Surface orchestration modes

Orchestration modes determine how Surfaces route user requests to Capabilities.

Available modes

Single Orchestrator

One Capability handles all incoming requests. The Surface acts as a direct channel to a single Flow or Agent.

How it works: All requests are routed to the selected Capability. This is the default mode and works well when your Product has one Capability or when each Surface is dedicated to a single purpose.

Use when:

• You have one primary Capability per Surface
• You want deterministic routing with no AI-based selection
• The calling application knows which Capability it needs

Multi-Capability Router

An AI model reads each incoming request and routes it to the most appropriate Capability. Users do not need to know which Capability to call.

How it works: A router model evaluates each request and selects the best Capability based on the request content and the Capability descriptions. You can choose the router model and optionally add a custom routing prompt.

Example (chat Surface): User types “Where’s my order?” The router recognizes this as an order status query and routes to the order lookup Agent, not the FAQ Flow.

Use when:

• Users interact in natural language (chat)
• You want intelligent request routing
• Multiple Capabilities handle overlapping domains

A2A Orchestration

A2A Surfaces have their own orchestration model:

• Delegate mode — Each Capability is exposed as a separate skill in the Agent Card. The calling Agent chooses which skill to invoke.
• Managed mode — Runtype adds an orchestrator that routes incoming requests to the right Capability. A single managed skill coordinates all visible skills behind the scenes.

Configuring orchestration

Set orchestration mode when creating or editing a Surface:

1. Open your Product
2. Select or add a Surface
3. Go to the Orchestration tab
4. Select:
   • Single Orchestrator — Direct routing to one Capability
   • Multi-Capability Router — AI-powered routing (choose the router model and optional routing prompt)
5. Click Save

Orchestration by Surface type

Default and recommended modes vary by Surface:

Chat Surfaces: Single Orchestrator is the default. Switch to Multi-Capability Router when you want the Product to route each message to the best Capability among several options.

A2A Surfaces: Delegate is the default. Use Managed mode when you want Runtype to coordinate the Agent’s skills instead of letting the calling Agent pick.

Next steps

• Setting up a chat Surface
• Setting up an API Surface
• Adding Capabilities to a Product