# API Request Router

*/Software/API_Request_Router*

## Solution Overview

The API Request Router sits between autonomous agents and external third-party endpoints to dynamically evaluate outgoing API calls for rate limits, cost, and latency. It intercepts outbound requests, maps the agent's intent to the most efficient available endpoint, and normalizes the resulting payload. The outcome is a guaranteed, uniform JSON response back to the calling agent, preventing system lockups when external services degrade or change their schemas.

Engineering teams operating large-scale autonomous agent fleets integrate this headless SaaS primitive to strip resilience logic out of individual worker prompts. It removes the specific problem of agent paralysis caused by localized outages, undocumented API deprecations, or sudden rate-limit throttling during high-volume data scraping tasks.

Operating as an infrastructure layer, the router consumes raw data and compute from downstream providers like payment gateways or enterprise ERPs, while serving abstracted API protocols to the agents and Services-as-Software platforms above it. When the router encounters a terminal 4xx error or an unrecognized schema mutation from a downstream provider, it falls back to a cached response and flags the endpoint for a human developer to manually remap the connection.

## Headless Saas Data Model

**Entities**:
- Name: AgentRequest · Description: Intercepted outbound API call evaluating intent from an autonomous agent
- Name: Workspace · Description: Engineering team tenant operating the autonomous agent fleet
- Name: ProviderEndpoint · Description: External third-party API service evaluated for rate limits and latency
- Name: RoutingPolicy · Description: Rule mapping agent intent to the most efficient available endpoint
- Name: CachedResponse · Description: Stored normalized JSON payload used as fallback during downstream outages
- Name: EndpointAnomaly · Description: Flagged terminal error or schema mutation requiring human developer remap
**Relations**:
- To: Workspace · From: AgentRequest · Label: belongs to · Cardinality: many-to-many
- To: ProviderEndpoint · From: AgentRequest · Label: routed to · Cardinality: many-to-many
- To: Workspace · From: ProviderEndpoint · Label: configured in · Cardinality: many-to-many
- To: Workspace · From: RoutingPolicy · Label: defined by · Cardinality: many-to-many
- To: ProviderEndpoint · From: RoutingPolicy · Label: targets · Cardinality: many-to-many
- To: Workspace · From: CachedResponse · Label: stored for · Cardinality: many-to-many
- To: ProviderEndpoint · From: CachedResponse · Label: caches · Cardinality: many-to-many
- To: Workspace · From: EndpointAnomaly · Label: alerts · Cardinality: many-to-many
- To: ProviderEndpoint · From: EndpointAnomaly · Label: flags · Cardinality: many-to-many
- To: AgentRequest · From: EndpointAnomaly · Label: triggered by · Cardinality: many-to-many
**Tenant Anchor**: Workspace
**Primary Resource**: AgentRequest

## Api Definition

**Protocols**:
- REST
- gRPC
- SDK
- MCP
- Webhooks
**Consumed By**:
- [Data Scraping Agent](/Agents/Data_Scraping_Agent)
- [Invoice Reconciliation Agent](/Agents/Invoice_Reconciliation_Agent)
- [CRM Enrichment Agent](/Agents/CRM_Enrichment_Agent)
**Integrations**:
- [Stripe](/Products/Stripe)
- [Salesforce](/Products/Salesforce)
- [NetSuite](/Products/NetSuite)
- [Plaid](/Products/Plaid)
- [Twilio](/Products/Twilio)
**Consumption Model**: An agent registers the MCP server as its outbound gateway, then calls the ExecuteRoutedRequest tool for external traffic while the engineering team subscribes to the endpoint.anomaly webhook for manual remap alerts.
**Workflow Wrappers**:
- Name: Execute Routed Request · Wraps: evaluates routing policies, dispatches the API call, and normalizes the resulting JSON payload.
- Name: Provision Routing Policy · Wraps: creates a provider endpoint, sets cost thresholds, and initializes the fallback response cache.
- Name: Triage Endpoint Anomaly · Wraps: updates the schema mutation mapping, clears the anomaly flag, and replays failed requests.

