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Agentic computing

Fable

A governed runtime for intent-driven mobile computing.

DomainAgentic computing
FocusHuman-authorised agent execution on Android
Programme phaseWorking Android reference runtime
Research thesis

Intelligence can propose an action. It cannot grant itself authority.

Fable is a governed agent runtime for stock Android reference devices. A user states an objective, the runtime constructs bounded work, and policy determines which capabilities may proceed.

Models can interpret and propose. Consequential effects remain subject to identity, consent, policy, explicit approval, recovery conditions, and inspectable evidence. The programme therefore treats authority and outcome truth as runtime responsibilities, not model behaviours.

ANDROIDReference host

The current programme runs on stock Android reference devices

05Governed stages

Intent, plan, policy, approval, and evidence

04Runtime layers

Conduct, Memoir, Conduit, and Ledger

03Outcome classes

Observed, handed off, and uncertain

The authority problem

Capability is not permission, and a prepared action is not a completed outcome.

Mobile assistants can increasingly interpret intent, but capability without bounded authority and reliable evidence creates an unsafe operating model.

The conventional app model fragments identity, context, data, and action across separate interfaces. An assistant layered over that structure may generate a plausible plan without establishing whether it may access the required data, invoke a capability, create an external effect, or claim completion.

Fable makes those questions explicit. Reasoning proposes a route; policy, consent, and approval determine whether the route is admissible; evidence determines what the runtime is permitted to say happened.

A participant uses a smartphone during an instrumented human-factors study of attention and task switching
Human factorsApp fragmentation can be examined through task switching, gaze disruption, and the cognitive cost of reconstructing context.
Governed execution

Every objective moves through an explicit control loop.

Natural-language objectives become bounded capability graphs whose authority, consequence, and outcome can be inspected.

  1. Receive the intent

    Capture the objective together with limits, privacy preferences, and tolerance for cost or delay.

  2. Construct the plan

    Define the required capabilities, inputs, expected effects, dependencies, and recovery paths.

  3. Apply policy

    Validate permission, identity, provenance, data export, budgets, freshness, and finality requirements.

  4. Request approval

    Pause before consequence and present the actor, destination, content, effect, and available recovery path.

  5. Preserve evidence

    Record what was proposed, authorised, observed, handed off, cancelled, or left unresolved.

Runtime architecture

Four layers separate planning, context, external intelligence, and evidence.

Each layer carries a distinct responsibility and a declared maturity state.

Conduct

The working prototype converts objectives into bounded steps and routes them through validation, approval, execution, and evidence.

Memoir

A product-vision layer for user-controlled private context that can be inspected, exported, and erased. It is not released.

Conduit

Working contracts route configured external intelligence through consent, declared sources, policy, hard budgets, and finality rules.

Ledger

Working contracts preserve signed, tamper-evident evidence and retain uncertain outcomes as uncertain.

Software boundary

Authority remains outside the model.

Explicit cloud path

Local failure does not silently become cloud export. Purpose, data type, provider route, and consent are evaluated explicitly.

Consequence gate

Sensitive effects wait until the exact action and its recovery conditions can be shown to the user.

Fail-closed admission

Missing permission, identity, policy, budget, freshness, or evidence prevents an action from being admitted.

Inspectable record

The evidence path distinguishes what was proposed, approved, observed, cancelled, and left uncertain.

Outcome semantics

Completion is a claim that must be proved.

The local simulator demonstrates the reporting semantics without performing external actions.

PROVED

Observed

Exact readback confirms the resulting state, allowing the runtime to report completion.

PENDING

Handed off

A dialler, composer, or browser surface is prepared, but user action or downstream completion remains outstanding.

UNKNOWN

Uncertain

When capability or evidence is insufficient, the result remains explicitly unresolved.

Adaptive interaction

The interface follows the objective rather than an app hierarchy.

Canvas is the current interaction class. Capture, Navigation, and Media remain product directions.

Canvas
Current interaction class

State the objective, inspect the plan, approve the effect, and read the receipt

Capture
Product vision

A sensor surface with explicit state and authority

Navigation
Product vision

Contextual guidance with visible approval over consequential effects

Media
Product vision

An information surface centred on declared objectives

Industrial-design rendering of the proposed Fable Studio slate held in both hands
Design studyThe Studio object visualises a broader decision surface. It is a design target, not a photographed or shipping device.
Paused hardware study

The runtime is current. The custom device remains a design study.

The Studio Concept explores a broad canvas for plans, edits, and deliberate approvals, together with a dedicated route into intent and a visible physical signal for camera and microphone state.

Custom handset and operating-system work is frozen and non-release. No physical Fable device or validated hardware specification is represented by the current programme material.

Broad decision surface

A form study intended to keep plans and approval context visible. The final consumer form factor remains unresolved.

Direct intent control

A deliberate entry point for voice or capture without searching through interface layers.

Sanctum Signal

An independent physical indication of camera and microphone state. The circuit is unbuilt and unvalidated.

Loom silicon

An exploratory custom-silicon direction. No chip has been built or physically qualified.

Exploded industrial-design rendering of the proposed Fable Studio slate
Concept visualThis is an industrial-design visualisation, not a teardown or evidence of fabricated hardware.
Programme phase

Current capability and future research remain deliberately separated.

  1. Working prototype
    Current runtime

    Governed Android reference host

    Bounded planning, policy checks, approval, recovery, outcome classification, and evidence form the present software programme.

  2. Working contracts
    Control plane

    Conduit and Ledger

    Provider routing and tamper-evident outcome contracts define the current control-plane work.

  3. Validation ahead
    Operational proof

    Providers, devices, pilots, and production admission

    Live integrations, measured field performance, security review, and production readiness remain ahead.

  4. Product vision
    Experience

    Memoir and adaptive surfaces

    Consumer memory, Capture, Navigation, and Media remain planned rather than released.

  5. Frozen
    Custom platform

    Handset and operating system

    The custom handset and custom OS programmes are non-release. Loom and Sanctum remain unbuilt research or design concepts.