07. AI Platform
Resilience Architecture

AI Resilience Architecture

Our AI platform is designed with enterprise-grade resilience to ensure uninterrupted service for families who depend on our co-parenting assistance. Through multi-layered redundancy, intelligent failover mechanisms, and comprehensive monitoring, we maintain 99.9% uptime while protecting against provider outages, API failures, and network disruptions.

Overview

The OurOtters AI resilience architecture implements a defense-in-depth strategy across multiple layers: provider diversity, intelligent routing, graceful degradation, local fallbacks, and comprehensive monitoring. This ensures that families always have access to AI assistance, even during major cloud provider outages.

Multi-Provider Architecture

Provider Diversity Strategy

Our system integrates with multiple AI providers to eliminate single points of failure:

Provider Health Monitoring

Continuous health checks across all providers ensure optimal routing:

interface ProviderHealth {
  providerId: string;
  status: 'healthy' | 'degraded' | 'failed';
  latency: number;
  errorRate: number;
  lastCheck: Date;
  consecutiveFailures: number;
}
 
class ProviderHealthMonitor {
  private healthChecks = new Map<string, ProviderHealth>();
  
  async monitorProviders(): Promise<void> {
    const providers = ['openrouter', 'anthropic', 'openai', 'google'];
    
    await Promise.allSettled(
      providers.map(async (providerId) => {
        const start = Date.now();
        
        try {
          await this.pingProvider(providerId);
          const latency = Date.now() - start;
          
          this.updateHealth(providerId, {
            status: latency > 5000 ? 'degraded' : 'healthy',
            latency,
            errorRate: this.calculateErrorRate(providerId),
            consecutiveFailures: 0
          });
          
        } catch (error) {
          this.updateHealth(providerId, {
            status: 'failed',
            latency: Date.now() - start,
            errorRate: 1.0,
            consecutiveFailures: this.incrementFailures(providerId)
          });
        }
      })
    );
  }
  
  getHealthyProviders(): string[] {
    return Array.from(this.healthChecks.entries())
      .filter(([_, health]) => health.status === 'healthy')
      .sort((a, b) => a[1].latency - b[1].latency)
      .map(([providerId]) => providerId);
  }
}

Intelligent Request Routing

Smart Provider Selection

Our routing algorithm considers multiple factors for optimal performance:

interface RoutingDecision {
  provider: string;
  model: string;
  reasoning: string;
  fallbackChain: string[];
}
 
class IntelligentRouter {
  async selectProvider(request: AIRequest): Promise<RoutingDecision> {
    const healthyProviders = this.healthMonitor.getHealthyProviders();
    const complexity = this.analyzeComplexity(request);
    const urgency = this.analyzeUrgency(request);
    
    // Cost-optimized for simple requests
    if (complexity === 'low' && healthyProviders.includes('openrouter')) {
      return {
        provider: 'openrouter',
        model: 'google/gemma-3b',
        reasoning: 'Cost-effective for simple queries',
        fallbackChain: ['anthropic/claude-haiku', 'openai/gpt-4o-mini', 'local/gemma-3b']
      };
    }
    
    // Quality-optimized for complex requests  
    if (complexity === 'high' && healthyProviders.includes('anthropic')) {
      return {
        provider: 'anthropic',
        model: 'claude-3-haiku',
        reasoning: 'High-quality reasoning for complex queries',
        fallbackChain: ['openai/gpt-4o-mini', 'openrouter/llama-7b', 'local/gemma-3b']
      };
    }
    
    // Emergency fallback
    return {
      provider: 'local',
      model: 'gemma-3b-quantized',
      reasoning: 'All cloud providers unavailable',
      fallbackChain: ['cached-responses']
    };
  }
}

