OpenRouter presets vs a Sume Format: what each one pins

Is a Sume Format the same thing as an OpenRouter preset?

No, they pin different layers. An OpenRouter preset is saved model configuration: you change the model, provider rules or system prompt in one place without touching code. A Sume Format is a saved agent recipe that produces media: you call it by handle, it runs as an agent turn, and its receipt records which version ran.

What does an OpenRouter preset store?

From OpenRouter's presets page: model selection and provider routing preferences, system prompts, generation parameters such as temperature and top_p, provider inclusion and exclusion rules, and a tools array. You reference one three ways: "model": "@preset/email-copywriter", a preset field, or combined as openai/gpt-4@preset/email-copywriter. Version history is kept so you can roll back, but via the API the latest version is always used.

Request fields shallow-merge over preset fields: request-level values win, and preset fields you do not send are preserved. Tools are unioned, with request tools overriding preset tools of the same type or name.

What does a Sume Format pin?

A Format is addressed as /v1/formats/:format_id/runs or by handle and slug, and the curated Formats by Sume are callable at sume/{slug} with any valid key, billed to that key. See Formats and Calling a Format. Its version bumps on every edit, and the receipt's format.version says which version ran.

The invoke URL is the opaque skl_... path, permanent across renames, and renamed handles keep resolving for 90 days. Unlike an OpenRouter preset, a Format is not a bag of sampling parameters. The model the orchestrator ran on is reported on the receipt as model, and generated files come back as durable artifacts. The published docs I read do not state how to pin a specific Format version at call time, so assume a call runs the current one.

Compared

Facts from each vendor's own pages.

When should you use which?

Use a preset when you want to retune a text model's routing or prompt without redeploying. Use a Format when the unit of work is a finished asset and you want a stable call, a receipt, and a version number you can log next to every output.

• Log format.version from every receipt so a regression has a date.
• Persist the permanent skl_... invoke URL if a stored link must survive a rename.