Smart Upload Routing

Route uploads by size and environment across ArLocal, Bundlr, and direct Arweave writes for faster small files and large-file support.

Every upload is automatically routed through the optimal transport path — based on file size, environment, and latency requirements. Zero configuration.

Control speed, confirmation style, and spend without changing the public API.

Routing is commercial leverage as much as technical plumbing. It lets teams choose faster delivery, lower cost, or stricter confirmation behavior per workload.

Value

Use the right path for the right payload

Short-lived operational uploads can favor speed, while heavier or stricter flows can use direct Arweave semantics.

Keep customer contracts stable

Clients integrate once while your platform team optimizes where data goes underneath.

Avoid hard-coding yourself into one runtime path

Routing policies make future tuning easier when traffic, AR pricing, or file mix changes.

Use cases

High-Frequency Uploads

APIs that ingest hundreds of small documents per minute benefit from Bundlr's sub-5-second finality and batched transaction costs.

Large File Archives

Video, genomic datasets, CAD files — direct Arweave routing handles multi-GB payloads where Bundlr's limits don't apply.

Local Development

ArLocal routing gives your dev environment a local Arweave simulation node — upload and query without spending AR tokens.

For operators

  • Tune behavior by payload size, environment, priority, or publishing policy.
  • Use cost estimation to validate routing choices before larger migrations or archive jobs.
  • Pair with wallet pools to keep upload execution resilient even when spend is distributed across wallets.

For buyers

  • Useful when procurement asks how you control blockchain costs over time.
  • Helpful for product teams promising fast uploads while still preserving permanent storage guarantees.
  • Lets enterprise buyers hear a policy story instead of a one-size-fits-all storage story.

How does routing decide the upload path?

Payload size and environment are the primary signals. Small payloads (<100 KB by default) route via Bundlr for near-instant confirmation. Larger payloads go direct to Arweave. ArLocal is used automatically in local dev environments.

Can I override the routing decision?

Yes. Pass routing.override: 'bundlr' or routing.override: 'arweave' in your request body to force a specific path regardless of payload size.

What is Bundlr?

Bundlr is a layer-2 scalability solution for Arweave. It batches multiple transactions into a single Arweave bundle, providing near-instant finality and lower per-transaction cost.