Circuit Breaker Pattern

Automatic failure detection and recovery for degraded providers:

class CircuitBreaker {
  private state: 'closed' | 'open' | 'half-open' = 'closed';
  private failureCount = 0;
  private lastFailure?: Date;
  
  constructor(
    private readonly threshold = 5,
    private readonly timeout = 60000 // 1 minute
  ) {}
  
  async execute<T>(operation: () => Promise<T>): Promise<T> {
    if (this.state === 'open') {
      if (Date.now() - this.lastFailure!.getTime() > this.timeout) {
        this.state = 'half-open';
      } else {
        throw new Error('Circuit breaker is open');
      }
    }
    
    try {
      const result = await operation();
      this.onSuccess();
      return result;
    } catch (error) {
      this.onFailure();
      throw error;
    }
  }
  
  private onSuccess(): void {
    this.failureCount = 0;
    this.state = 'closed';
  }
  
  private onFailure(): void {
    this.failureCount++;
    this.lastFailure = new Date();
    
    if (this.failureCount >= this.threshold) {
      this.state = 'open';
    }
  }
}

Graceful Degradation Strategies

Response Quality Tiers

When premium providers fail, we maintain service through quality-tiered fallbacks:

interface QualityTier {
  level: 'premium' | 'standard' | 'basic' | 'emergency';
  providers: string[];
  maxLatency: number;
  features: string[];
}
 
const QUALITY_TIERS: QualityTier[] = [
  {
    level: 'premium',
    providers: ['anthropic/claude-3-haiku', 'openai/gpt-4o-mini'],
    maxLatency: 3000,
    features: ['context-awareness', 'empathy', 'nuanced-advice']
  },
  {
    level: 'standard', 
    providers: ['openrouter/llama-7b', 'google/gemini-flash'],
    maxLatency: 5000,
    features: ['context-awareness', 'basic-advice']
  },
  {
    level: 'basic',
    providers: ['openrouter/gemma-3b'],
    maxLatency: 2000,
    features: ['simple-responses', 'safety-filtering']
  },
  {
    level: 'emergency',
    providers: ['local/gemma-3b', 'cached-responses'],
    maxLatency: 1000,
    features: ['basic-safety', 'simple-responses']
  }
];

Feature Degradation

Gracefully reduce features while maintaining core functionality:

class FeatureDegradation {
  async handleDegradedService(request: AIRequest): Promise<AIResponse> {
    const availableTier = this.determineAvailableTier();
    
    switch (availableTier.level) {
      case 'premium':
        return this.generatePremiumResponse(request);
        
      case 'standard':
        return this.generateStandardResponse(request);
        
      case 'basic':
        // Disable advanced features, keep core functionality
        return this.generateBasicResponse({
          ...request,
          features: request.features.filter(f => ['safety', 'basic-advice'].includes(f))
        });
        
      case 'emergency':
        // Use cached responses or simple patterns
        const cachedResponse = await this.getCachedResponse(request);
        if (cachedResponse) return cachedResponse;
        
        return {
          content: "I'm experiencing technical difficulties but want to help. Please try rephrasing your question, or check back in a few minutes.",
          confidence: 0.3,
          tier: 'emergency'
        };
    }
  }
}

Local Fallback Systems

Edge Function Caching

Supabase Edge Functions with intelligent caching for offline resilience:

// supabase/functions/ai-resilient/index.ts
import { serve } from "https://deno.land/std@0.168.0/http/server.ts";
 
serve(async (req) => {
  const { query, context, userId } = await req.json();
  
  try {
    // Try cloud providers first
    const cloudResponse = await tryCloudProviders(query, context);
    if (cloudResponse) {
      // Cache successful responses
      await cacheResponse(query, cloudResponse);
      return new Response(JSON.stringify(cloudResponse));
    }
  } catch (error) {
    console.warn('Cloud providers failed, trying local fallbacks');
  }
  
  // Fallback to cached responses
  const cachedResponse = await getCachedResponse(query);
  if (cachedResponse && isRecentEnough(cachedResponse)) {
    return new Response(JSON.stringify({
      ...cachedResponse,
      source: 'cache',
      freshness: 'cached'
    }));
  }
  
