A smart edge controller for building equipment that operates to affect a variable state or condition within a building. The controller includes processors and non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by the processors, cause the processors to perform operations including obtaining sensor data indicating environmental conditions of the building and include determining an amount of available processing resources at the smart edge controller or at the building equipment. The operations include automatically scaling a level of complexity of an optimization of a cost function based on the available processing resources and include performing the optimization of the cost function at the automatically scaled level of complexity to generate a first setpoint trajectory. The first setpoint trajectory includes operating setpoints for the building equipment at time steps within an optimization period. The operations include operating the building equipment based on the first setpoint trajectory.