Logistics Hiring Scores Using Unified Node Backend Proxy with One API Key and Retries

A Node backend proxy must provide a single API key and a unified endpoint, while keeping OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, and Google Gemini credentials hidden behind the server boundary. The proxy maps internal model aliases to these credentials and handles only transient failures. For logistics candidate scoring, the critical output is valid, rubric-bound JSON.

Provider diversity is secondary to the structured output. The proxy should focus on client credential structuring, operating burden, best fit, direct provider SDKs, and provider-specific constraints. Initially, use one provider and build a managed multi-provider gateway as experiments progress. A small team requiring multiple providers can use a self-hosted routing proxy with a single internal key for normalization and validation.

Network or policy controls should be managed by the backend, not the client. The proxy should authenticate callers, resolve aliases, send provider-specific requests, normalize results, and validate final objects before returning them. Always use JSON Schema as the contract, validating JSON shape, required properties, numeric bounds, and extra properties.

Measure valid JSON, schema-valid JSON, rubric-valid content, and terminal failure separately. Retry only failures that might succeed without altering the request, such as rate limits or transient server failures. Do not retry authentication failures or invalid output. This approach balances provider flexibility with a single, enforceable contract.