Hydra — Multi-Model AI Orchestration CLI
local-first · provider-neutral · trust control plane
The local-first Trust Control Plane for AI. Hydra discovers every model on your machine — CLI agents, API keys, local servers — and routes each task to the cheapest head that clears your target confidence.
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Where we fit in the universethe uncontested quadrant
Every other tool is a hosted proxy.
We built the local-first one.
Cloud gateways route your traffic through their servers. Eval tools score answers after the fact. Local runtimes each manage only their own models. Plot the field on two axes — hosted↔local and cost-routing↔trust — and one quadrant sits empty. That is where Hydra lives. Hover any star.
hosted · proxy-first
local-first · on-device
trust · confidence
cost · latency routing
Cloud gateways
Eval & observability
Local runtimes
Frontier heads (destinations)
Hydra
The math, drawnmechanism, not decoration
Three curves that run the router.
Routing isn't vibes. Hydra rides the cost/quality Pareto frontier, stops sampling the instant confidence clears the bar, and reads the code graph to know when a change is dangerous. Here is the actual math.
a · cost vs quality
The Pareto frontier
Single models are dots. For any one of them, Hydra's routed curve reaches equal or better quality at lower cost — it picks the best head per task.
cost per task →
quality →
Haiku
Flash
GPT-class
all-Claude
Hydra routes here
b · optimal stopping
Confidence, then stop
Hydra polls heads until the sequential test (SPRT) crosses your target confidence — then it stops early and banks the unspent heads.
heads queried →
confidence →
target 0.95
accept ✔
stopped early
c · percolation-κ
Blast radius (Molloy–Reed)
κ = ⟨k²⟩/⟨k⟩. A hub file with many transitive dependents is cascade-capable — so it demands more confidence. Hover a node.
hover a node — κ & blast radius
Live routingwatch a task fall down the cost ladder
Cheapest head that clears the bar — with a local floor.
A task is classified, then falls down the ten-tier ladder (red = expensive, green = free/local) to the cheapest head that fits. If that head rate-limits, the fallback fires — terminating at local Qwen, which never runs out.
dispatch --enum STANDARD --file internal/auth/token.go
classifying…
TIER LADDER — cost ↓
prompt
"rotate the signing key in token.go"
classify → STANDARD · target 0.95
blast κ=3.1 ⚠ 12 dependents → bar raised
openrouter · T6
primary head
qwen · T10 · local
terminal fallback · always on
tier cost ramp
active route
fallback fired
local terminal floor
By the numbersevery number has a mechanism
Loud numbers. Real levers.
No tokens-processed arms race. Each of these is something you can reproduce on your own machine with hyctl stats and hyctl probe.
73%
cheaper, typically
Median cost avoided by routing boilerplate away from the frontier orchestrator to a mid or local head. Reproduce with hyctl stats.
58%
kept 100% local
Share of tasks that never left your machine. No hosted gateway can claim this.
0.95
target confidence
Routes to a calibrated confidence-of-correctness, then stops early via SPRT.
12
heads discovered
CLI agents + API keys + local servers found on a typical dev box. Run hyctl probe.
100%
offline-capable · ~0ms routing overhead
The router runs on-device with zero network calls to decide. Local Qwen is the always-on terminal fallback, so a dispatch never hard-fails on a rate limit.
Hydra vs the gatewaysonly one is local-first + trust + ledger
Others route your traffic. Hydra routes on your metal.
Cost routing and fallback are table stakes — most tools have them. The differentiators are the rows nobody else can check: local-first, confidence/trust routing, and an on-device accountability ledger.
The interactive agent-tree cockpit is the one roadmap item here — every row checked above ships today in the CLI (hyctl dispatch --confidence, hyctl graph blast, hyctl mcp).
Getting startedthree commands
Installed to first dispatch in under a minute.
01 — INSTALL
Get the binary
One Go binary. No daemon, no account, no cloud.
$ brew install ankit373/hydra/hyctlcopy
$ npm install -g hyctlcopy
$ pip install hyctlcopy
$ curl -fsSL …/install.sh | shcopy
🍺 hyctl 1.x installed · or run once with npx hyctl
02 — DISCOVER
Scan your machine
Finds every head: CLI agents, API keys, local servers.
$ hyctl probecopy
✓ 12 heads · agy · gemini · openrouter
ollama(qwen) · lmstudio · …
03 — DISPATCH
Route a task
Classify → tier → cheapest head that clears confidence.
$ hyctl dispatch --enum SIMPLE …copy
→ T8 gemini-flash · $0.0001
✓ done · saved $0.0149 vs all-Claude
Stop paying frontier prices
for boilerplate.
One cortex, many heads. Route each task to the cheapest head that clears your bar — on your own hardware, with your spend and policy staying home.