## Api Function Cascade

**Ai Role**: The API Request Router operates as a fully digital, stateless primitive where deterministic code handles policy evaluation and API dispatch straight-through, employing generative models only to detect schema drift and flag anomalies for human review on exception.
**Cascade**:
- Kind: Code · Note: Receives outbound call via MCP or REST gateway · Step: Ingest Agent Request · Verb: ingest · Realizes: Process System Request · Oversight: none
- Kind: Code · Note: Checks cost thresholds and cached fallback states · Step: Evaluate Routing Policy · Verb: evaluate · Realizes: Determine Routing Logistics · Oversight: none
- Kind: Code · Note: Routes traffic to Stripe, Salesforce, Plaid, or Twilio · Step: Dispatch External Call · Verb: dispatch · Realizes: Execute Remote Request · Oversight: none
- Kind: Code · Note: Structures provider responses into the standard agent schema · Step: Normalize JSON Payload · Verb: normalize · Realizes: Format Data Structures · Oversight: none
- Kind: Generative · Note: Flags endpoint anomalies and emits webhook for manual triage · Step: Detect Schema Drift · Verb: detect · Realizes: Identify Data Anomalies · Oversight: review-on-exception
**Optimizes**:
- [API Request Latency](/Metrics/API_Request_Latency)
- [Payload Normalization Success Rate](/Metrics/Payload_Normalization_Success_Rate)
- [Routing Error Rate](/Metrics/Routing_Error_Rate)
- [Endpoint Failover Time](/Metrics/Endpoint_Failover_Time)

## Headless Saas Representative Offer

**Warranty**: 99.99% gateway availability SLA backed by proportional account credits for routing outages.
**Price Band**: ~$0.0001 to $0.002 per routed request, depending on payload normalization complexity and cache utilization
**Pricing Kind**: UsageMeter
**Deliverables**:
- Normalized JSON response payloads
- Configured fallback and provider routing policies
- Cached provider response objects
- Endpoint anomaly webhook events
**Delivery Mode**: The gateway provisions instantly via a self-serve API or MCP tool registry, allowing agents and distributed systems to begin routing and metered consumption immediately.
**Business Function**: ProvideService
**Agent Checkout Support**:
- agentic-commerce-protocol
- stored-credential

## Headless Saas Crud Surface

**Auth Model**: Service Account
**Endpoints**:
- GET /agent-requests — list agent requests
- POST /agent-requests — intercept and ingest an outbound agent request
- GET /agent-requests/{id} — fetch a single agent request
- PATCH /agent-requests/{id} — update the routing status of an agent request
- GET /workspaces — list engineering team workspaces
- POST /workspaces — register a new workspace
- GET /workspaces/{id} — fetch a single workspace
- PATCH /workspaces/{id} — update workspace details
- GET /workspaces/{id}/agent-requests — list agent requests belonging to a workspace
- GET /provider-endpoints — list third-party provider endpoints
- POST /provider-endpoints — register a provider endpoint to evaluate
- GET /provider-endpoints/{id} — fetch a single provider endpoint
- PATCH /provider-endpoints/{id} — update endpoint latency and degradation status
- GET /provider-endpoints/{id}/agent-requests — list agent requests routed to a provider endpoint
- GET /routing-policies — list intent-mapping routing policies
- POST /routing-policies — define a new routing policy
- GET /routing-policies/{id} — fetch a single routing policy
- PATCH /routing-policies/{id} — update routing policy activation or max latency
- GET /cached-responses — list fallback cached responses
- POST /cached-responses — store a normalized JSON response payload
- GET /cached-responses/{id} — fetch a single cached response
- PATCH /cached-responses/{id} — update expiration for a cached response
- POST /cached-responses/{id}/invalidate — forcefully expire a cached response
- GET /endpoint-anomalies — list flagged endpoint anomalies
- POST /endpoint-anomalies — log a new schema mutation or terminal error
- GET /endpoint-anomalies/{id} — fetch a single endpoint anomaly
- PATCH /endpoint-anomalies/{id} — update anomaly status
- POST /endpoint-anomalies/{id}/acknowledge — acknowledge a flagged anomaly for human review
**Multitenancy**: Row-level isolation
**Webhook Events**:
- agent_request.routed
- provider_endpoint.degraded
- endpoint_anomaly.flagged