  // Last resort: local model
  const localResponse = await runLocalModel(query, context);
  return new Response(JSON.stringify({
    ...localResponse,
    source: 'local',
    freshness: 'computed'
  }));
});

Semantic Caching

Intelligent response caching using embeddings for semantic similarity:

class SemanticCache {
  private embeddingCache = new Map<string, number[]>();
  private responseCache = new Map<string, CachedResponse>();
  
  async getCachedResponse(query: string): Promise<AIResponse | null> {
    // Check exact match first
    const exactMatch = this.responseCache.get(query);
    if (exactMatch && !this.isExpired(exactMatch)) {
      return exactMatch.response;
    }
    
    // Check semantic similarity
    const queryEmbedding = await this.getEmbedding(query);
    const similarQueries = await this.findSimilarQueries(queryEmbedding, 0.9);
    
    if (similarQueries.length > 0) {
      const bestMatch = similarQueries[0];
      return {
        ...bestMatch.response,
        metadata: {
          ...bestMatch.response.metadata,
          similarityScore: bestMatch.similarity,
          originalQuery: bestMatch.query
        }
      };
    }
    
    return null;
  }
  
  private async findSimilarQueries(embedding: number[], threshold: number): Promise<SimilarQuery[]> {
    const similarities: SimilarQuery[] = [];
    
    for (const [query, cachedEmbedding] of this.embeddingCache) {
      const similarity = this.cosineSimilarity(embedding, cachedEmbedding);
      
      if (similarity >= threshold) {
        const response = this.responseCache.get(query);
        if (response && !this.isExpired(response)) {
          similarities.push({ query, similarity, response: response.response });
        }
      }
    }
    
    return similarities.sort((a, b) => b.similarity - a.similarity);
  }
}

Comprehensive Monitoring

Real-time Health Dashboard

Monitor AI system health across all layers:

interface SystemHealth {
  overall: 'healthy' | 'degraded' | 'critical';
  providers: ProviderHealth[];
  cacheHitRate: number;
  averageLatency: number;
  errorRate: number;
  activeRequests: number;
  queueDepth: number;
}
 
class HealthDashboard {
  async getSystemHealth(): Promise<SystemHealth> {
    const [
      providerHealth,
      cacheStats,
      performanceMetrics,
      queueMetrics
    ] = await Promise.all([
      this.getProviderHealth(),
      this.getCacheStats(),
      this.getPerformanceMetrics(),
      this.getQueueMetrics()
    ]);
    
    const overall = this.calculateOverallHealth(
      providerHealth,
      performanceMetrics,
      queueMetrics
    );
    
    return {
      overall,
      providers: providerHealth,
      cacheHitRate: cacheStats.hitRate,
      averageLatency: performanceMetrics.avgLatency,
      errorRate: performanceMetrics.errorRate,
      activeRequests: performanceMetrics.activeRequests,
      queueDepth: queueMetrics.depth
    };
  }
  
  private calculateOverallHealth(
    providers: ProviderHealth[],
    performance: PerformanceMetrics,
    queue: QueueMetrics
  ): 'healthy' | 'degraded' | 'critical' {
    const healthyProviders = providers.filter(p => p.status === 'healthy').length;
    
    if (healthyProviders === 0) return 'critical';
    if (healthyProviders < 2 || performance.errorRate > 0.1 || queue.depth > 100) return 'degraded';
    return 'healthy';
  }
}

Automated Alerting

Proactive notifications for system issues:

class AlertingSystem {
  private alertChannels = ['email', 'slack', 'pagerduty'];
  
  async monitorAndAlert(): Promise<void> {
    const health = await this.healthDashboard.getSystemHealth();
    
