Tool Switching — Why You Shouldn't Marry One Model

Section 1

The models keep leapfrogging each other

Compare the options

Trigger	Action
New SOTA benchmark on work you actually do	A/B test for a week
Current provider had a major privacy incident	Move primary away, keep account for testing
Pricing changes unfavorably on your tier	Reprice across competitors
New capability only available on one provider	Add as secondary, keep primary
Your org mandates a specific provider	Comply; advocate internally
None of the above	Stay — switching costs are real

The portability pattern: plain-text prompts, thin adapters per provider, no feature that only works on one brand.

python

# prompts/essay_polish.md is plain markdown — works anywhere

import anthropic, openai
from pathlib import Path

prompt_template = Path('prompts/essay_polish.md').read_text()

def run(model_family, user_text):
    prompt = prompt_template.replace('{{INPUT}}', user_text)

    if model_family == 'anthropic':
        c = anthropic.Anthropic()
        r = c.messages.create(model='claude-sonnet-4-5', max_tokens=4096,
            messages=[{'role':'user','content':prompt}])
        return r.content[0].text

    if model_family == 'openai':
        c = openai.OpenAI()
        r = c.responses.create(model='gpt-5', input=prompt)
        return r.output_text

# Switch providers by changing one argument.
# Your prompts, your files, your workflow — all portable.

Key terms in this lesson

Tool Switching — Why You Shouldn't Marry One Model

The models keep leapfrogging each other

The cost of marriage

The portable layer

Switch triggers — when to actually move

A portable prompt library

The two-week switch experiment

The enterprise version

A philosophy

Curious about “Tool Switching — Why You Shouldn't Marry One Model”?

Keep going

Tool Switching — Why You Shouldn't Marry One Model

The models keep leapfrogging each other

The cost of marriage

The portable layer

Switch triggers — when to actually move

A portable prompt library

The two-week switch experiment

The enterprise version

A philosophy

Curious about “Tool Switching — Why You Shouldn't Marry One Model”?

Keep going