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📄

Content-Based Routing(CBR)

Routes requests based on content analysis and classification

Complexity: mediumRouting

In 30 seconds

What: Analyzes incoming content to classify it, then routes to specialized handlers based on detected topic, urgency, or type.
When to use: Multiple agent types handle different domains and you need automatic triage without predefined routing rules or user selection.
Watch out: Misclassification sends requests to wrong agents; verify classification accuracy on edge cases before production deployment.

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Routes requests based on content analysis and classification

Automatic content classification
Topic-based routing decisions
Multi-modal content analysis
Dynamic routing rules

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References

The papers, specifications, and repositories this pattern is based on.

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Patterns

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Design Patterns & Techniques

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📄

Content-Based Routing(CBR)

Routes requests based on content analysis and classification

Complexity: mediumRouting

In 30 seconds

What: Analyzes incoming content to classify it, then routes to specialized handlers based on detected topic, urgency, or type.
When to use: Multiple agent types handle different domains and you need automatic triage without predefined routing rules or user selection.
Watch out: Misclassification sends requests to wrong agents; verify classification accuracy on edge cases before production deployment.

Ask the AI expert about this pattern

Opens the assistant with your question prefilled. You review it before sending.

Get this catalog as an MCP server Tune a prompt for this pattern

Core Mechanism

Content-Based Routing analyzes incoming content characteristics (topic, complexity, format) and dynamically routes requests to the most appropriate specialized service. This pattern optimizes resource utilization and service quality by matching content needs with service capabilities.

🔍

Analyze

Content features

🏷️

Classify

Content categories

🎯

Match

Service capabilities

🔀

Route

Optimal service

Workflow / Steps

Analyze incoming content to extract key features: topic, complexity, language, format, and domain.
Apply content classification using rule-based systems, ML models, or LLM-based categorization.
Match content characteristics against available service capabilities and specializations.
Route requests to the most appropriate service based on content analysis and routing policies.
Monitor routing decisions and service performance to optimize matching algorithms.
Implement fallback routing for edge cases and content types not covered by primary routing rules.

Best Practices

Use multi-level routing: fast rule-based filtering followed by more sophisticated ML-based classification.

Implement content preprocessing to normalize inputs and extract consistent features for routing.

Design routing policies with clear priorities and fallback mechanisms for ambiguous content.

Cache routing decisions for similar content to improve performance and consistency.

Monitor content distribution across services to identify imbalances and routing inefficiencies.

Implement A/B testing for routing strategies to optimize performance and user satisfaction.

Use feature extraction techniques that are robust to content variations and edge cases.

When NOT to Use

Homogeneous services where routing provides no benefit and adds unnecessary complexity.
Simple applications with clear functional boundaries that don't require content analysis.
Real-time systems where content analysis overhead significantly impacts response times.
Cases where content characteristics don't align with meaningful service differentiation.
Resource-constrained environments where routing complexity exceeds available computational budget.

Common Pitfalls

Over-complex routing logic that becomes harder to maintain and debug than the services themselves.
Inconsistent content classification leading to unpredictable routing and user experience degradation.
Poor fallback handling for content that doesn't match any routing rules clearly.
Routing bottlenecks when content analysis becomes a performance constraint for the entire system.
Insufficient monitoring of routing quality and service performance after routing decisions.
Content feature extraction that is too brittle and fails on real-world content variations.

Key Features

Intelligent content analysis with feature extraction and classification capabilities

Dynamic service matching based on content characteristics and service specializations

Multi-tier routing with rule-based filters and ML-powered classification systems

Performance monitoring and optimization with routing decision tracking and analysis

Robust fallback mechanisms for handling edge cases and unclassifiable content

Adaptive routing strategies with A/B testing and continuous improvement capabilities

KPIs / Success Metrics

Routing accuracy: Percentage of requests routed to optimal services based on content analysis.
Content classification confidence: Average confidence scores for content categorization decisions.
Service utilization balance: Distribution of requests across services relative to their capabilities.
Routing latency overhead: Time added by content analysis and routing decision processes.
Fallback activation rate: Frequency of fallback routing due to classification failures or edge cases.
User satisfaction correlation: Relationship between routing decisions and user experience metrics.

Token / Resource Usage

Token usage varies by content analysis depth: simple rule-based routing uses minimal tokens.
LLM-based content classification adds 50-200 tokens per routing decision for analysis.
Batch content analysis can reduce per-item token costs through efficient prompt engineering.
Caching content features and routing decisions significantly reduces redundant token usage.
Monitor routing token costs vs service efficiency gains to optimize analysis depth.
Use lightweight models for initial filtering and reserve advanced analysis for complex cases.

Best Use Cases

Multi-domain applications requiring specialized services for different content types.
Content management systems routing documents to appropriate processing pipelines.
Customer service platforms directing inquiries to specialized agents or automated systems.
API gateways routing requests to backend services based on payload content and context.
Educational platforms routing learning materials to appropriate difficulty and topic-specific services.
Media processing workflows directing content to specialized analysis and transformation services.

References & Further Reading

Deepen your understanding with these curated resources

Academic Papers

Content-Based Routing in Information-Centric Networks (Zhang et al., 2018)

Adaptive Content Classification for Dynamic Service Routing (Chen et al., 2021)

Implementation Guides

Apache Camel Content-Based Router Pattern

Spring Integration Content-Based Routing

Kong API Gateway Content-Based Routing

Tools & Libraries

Apache Camel for enterprise integration patterns

NGINX for content-based load balancing

scikit-learn for content classification models

Community & Discussions

Apache Camel Community - Routing pattern discussions

Stack Overflow - Content-based routing implementations

r/MachineLearning - Content classification for routing

Routes requests based on content analysis and classification

Automatic content classification
Topic-based routing decisions
Multi-modal content analysis
Dynamic routing rules

The Agent Architect

One pattern, one tradeoff, one production failure story. A short weekly briefing for people building agentic systems.

Weekly email, one-click unsubscribe. We only use your address to send the briefing.

References

The papers, specifications, and repositories this pattern is based on.

From the engineer behind this catalog

Get your agent architecture reviewed

€750 instead of €1,500, one week, written report and walkthrough call, until 30 September

See the review

Loading patterns…

Content-Based Routing(CBR)

In 30 seconds

Ask the AI expert about this pattern

Content-Based Routing: Overview

The Agent Architect

References

Get your agent architecture reviewed

Patterns

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Design Patterns & Techniques

Loading patterns…

Content-Based Routing(CBR)

In 30 seconds

Ask the AI expert about this pattern

Core Mechanism

Workflow / Steps

Best Practices

When NOT to Use

Common Pitfalls

Key Features

KPIs / Success Metrics

Token / Resource Usage

Best Use Cases

References & Further Reading

Academic Papers

Implementation Guides

Tools & Libraries

Community & Discussions

Content-Based Routing: Overview

The Agent Architect

References

Get your agent architecture reviewed

Patterns

Design Patterns & Techniques

Loading patterns…

Design Patterns & Techniques

Core Mechanism

Workflow / Steps

Best Practices

When NOT to Use

Common Pitfalls

Key Features

KPIs / Success Metrics

Token / Resource Usage

Best Use Cases

References & Further Reading

Academic Papers

Implementation Guides

Tools & Libraries

Community & Discussions

Design Patterns & Techniques