    // Critical alerts
    if (health.overall === 'critical') {
      await this.sendAlert({
        severity: 'critical',
        message: 'AI system is experiencing critical issues',
        details: {
          healthyProviders: health.providers.filter(p => p.status === 'healthy').length,
          errorRate: health.errorRate,
          queueDepth: health.queueDepth
        },
        channels: this.alertChannels
      });
    }
    
    // Degraded performance alerts
    if (health.overall === 'degraded') {
      await this.sendAlert({
        severity: 'warning',
        message: 'AI system performance is degraded',
        details: {
          averageLatency: health.averageLatency,
          cacheHitRate: health.cacheHitRate,
          degradedProviders: health.providers.filter(p => p.status === 'degraded')
        },
        channels: ['slack']
      });
    }
    
    // Performance trend alerts
    await this.checkPerformanceTrends(health);
  }
}

Disaster Recovery

Multi-Region Deployment

Geographic distribution for maximum resilience:

Backup Response Systems

Emergency response generation when all else fails:

class EmergencyResponseSystem {
  private emergencyResponses = {
    coParenting: [
      "I understand this is a challenging situation. The most important thing is focusing on what's best for your children.",
      "Co-parenting conflicts are difficult. Consider having a calm conversation when emotions aren't running high.",
      "Your children benefit when both parents work together. Try to find common ground in your shared love for them."
    ],
    scheduling: [
      "Schedule conflicts happen. Try to be flexible and communicate early about any changes needed.",
      "Consider using a shared calendar to help prevent scheduling conflicts in the future.",
      "When schedules conflict, focus on finding solutions that work for everyone, especially the children."
    ],
    communication: [
      "Clear, respectful communication is key to successful co-parenting.",
      "Try to keep conversations focused on the children and practical matters.",
      "If emotions are high, consider taking a break and returning to the conversation later."
    ]
  };
  
  async generateEmergencyResponse(query: string): Promise<AIResponse> {
    const category = this.categorizeQuery(query);
    const responses = this.emergencyResponses[category] || this.emergencyResponses.coParenting;
    
    // Simple pattern matching for more relevant responses
    const relevantResponses = responses.filter(response => 
      this.hasKeywordOverlap(query, response)
    );
    
    const selectedResponse = relevantResponses.length > 0 
      ? relevantResponses[Math.floor(Math.random() * relevantResponses.length)]
      : responses[Math.floor(Math.random() * responses.length)];
    
    return {
      content: selectedResponse + " I'm experiencing technical difficulties, but I'm here to help. Please try again in a few minutes.",
      confidence: 0.2,
      source: 'emergency',
      timestamp: new Date().toISOString()
    };
  }
}

Performance Optimization

Request Batching

Optimize provider API usage during high traffic:

class RequestBatcher {
  private batches = new Map<string, BatchRequest[]>();
  private batchTimers = new Map<string, NodeJS.Timeout>();
  
  async submitRequest(request: AIRequest): Promise<AIResponse> {
    const batchKey = this.getBatchKey(request);
    const batch = this.batches.get(batchKey) || [];
    
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
      batch.push({ request, resolve, reject });
      this.batches.set(batchKey, batch);
      
      // Set batch processing timer
      if (!this.batchTimers.has(batchKey)) {
        const timer = setTimeout(() => {
          this.processBatch(batchKey);
        }, 100); // 100ms batch window
        
        this.batchTimers.set(batchKey, timer);
      }
    });
  }
  
  private async processBatch(batchKey: string): Promise<void> {
    const batch = this.batches.get(batchKey) || [];
    this.batches.delete(batchKey);
    this.batchTimers.delete(batchKey);
    
    if (batch.length === 0) return;
    
    try {
      const responses = await this.sendBatchRequest(batch.map(b => b.request));
      
      batch.forEach((item, index) => {
        item.resolve(responses[index]);
      });
    } catch (error) {
      batch.forEach(item => {
        item.reject(error);
      });
    }
  }
}

