In one example, a method includes receiving, by a first network device, a route advertisement message including an attribute for upstream allocation specifying a plurality of next hops of a second network device for reaching a network destination, a plurality of forwarding semantics describing forwarding actions and respective attributes of the plurality of next hops, and a field indicating whether the attribute is provided for downstream allocation or upstream allocation. The method includes in response to determining, by the network device, that the field indicates the attribute is provided for upstream allocation: installing, by the network device and based on the forwarding semantics, next hops, forwarding actions, and the next hop attributes; and applying based on the forwarding information, the forwarding actions to network traffic received by the network device and destined for the network destination when forwarding the network traffic to one or more of the plurality of next hops.