GPT WORLD / INDEPENDENT CODEX FIELD MANUAL Source review · 2026-07-31

Retrospective edition / MODELS

Route by capability, not by a fashionable model name

Describe each workload by modality, tool support, latency, quality, and budget, then resolve that profile to a deployable model in configuration.

01 / DECIDE

Architecture decision

Use it when one application contains fast paths, deep analysis, realtime, or background workloads with different constraints.

Describe each workload by modality, tool support, latency, quality, and budget, then resolve that profile to a deployable model in configuration. Map input, output, state, and side effects as one observable path before deciding which layer owns route by capability, not by a fashionable model name.

02 / BUILD

Three-step implementation

  1. 01

    Frame the contract

    Write down the caller, data classification, success condition, timeout, cancellation, and ownership. Use it when one application contains fast paths, deep analysis, realtime, or background workloads with different constraints.

  2. 02

    Build one narrow path

    Implement one end-to-end path with request correlation, typed state, and reversible failure handling. Describe each workload by modality, tool support, latency, quality, and budget, then resolve that profile to a deployable model in configuration.

  3. 03

    Prove the outcome

    Turn acceptance into a repeatable fixture, contract test, or browser test. Evaluation gates compare quality, tool success, schema success, latency, and cost against the current route.

03 / BOUND

Production boundary

Model catalogs and availability change; keep identifiers out of domain logic and retain a tested rollback.

04 / PROVE

Acceptance evidence

Evaluation gates compare quality, tool success, schema success, latency, and cost against the current route.

SOURCE / HTTP

Reproducible source probe

curl -fsSI 'https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models' | sed -n '1,5p'

PRIMARY / OFFICIAL

Official OpenAI sources

Sources checked · 2026-08-10

  1. 01Models catalog