Adaptive Load Balancing

Dynamic traffic distribution based on real-time performance:

class AdaptiveLoadBalancer {
  private providerWeights = new Map<string, number>();
  private performanceHistory = new Map<string, number[]>();
  
  selectProvider(providers: string[]): string {
    // Calculate weighted selection based on recent performance
    const weights = providers.map(provider => ({
      provider,
      weight: this.calculateWeight(provider)
    }));
    
    const totalWeight = weights.reduce((sum, w) => sum + w.weight, 0);
    const random = Math.random() * totalWeight;
    
    let current = 0;
    for (const { provider, weight } of weights) {
      current += weight;
      if (random <= current) {
        return provider;
      }
    }
    
    return providers[0]; // Fallback
  }
  
  private calculateWeight(provider: string): number {
    const history = this.performanceHistory.get(provider) || [1000]; // Default latency
    const avgLatency = history.reduce((sum, val) => sum + val, 0) / history.length;
    const errorRate = this.getErrorRate(provider);
    
    // Lower latency and error rate = higher weight
    return Math.max(0.1, 1 / (avgLatency / 1000 + errorRate * 10));
  }
}

Cost Management During Outages

Emergency Budget Controls

Automatic cost management during provider failures:

class EmergencyBudgetManager {
  private dailyBudget = 100; // $100 per day
  private currentSpend = 0;
  private emergencyMode = false;
  
  async shouldAllowRequest(request: AIRequest): Promise<boolean> {
    const estimatedCost = this.estimateRequestCost(request);
    
    if (this.currentSpend + estimatedCost > this.dailyBudget) {
      this.emergencyMode = true;
      
      // Only allow critical requests in emergency mode
      if (request.priority !== 'critical') {
        return false;
      }
    }
    
    return true;
  }
  
  async handleBudgetExceeded(): Promise<void> {
    // Switch to local-only mode
    await this.activateLocalOnlyMode();
    
    // Alert administrators
    await this.alertBudgetExceeded();
    
    // Notify users of degraded service
    await this.notifyServiceDegradation();
  }
}

Integration with Core Features

Co-Parenting Assistant Resilience

Specialized resilience for our core AI features:

class CoParentingAssistantResilience {
  async handleCoParentingQuery(query: string, context: CoParentingContext): Promise<AIResponse> {
    const fallbackChain = [
      () => this.tryPremiumProviders(query, context),
      () => this.tryStandardProviders(query, context),
      () => this.tryBasicProviders(query, context),
      () => this.useTemplateResponses(query, context),
      () => this.generateEmergencyResponse(query, context)
    ];
    
    for (const fallback of fallbackChain) {
      try {
        const response = await fallback();
        if (response) {
          return this.addResilienceMetadata(response, fallback.name);
        }
      } catch (error) {
        console.warn(`Fallback ${fallback.name} failed:`, error);
      }
    }
    
    throw new Error('All fallback methods exhausted');
  }
  
  private async useTemplateResponses(query: string, context: CoParentingContext): Promise<AIResponse> {
    const templates = this.getRelevantTemplates(query, context);
    const selectedTemplate = this.selectBestTemplate(templates, query);
    
    return {
      content: this.personalizeTemplate(selectedTemplate, context),
      confidence: 0.6,
      source: 'template',
      template: selectedTemplate.id
    };
  }
}

Our AI resilience architecture ensures that OurOtters families always have access to co-parenting assistance, regardless of external service disruptions. Through intelligent failover, local caching, and graceful degradation, we maintain service continuity while optimizing for cost and performance.

Future Enhancements

Planned Improvements

  1. Predictive Failover: Machine learning models to predict provider failures before they occur
  2. Edge Computing: Deploy local models to edge locations for ultra-low latency
  3. Federated Learning: Improve local models using anonymized usage patterns
  4. Quantum-Safe Encryption: Future-proof security for AI communications

Scaling Strategy

This resilience architecture represents our commitment to providing reliable AI assistance for families when they need it most, ensuring that technical challenges never interfere with supporting healthy co-parenting relationships.