## Headless Saas Erd

```mermaid
erDiagram
    AgentRequest {
        UUID id PK
        UUID workspaceId FK
        UUID resolvedEndpointId FK
        JSONB intentPayload
        VARCHAR routingStatus
        TIMESTAMP dispatchedAt
    }
    Workspace {
        UUID id PK "Tenant Key"
        VARCHAR organizationName
        DECIMAL fleetSize
        VARCHAR status
    }
    ProviderEndpoint {
        UUID id PK
        UUID workspaceId FK
        VARCHAR baseUrl
        DECIMAL costPerCall
        DECIMAL currentLatencyMs
        BOOLEAN isDegraded
    }
    RoutingPolicy {
        UUID id PK
        UUID workspaceId FK
        UUID endpointId FK
        VARCHAR intentAction
        DECIMAL maxLatencyMs
        BOOLEAN isActive
    }
    CachedResponse {
        UUID id PK
        UUID workspaceId FK
        UUID endpointId FK
        VARCHAR intentHash
        JSONB normalizedPayload
        TIMESTAMP expiresAt
    }
    EndpointAnomaly {
        UUID id PK
        UUID workspaceId FK
        UUID endpointId FK
        UUID requestId FK
        VARCHAR anomalyType
        BOOLEAN requiresHumanReview
    }

    AgentRequest }o--o{ Workspace : "belongs to"
    AgentRequest }o--o{ ProviderEndpoint : "routed to"
    ProviderEndpoint }o--o{ Workspace : "configured in"
    RoutingPolicy }o--o{ Workspace : "defined by"
    RoutingPolicy }o--o{ ProviderEndpoint : "targets"
    CachedResponse }o--o{ Workspace : "stored for"
    CachedResponse }o--o{ ProviderEndpoint : "caches"
    EndpointAnomaly }o--o{ Workspace : "alerts"
    EndpointAnomaly }o--o{ ProviderEndpoint : "flags"
    EndpointAnomaly }o--o{ AgentRequest : "triggered by"
```

## Neighborhood

### Composed into

- [Supplier Sourcing Agent](/Agents/Supplier_Sourcing_Agent) — composes · Agents

### Optimizes

- [Endpoint Failover Time](/Metrics/Endpoint_Failover_Time) — optimizes · Metrics
- [Payload Normalization Success Rate](/Metrics/Payload_Normalization_Success_Rate) — optimizes · Metrics
- [Routing Error Rate](/Metrics/Routing_Error_Rate) — optimizes · Metrics
- [API Request Latency](/Metrics/API_Request_Latency) — optimizes · Metrics

### What it uses

- [NetSuite](/Software/NetSuite) — uses · Software
- [Salesforce](/Software/Salesforce) — uses · Software
- [Stripe](/Software/Stripe) — uses · Software
- [Twilio](/Software/Twilio) — uses · Software
- [Plaid](/Products/Plaid) — uses · Products

### Who consumes this

- [CRM Enrichment Agent](/Agents/CRM_Enrichment_Agent) — consumed by · Agents
- [Data Scraping Agent](/Agents/Data_Scraping_Agent) — consumed by · Agents
- [Invoice Reconciliation Agent](/Agents/Invoice_Reconciliation_Agent) — consumed by · Agents

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### Similar Metrics

- [Routing Latency](/Metrics/Routing_Latency) — similar · Metrics

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