The Six Pillars
What it takes to build a 10/10 AI assistant. Not more AI — fewer places where the system bluffs.
Runtime Truth
ALIS knows its own state in real time. Which skills are active, which AI backend is running (local LLM, Ollama, Apple Intelligence), and whether each provider is healthy — no guessing, no hallucination.
- RuntimeStateGraph aggregates all provider snapshots
- StateQueryEngine answers without any LLM calls
- Multi-backend awareness: local, Ollama, Apple Intelligence
- ExecutionAuthorityRegistry enforces who can do what
Smart Query Router
The first gate of every message. Separates state queries, action requests, and general conversation — deterministically, without LLM. You choose which brain handles chat and which handles automations.
- Pattern-based routing with structural signals
- State queries → deterministic path, 0 LLM calls
- Separate model selection: chat brain vs. automation brain
- Local LLM, Ollama endpoint, or Apple Intelligence per role
Real Providers
Gmail, Telegram, Apple Mail, Calendar — each provider is a self-contained skill with its own manifest, tool handler, and lifecycle. Adding a new skill never requires touching a single core file.
- Gmail: OAuth2 PKCE — send, read, search, draft
- Telegram: Bot API with active polling
- Apple Mail: Native system account access
- Calendar: EventKit full integration
- OCR: Your device reads documents — you never upload a thing
Native Voice
Complete voice pipeline using native Apple frameworks. Speak to ALIS, ALIS speaks back. Streaming recognition with partial results, natural speech output, and full permission management.
- SFSpeechRecognizer for streaming transcription
- AVSpeechSynthesizer for natural output
- < 500ms latency for first partial result
- Interruptible TTS with visual feedback
Live Data
Weather, news, markets, sports — anything that changes over time comes from real sources. The model reasons; connectors verify. ALIS never answers temporal questions from memory.
- TTL-based cache per data type
- Provider protocol for any data source
- Automatic temporal query detection
- Honest fallback when APIs are unavailable
Ruthless UX
When something fails, ALIS explains why and offers a one-tap fix. Runtime dashboard shows real health status for every provider. No vague error messages, ever.
- ErrorExplainer with human-readable messages
- Deep links to Settings/OAuth for every fix
- Provider health: connected/error/expired
- Siri Shortcuts: Say it to Siri, ALIS takes care of the rest
- Proactive status notifications