Arch
Open-source AI proxy for orchestrating, routing, and securing agentic applications.
Arch delivers real value for agentic app infrastructure: orchestration, safety, and observability without framework lock-in. Its open-source nature and modular design appeal to teams that want control. However, it requires hands-on setup and lacks a managed cloud tier—not ideal for those seeking a turnkey solution.
- Developers building multi-agent systems needing orchestration and routing
- Teams wanting to add unified safety, moderation, and observability across agents
- Organizations seeking an open-source, vendor-neutral AI gateway
- Startups prototyping agentic workflows quickly with low overhead
- Non-technical users looking for a no-code solution
- Teams needing a full-featured traditional API gateway with advanced rate limiting
- Enterprises requiring dedicated support and SLAs
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In short
Arch — Open-source AI proxy for orchestrating, routing, and securing agentic applications. Best for Developers building multi-agent systems needing orchestration and routing, Teams wanting to add unified safety, moderation, and observability across agents, Organizations seeking an open-source, vendor-neutral AI gateway. Free to use.
In users’ own words
“Guys installed Arch in Android. For fun And Also installed it on VM since my laptop is shared andI use vm for my work. So yeah.”
“Welcome to my forest 🌲 🌲 🌲 Several weeks ago I decided to upgrade my macbook =) Surprisingly managed to install Arch for the first time - and on the first try! (Thanks ArchWiki) So now I officially use Arch, btw 🚀”
“I used YASB reborn for the waybar looking thing and I used komorebi for the tiling window manager. The wallpaper is from a game called project sekai and the character shown is mizuki”
Real posts from independent users, linked to the source — not testimonials we collected.
Viability Score
How likely is Arch to still be operational in 12 months? Based on 4 signals — momentum (how recently it shipped), wrapper dependency, revenue model, and web presence.
Last calculated: July 2026
How we score →Key Features
- Agent orchestration with low-latency routing
- Smart LLM routing by name, alias, or preferences
- Zero-code capture of Agentic Signals and OTEL traces
- Moderation and memory hooks via Filter Chains
- Guardrail filters for jailbreak protection
- YAML-based configuration
- Sidecar or standalone deployment
- OpenAI-compatible API for agent code
- Multi-agent support adding new agents without code changes
- Model provider agility (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.)
- Free hosted routing model (Plano-Orchestrator 4B)
- Apache-2.0 open source license
- Built on Envoy proxy by core contributors
- Community-driven with frequent releases
- Docker deployment support
About Arch
Arch (now Plano) is an open-source, AI-native proxy server and data plane that decouples the routine plumbing of agentic applications from core business logic. It acts as a gateway that integrates prompts with APIs, adding safety filters, tracing, and smart LLM routing transparently—allowing developers to focus on agent behavior rather than infrastructure. Built for developers building agent-based systems, it provides out-of-the-box orchestration, observability, and guardrails via a configurable sidecar or standalone service. Key features include low-latency orchestration between agents, model routing by name or alias, zero-code capture of agentic signals and OpenTelemetry traces across every agent, and modular filter chains for jailbreak protection, moderation policies, and memory hooks. Configuration is managed via a simple YAML file, making it accessible to teams of any size. The project is hosted on GitHub under the Apache-2.0 license with over 6,800 stars and active community engagement. Unlike traditional API gateways, Arch is purpose-built for LLMs, with native support for model routing, prompt management, and real-time monitoring. It also includes a free hosted LLM service (Plano-Orchestrator) for first-run developer experience, with production options to run locally or via Discord API keys. Its modular design allows teams to use only the components they need—edge proxying, LLM routing, or both. Positioned against frameworks like LangChain, Arch extracts delivery concerns into an out-of-process data plane, avoiding lock-in to any single framework or provider. Its emphasis on production-readiness and vendor-neutral design makes it a strong choice for teams prioritizing control and scalability.
Behind the Verdict
Arch (Plano) fills a clear gap for teams building production agentic applications. It centralizes the 'hidden middleware'—routing, guardrails, observability—that every multi-agent system needs but no one wants to build themselves. The YAML-driven configuration and modular filter chains make it practical for developers who value control over abstraction. We'd reach for this when your agent count exceeds a handful and you're tired of threading safety checks through each agent's code. Where it bites: setup is not trivial. You'll need to run a sidecar or standalone proxy, configure YAML, and manage the Envoy dependency. The free hosted routing model (Plano-Orchestrator 4B) is a nice touch for prototyping, but production use demands local hosting or Discord-issued keys. There's no managed cloud tier, no enterprise SLAs, and the project is still relatively young—expect to dig into GitHub issues for edge cases. Compared to LangChain, Arch is less about building agent chains and more about the operational layer. You keep your framework of choice and hand off routing, safety, and telemetry. Compared to API gateways like Kong or Tyk, Arch is LLM-native—it understands model names, prompt patterns, and agent routing. But it doesn't replace a full reverse proxy for non-AI traffic. In practice, Arch shines for teams with 2-10 agents who want a lightweight, open-source control plane. It's less suited for solo developers who just want a quick API key to a hosted LLM, or for enterprises that need a supported, SLA-backed solution. The community is active but small; expect to contribute fixes or wait for releases. Bottom line: If you're building production agentic systems and value vendor-neutral, open-source infrastructure, Arch is worth the setup investment. If you want
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Use Cases
- Build a personalized customer support agent that securely accesses internal APIs and databases.
- Add safety guardrails and logging to an existing LLM-powered chatbot without modifying app code.
- Deploy a multi-model agent that routes requests to the best LLM based on cost or latency.
- Monitor and trace agent decisions in real time to debug and improve performance.
- Prototype an agentic workflow that integrates with multiple third-party APIs using natural language.
Limitations
- Arch is self-hosted, requiring DevOps effort for deployment and maintenance.
- It does not yet have an extensive library of pre-built integrations, so custom connectors may be needed.
- The project is relatively new, so documentation and community resources are still maturing.
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
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