System and techniques are described for applying selectable applications to process data packets an adaptive private network (APN). Methods to select application specific processing within a WAN ingress processing pipeline begin with receiving a packet from a local area network (LAN) in an adaptive private network (APN) WAN ingress processing stages. The received packet is identified to be separately processed by a selected application that is different than standard ingress processing. Packet processing flow is redirected to the selected application for application specific processing of the received packet in response to the packet being identified to be separately processed. The separately processed packet is returned to the standard ingress processing after completing the separate processing.