App-last. Local-first. Agent-native.

Your work is the interface.
Not a grid of apps.

Agent OS treats documents, tasks, projects, people, places and events as durable system objects. Apps become replaceable providers and views. Text-to-micro-app composition creates the missing interface, Agent Mesh carries the same objects across direct and off-grid paths, and capability-secured agents connect the whole system without ambient authority.

Read the vision iOS / Android / Agent OS

Fuchsia/Zircon fork
Rust-first product layer
157-doc engineering bible
Evidence-gated claims

App-first

Mail Chat Notes Tasks Calendar Files

Identity, actions and history are fragmented by application.

App-last

Document Task Person

Project

Event Message Agent plan

One object graph. Many views and replaceable providers.

The core shift

First-class work, not first-class apps.

The operating system owns durable semantics — identity, links, actions, authority, history, recovery and delivery. An application is only one replaceable provider or view.

01 AOS-ARCH-009

Entity-first, not app-centric

A typed graph of people, projects, tasks, documents, events and devices — typed edges carry source and confidence. UI is assembled around current work, not an icon grid.

02 AOS-PROD-018

Interfaces are generated and malleable

Text, Shortcut-style blocks and declarative source produce safe micro-apps that render across AI answers, documents, notifications, widgets, wearables and focused modes.

03 AOS-ARCH-009

Global history with undo

An append-only semantic event log records navigation, documents, actions, agents, delivery and external effects. Search, replay, undo and compensate where safe.

04 AOS-ARCH-024

Local-first and peer-capable

Data remains authoritative on user-controlled devices. Agent Mesh adds direct, off-grid and delay-tolerant paths without changing entity or action semantics.

05 AOS-ARCH-010

Agents on a capability model

Agents extract, link, propose interfaces and invoke typed actions only through explicit grants, previews, budgets and receipts.

06 ARCH-022

Config ↔ GUI ↔ API mirroring

Anything exposed graphically is represented through inspectable schemas and actions so CLI, TUI, scripts, settings, micro-apps and agents stay aligned.

Micro-apps · Text-to-interface

The interface you need should not require another app.

Describe a missing interface, inspect the proposed data and authority, then install a small declarative micro-app. It can appear inside an AI answer, document, notification, lock screen, wearable, dashboard or full-screen mode. AOS-PROD-018

Explore the builder

Describe

Ask for an outcome in ordinary language: data, explanation, triggers, actions and where the interface should appear.

Inspect

Agent OS produces an explicit plan, provider list, data flow and capability diff before anything is installed or executed.

Edit

Switch freely between natural language, Shortcut-style blocks and declarative source without changing semantics.

Reuse

One micro-app instance renders as an AI response card, document block, notification, widget, watch glance or focused mode.

UV today

Personal risk, safe-until time, hourly chart and sunscreen actions.

Project overnight

Tasks, commits, messages and blocked decisions in one interactive brief.

Travel disruption

Evidence, alternative routes, refund and share actions.

Agent Mesh inbox

Pending, relayed, delivered and expired off-grid bundles.

Micro-apps are safe to generate because the runtime accepts signed manifests over trusted components and typed actions — not arbitrary code with ambient filesystem, network or identity access. AOS-ARCH-026

Agent Mesh · Peer-to-peer

Connectivity is a system policy, not a messaging-app choice.

Address a person, project or device. Agent OS chooses direct Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LoRa, an optional gateway or delayed physical carriage from deadline, privacy, region, energy and trust. AOS-ARCH-024

Explore Agent Mesh

1 Direct Local IP or Wi-Fi Direct for large, fast payloads.

2 Nearby BLE for discovery, consent and small exchanges.

3 Off-grid LoRa for short messages, coordinates, receipts and hashes.

4 Delayed Encrypted store-and-forward through devices and fixed relays.

5 Gateway Optional Internet, LoRaWAN or satellite bridge without content authority.

One encrypted envelope and receipt model survives changes in transport and connectivity. LoRa is only one provider below it.

Versus iOS & Android

A category difference, not a feature difference.

Agent OS changes the object, interface, delivery and authority models rather than adding another assistant or widget layer over application silos.

A system-wide entity graph, not app silos

AOS-ARCH-009

Data ownership moves from the app to a shared, provenance-carrying graph the whole system can query. Views and providers are replaceable.

Text-to-micro-apps instead of fixed feature gates

AOS-PROD-018

When data and typed actions exist, the user can compose the missing safe interface rather than waiting for a platform vendor to expose one widget shape.

Peer delivery is a system capability

AOS-ARCH-024

One signed envelope can move over direct IP, Bluetooth, LoRa, gateways or delayed relays while retaining one identity, receipt and policy model.

A five-rung agent trust ladder with no unlogged action

AOS-ARCH-010

Authority climbs from observation to bounded autonomy. Every effect records interpretation, capabilities, data, destination, cost and result.

Object-capabilities as the base layer

AOS-ARCH-004

Authority is absent unless granted. A radio-less mode has no radio capability; a micro-app cannot silently acquire sockets or private health data.

Offline-completeness as an invariant

AOS-PROD-013

Entities, actions, history, micro-apps and capture remain correct with zero connectivity. Remote compute and gateways are optional accelerators or transports.

Evidence, not slogans

Fourteen axes, every claim cited.

Each iOS and Android cell cites a vendor security or developer source; each Agent OS target cites a canonical specification. Four structural axes are shown here.

Dimension	iOS	Android	Agent OS
System object model	App-siloed; system-visible through selected App Entities	App-siloed; ContentProviders, Intents and App Actions	System-wide durable entity graph with provenance and shared identity [AOS-ARCH-009]
User-composed interfaces	Widgets, Shortcuts and App Intents remain bounded by app-exposed surfaces and actions	Widgets, shortcuts, intents and AppFunctions remain bounded by app-provided contracts	Text/block/source builder composes signed micro-apps across AI, documents, notifications, widgets and focused modes [AOS-PROD-018] [AOS-ARCH-026]
Agent authority model	Apple Intelligence reaches app functions through App Intents; per-intent authority	Gemini reaches app functions through AppFunctions; OS-mediated	Five-rung trust ladder, explicit capabilities, budgets, previews and effect receipts [AOS-ARCH-010]
Peer / off-grid connectivity	AirDrop and peer features exist inside Apple-defined workflows; no general DTN object layer	Quick Share and nearby APIs exist; no general system object/receipt layer across constrained transports	One encrypted envelope and receipt model over local IP, Wi-Fi Direct, BLE, LoRa, gateways and delayed relay [AOS-ARCH-024]

Source: AOS-RES-013 · baseline 2026-07-16. iOS/Android cells cite vendor security/developer docs; Agent OS cells cite internal specs.

See all fourteen dimensions

Four ways in

One operating system. Choose your path.

Build the OS, build on it, back the thesis, or use it first. Each path opens the relevant product and engineering material.

01 Build the OS

Engineers on Agent OS

Kernel and platform work, entity services, micro-app runtime, Agent Mesh, capability security, hardware tracks and an evidence-gated engineering bible.

How it works

02 Build on it