Switching AI provider or host without breaking everything

In brief

• Switching AI provider or host shouldn't be a project: it's a design criterion from the start.
• Migrations fail when data is trapped, integrations are proprietary, or the code is undocumented.
• A portable stack (PostgreSQL, Cloudflare, interchangeable models) and documented integration points make the change possible in days, not months.
• The code belongs to you: that's the strongest guarantee against lock-in.

The problem, concretely

Most systems are designed to work, not to be replaced. Data accumulates at one provider, connectors become proprietary, and the code mixes business logic and provider calls. The day you want to leave, every past choice becomes debt.

The cost of migration isn't technical, it's organizational: your teams learned the tool, your processes run on it, and no one has time to redo what works. Result: you stay, even when the price or quality no longer suit you.

What makes a change simple

• The code at your place: delivered, documented, take-over-ready. That's the first condition.
• Exportable data: PostgreSQL/Supabase, with standard exports and your data at your place.
• A model abstraction layer: the LLM call goes through a common interface, not a single provider's API.
• Documented integration points: we know where each external service connects, therefore where to replace it.
• A reduced operating cost: few services, few dependencies, a bill that stays under control.

The scenario I apply

Concretely, at a client's: data in PostgreSQL, execution on Cloudflare (Workers, R2), AI agents connected to an interchangeable model through a common API layer. Each provider is an isolated, documented, replaceable integration point. If tomorrow the client wants to move from one model to another, or leave a host, we know exactly what to do, and the code stays intact.

This isn't anti-marketing, it's engineering: a solution designed to be portable costs barely more to build, and years of freedom at the end. That's the meaning of the independent integration engineer positioning.