The architecture calls that come up on every engagement, framed as a choice: a comparison matrix, the tradeoffs, and a stated default recommendation.
Constrain to a pipeline until evalsAn eval suite is a versioned set of test cases that measures whether outputs are good. prove the workflow genuinely needs an agent's judgment. Default to less agent, not more.
Read the guide →Default to a frontier API until volume, compliance, or control needs force the switch. Self-hosting is an operations commitment first and a cost decision second.
Read the guide →Default to retrieval. Fine-tune only when you need a fixed output form or a latency budget retrieval can't hit, not just 'better answers.'
Read the guide →Start on pgvector. Migrate to a dedicated vector database only when you hit a measured scale, latency, or feature ceiling it can't clear, not preemptively.
Read the guide →Source: https://customlabs.io/compare/