admin-ai -> qwen-direct -> openrouter

Background job policy

• Prefer no_agent=true deterministic scripts for watchdogs and health checks.
• Any LLM cron job must be pinned explicitly; cron jobs do not inherit conversation fallback.
• Do not pin cron jobs to Ollama.
• Do not pin normal jobs to Gemini unless the task is specifically vision or the user re-approves Gemini for that class.
• Use deepseek-chat via admin-ai for light summaries/classification.
• Use deepseek-v4-pro via admin-ai for higher-risk research/reasoning.
• Use premium GPT/Claude only as explicit escalation when quota/limits are healthy.

Health-check rule

/v1/models is catalog health only. It does not prove encrypted credentials, upstream quota, or completions are working. Production health checks must call /v1/chat/completions for every active route and classify failures by route:

• admin-ai primary/fallback failure
• OpenRouter fallback failure
• direct-provider fallback failure
• escalation-only quota failure

GPT/Claude quota failures should be reported as escalation-model unavailable, not as total admin-ai failure.