Gateway Swap Readiness Checklist (Onboarding)

Gateway Swap Readiness Checklist (Onboarding)

1. 01

   Inventory every client integration that calls an LLM endpoint

   List each app, script, and automation by client retainer, noting the SDK in use, the base URL it points at, and whether it relies on streaming, tool calls, or structured outputs. Anything that hardcodes a provider-specific response shape gets flagged for a compatibility test.

2. 02

   Confirm the candidate gateway accepts an OpenAI-compatible base URL swap without SDK changes

   Point a staging copy of one low-risk client workflow at the new endpoint and verify the request and response schema match. Services such as TokenDelivery.ai are built for this drop-in pattern, but the check is per-integration, not per-vendor promise.

3. 03

   Map each client workflow to the open-weight model it will actually run on

   Record context window needs, image or video input requirements, and tool-calling dependencies. A 256k context window covers long-document client work; a 128K window with a two-session cap per key may not fit a multi-agent delivery pipeline.

4. 04

   Price the workload under both metered and time-based billing before committing

   Pull 30 days of token logs from the current provider and model the same volume against per-token rates and against fixed passes. Fixed-duration passes from services like endlesstokens can beat metered pricing on bursty delivery work and lose badly on steady low-volume client accounts.

5. 05

   Set a fallback endpoint and document the switch procedure

   Every client-facing workflow needs a second base URL configured in environment variables, plus a one-line runbook for flipping it. Platform churn is real: a single vendor shutdown should cost a config change, not a delivery outage.

6. 06

   Run a determinism and output-variance test on the target model

   Send the same prompt 20 times and diff the outputs. Byte-for-byte determinism matters for client QA sign-off and regression testing; if the host does not guarantee it, add a sampling step to the delivery checklist.

7. 07

   Log the swap decision and its cost delta in the client account file

   Record old per-task cost, new per-task cost, and the date the base URL changed. This becomes the evidence trail when a client asks in a quarterly review why AI line items moved.