A method comprising: installing, to a forwarding plane of a network device, a packet processing template that defines a plurality of internal packet processing paths within the forwarding plane for processing a plurality of packet flows mapped to the packet processing template, each of the plurality of internal packet processing paths including a common service object and one or more distinct service objects respectively representing corresponding hardware of the forwarding plane and chained together as a series of next hop operations applied by the forwarding plane, wherein different values for a variable of the packet processing template determine, at least in part, the internal packet processing paths of the plurality of internal packet processing paths for processing different packet flows of the plurality of packet flows; generating and installing to the forwarding plane of the network device, for a first packet flow of the plurality of packet flows, a first subscriber record that includes a first variable value for the variable that identifies a first internal packet processing path of the plurality of internal packet processing paths; in response to receiving a first packet associated with the first packet flow, determining, by the forwarding plane of the network device based on the first subscriber record, the first variable value of the first subscriber record for the first packet flow; and in response to determining that the first variable value identifies the first internal packet processing path of the plurality of internal packet processing paths, processing, by the forwarding plane of the network device, the first packet using the first internal packet processing path of the plurality of internal packet processing paths. installing, to a forwarding plane of a network device, a packet processing template that defines a plurality of internal packet processing paths within the forwarding plane for processing a plurality of packet flows mapped to the packet processing template, each of the plurality of internal packet processing paths including a common service object and one or more distinct service objects respectively representing corresponding hardware of the forwarding plane and chained together as a series of next hop operations applied by the forwarding plane, wherein different values for a variable of the packet processing template determine, at least in part, the internal packet processing paths of the plurality of internal packet processing paths for processing different packet flows of the plurality of packet flows; generating and installing to the forwarding plane of the network device, for a first packet flow of the plurality of packet flows, a first subscriber record that includes a first variable value for the variable that identifies a first internal packet processing path of the plurality of internal packet processing paths; in response to receiving a first packet associated with the first packet flow, determining, by the forwarding plane of the network device based on the first subscriber record, the first variable value of the first subscriber record for the first packet flow; and in response to determining that the first variable value identifies the first internal packet processing path of the plurality of internal packet processing paths, processing, by the forwarding plane of the network device, the first packet using the first internal packet processing path of the plurality of internal packet processing paths.