Model router

The model router is optional. It writes one subagent per tier — sbl-light, sbl-standard, sbl-strong and sbl-top — for Claude Code and OpenCode, each with a fixed model, and renders the model examples in the managed AGENTS.md block from your configuration. The block's delegation rule applies with or without the router.

Install it into a new project:

sbl init --models

sbl models enable installs it into an existing project.

Configuration

The router reads .super-backlog/models.json:

{
  "version": 2,
  "enabled": true,
  "tiers": {
    "claude": { "light": "haiku", "standard": "sonnet", "strong": "opus", "top": "fable" },
    "opencode": { "light": "opencode/gemini-3.5-flash-lite", "standard": "opencode/claude-sonnet-4-6" }
  },
  "discoveredAt": "2026-10-11T08:00:00.000Z"
}

• version is always 2.
• enabled switches the router on and off. While it is false the configuration is kept, the block shows the release's generic examples, Claude Code agents get model: inherit and OpenCode agents get no model line.
• tiers holds one optional entry per harness (claude, opencode) and tier (light, standard, strong, top).
• discoveredAt is set by sbl models discover.

A model id starts with a letter or digit, contains only letters, digits and . _ : / @ + -, does not end with :, and has at most 100 characters. sbl models set rejects other ids; the loader drops them.

Tiers and defaults

Tier	Use it for	Claude Code default	OpenCode default
light	Purely mechanical work: searching, listing, extracting, reformatting	haiku	session model
standard	Clearly specified routine work: research, summaries, routine code, tests, documentation	sonnet	session model
strong	Demanding work with clear boundaries: complex implementation, debugging, reviews	opus	session model
top	Analysis, design, architecture, costly decisions, everything the project profile lists as critical	fable	session model

The Claude Code defaults are aliases that track Anthropic's current models. OpenCode has no defaults: a tier without a model gets no model line, and OpenCode uses the session model.

Commands

Command	Effect
sbl models / sbl models show	Print the normalized configuration as JSON.
sbl models enable	Set enabled: true and install the agents for both harnesses.
sbl models disable	Set enabled: false and rewrite the agents.
sbl models set <harness> <tier> <model>	Set one tier. The model - removes the entry.
sbl models discover	Rank the models that opencode models lists into the four OpenCode tiers and save them.

set and discover never change enabled. On a project without models.json they create it disabled. Whenever the resulting configuration is disabled, they print a reminder to run sbl models enable.

Only sbl models enable, sbl init --models and the dashboard's enable toggle install the agents, for both harnesses. set, discover and disable rewrite the agent files only for a harness where the router is already installed. Every sbl models command that changes the configuration also re-renders the managed block in AGENTS.md. sbl update keeps installed router files current; it never installs them.

Discovery

sbl models discover matches substrings of the listed ids, case-insensitively. Earlier patterns win; within a pattern the first listed id wins.

Tier	Preferences, in order
top	fable, mythos, opus (falls back to the strong pick)
strong	opus, codex, gpt-5, -pro
standard	sonnet, flash, k2.5
light	haiku, flash-lite, nano, -lite, -mini

Ids that match a light pattern are never picked for the other tiers. Discovery replaces the previous OpenCode tiers. Claude Code has no discovery.

Files written

File	Written when
.super-backlog/models.json	Any sbl models command that changes the configuration, sbl init --models, or sbl update migrating a version 1 file
.claude/agents/sbl-<tier>.md	The router is installed for Claude Code
.opencode/agents/sbl-<tier>.md	The router is installed for OpenCode (with mode: subagent)

An existing agent file keeps your edits to its description and body; only its model: line is replaced, inserted or removed.

Errors and warnings

Invalid models.json. A models.json that is not valid JSON is never rewritten. A leading UTF-8 byte order mark, as some Windows editors write it, is accepted and does not make the file invalid. Every command reports the same message, .super-backlog/models.json is not valid JSON - left unchanged; fix or delete it:

• Commands that change the configuration refuse to run. sbl models set, enable, disable and discover print the message and exit with code 1. discover checks the file before it runs opencode models. In the dashboard, the toggle and the discover button show failed ✗; the discover button carries the message as its tooltip.
• sbl init --models prints the message as a warning, followed by (model router not installed), and finishes the rest of the installation without the router.
• sbl update prints the message as a warning and treats the router as disabled: installed Claude Code agents get model: inherit, and OpenCode agents lose their model line.
• sbl models show prints the message as a warning on stderr, then the default configuration.

Fix the JSON or delete the file, then run the command again.

Newer models.json version. A models.json whose version is higher than 2 was written by a newer super-backlog. It is never rewritten or downgraded, and the commands report .super-backlog/models.json has version <n>, which this super-backlog does not support - left unchanged; upgrade super-backlog or delete it instead of the message above. Commands that change the configuration refuse to run, as for an invalid file, and sbl models show prints the defaults. sbl update warns but leaves the installed agent files unchanged, so it does not downgrade agents that the newer release wrote; the v1 cleanup also waits until the file is readable again. A version that is not a number, or a number below 2, is read as version 1 and migrated.

Invalid .claude/settings.json. When the v1 cleanup cannot parse .claude/settings.json, it prints warning: .claude/settings.json is not valid JSON - legacy SessionStart hook left in place and changes nothing in that file. Fix the file and run sbl update again to remove the hook.

In sbl update, router warnings join the update's warning list, so the update exits with code 4. If the router refresh itself fails, for example on a locked agent file, the update reports model router refresh failed: <reason> as a warning and still refreshes the block, the pointer and the skills.

Migration from router v1

Router v1 had two tiers (workhorse, budget), a SessionStart hook for Claude Code and a chat.params plugin for OpenCode. The first sbl update after upgrading:

• rewrites models.json as version 2: workhorse becomes the OpenCode standard tier, budget the OpenCode light tier, and mode and families are dropped. Claude tiers start from the defaults;
• writes four sbl-<tier>.md agents with concrete models for each harness where the router is installed, eight when both are;
• removes sbl-worker.md, sbl-worker-cheap.md, .opencode/plugins/sbl-model-router.js and the router's SessionStart entry in .claude/settings.json. Other hooks and settings stay.

Each removal prints one removed legacy <path> line.

The deletion also applies to v1 agent files you edited. Copy any changes you made out of sbl-worker.md or sbl-worker-cheap.md before you run sbl update. Foreign hooks in .claude/settings.json stay untouched.

sbl update only maintains a harness where the router is already installed (v1 files count as installed). sbl init --models or sbl models enable installs the router.

Dashboard

The Model Router button in the dashboard opens a dialog with the router state, an enable / disable toggle, a discover button and a table of the four tiers for Claude Code and OpenCode. Switching the toggle on works like sbl models enable: it also installs the agents for both harnesses. Switching it off works like sbl models disable. Unset OpenCode tiers show "session model". Tiers are edited on the command line; the dialog offers sbl models set <harness> <tier> <model> to copy.

Uninstall

sbl uninstall removes models.json, the agent files of both router generations and the router's SessionStart entry, whether that hook is written with args or as a single node <path> command string. A hook that passes further arguments, runs another interpreter or contains shell syntax such as ;, |, && or $(...) is not the router's and stays; $CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR is the only variable allowed in the path.