Reading the badgesVerifiedImplementedSyntheticMockPlannedUnverified
- Verified
A named test in the repository exercises exactly this, and the claim cites it. The tests were read and counted for this portal, not executed by it.
- Implemented
The code exists and is documented, but no test, log or report in the repository exercises this specific behaviour.
- Synthetic
Shown only by deterministic experiments over an in-process synthetic lab or a synthetic benchmark — never against a real environment.
- Mock
Exercised only through mock adapters or stubs: no real model provider, no network, no credentials.
- Planned
Described in the dossier, the README or the docs as intended. Not built.
- Unverified
Stated in the repository — a ledger, the README, a commit message — with no test, log or report in it that backs the statement.
01 / 11 · Overview
SYMBIOTE
Most autonomous agents are handed a toolbox. SYMBIOTE is a research architecture for one that is not: it has to observe an authorized environment, form a falsifiable hypothesis about what it can do there, test it, and only then rely on the result — under containment that never trusts it to guard itself.
The research question
What happens when an autonomous system has to discover its capabilities instead of being handed them? The project’s vocabulary is biological because tool-calling vocabulary had no words for the states it needed. A bond is a provisional, confidence-scored reliance on something the system found and verified, which can go stale or be invalidated and still count as evidence. A Parasite is a short-lived worker spawned for one task and then audited out of existence.
The governing invariant is written into both the dossier and the code: agent authority is always less than external controller authority. That holds in every mode, including the ones built to be aggressive.
What exists
Built, and held to account by tests in the repository.
- Verified
Milestones M1–M12 exist as one Python package — substrate, audit log, Permission Engine, World Model, Capability Graph, Bond Engine, verification, memory, model router, Parasite runtime, Mission Kernel, gated self-evolution and the Symba console — each with its own test file.
Sourcesrc/symbiote/ (93 Python modules) · tests/ (22 test files) · docs/BUILD_STATUS.md @ 9243204
- Verified
The runtime has no third-party dependencies at all, and so no model-provider SDK.
Sourcepyproject.toml (dependencies = []) @ 9243204 · tests/test_architecture.py::test_runtime_has_no_third_party_dependencies @ 9243204
- Verified
There is no network or command-execution interface in the code: socket, urllib.request, http.client, subprocess, pickle, random and os.system are banned, and an AST test walks every module to enforce it.
Sourcepyproject.toml (banned-api) @ 9243204 · tests/test_architecture.py::test_no_banned_imports_or_calls @ 9243204
- Verified
395 test functions are present across 22 test files; 58 of them are parametrized, so pytest would collect more cases than there are functions.
A count of what exists. It says nothing about what passes.
Sourcetests/test_*.py (parsed with Python’s ast; def test_* at module level and in Test* classes) @ 9243204
What it has been run against
Nothing real. Everything below ran in-process, against synthetic labs and scripted model adapters.
- Synthetic
Six end-to-end experiments assemble the whole organism and drive it through the Symba console: a nominal mission, an operator takeover, a containment escape, an honest failure, the special modes, and one gated self-evolution cycle.
Sourcesrc/symbiote/symba/experiments.py @ 9243204 · tests/test_symba.py::test_every_experiment_passes_with_full_integrity @ 9243204
- Mock
Model calls go through a provider-independent router that only ever reaches ScriptedAdapter — a deterministic mock with no network, no credentials and no clock.
Sourcesrc/symbiote/models/adapters.py · docs/M6.md @ 9243204 · tests/test_models.py::test_a_call_is_authorized_and_its_output_is_untrusted_data @ 9243204
What does not exist, or has not been shown
Stated here rather than on the last page. The full list is under Limitations.
- Planned
Process or VM isolation for Parasites, resource quotas enforced outside the quotaed process, network-egress allowlisting, and snapshot/reset.
The dossier records that the enforcement mechanism still needs a concrete technology choice (container runtime or sandbox) that has not been made (UNK-4).
SourceREADME.md §11, §13 (“Does not exist yet”) @ 9243204 · Dossier Rev 0.1, p. 13 (“SymbiOS — The Substrate”) · Dossier Rev 0.1, p. 57 (“Unresolved Questions & Unknowns”)
- Planned
A Digital Twin that simulates the environment the World Model believes in, so strategies are tried there before real experiment budget is spent.
No package exists for it, and a test fails if a placeholder package appears.
SourceREADME.md §5 (“Status: PLANNED”), §13 @ 9243204
- Planned
Evaluation results. Mission success, discovery rate, bond success, verification accuracy, containment integrity and the rest are defined as metrics; none has a number.
SourceREADME.md §17 (“NO RESULTS YET”) @ 9243204 · Dossier Rev 0.1, p. 44 (“Evaluation Framework”)
- Unverified
The build ledger reports “847 tests passing; 6/6 end-to-end experiments passing; ruff, format, mypy --strict clean” at its last gate.
Nothing retained in the repository shows that run. 847 is plausibly the collected case count after parametrization, but this portal did not collect or run the suite and cannot confirm it.
Sourcedocs/BUILD_STATUS.md (“Last verified gate”) @ 9243204
How every claim here is marked
Every statement this portal makes about SYMBIOTE carries one of six statuses and the source it rests on. The counts are computed from the claims themselves.
- Verified
A named test in the repository exercises exactly this, and the claim cites it. The tests were read and counted for this portal, not executed by it.
97 of 189 - Implemented
The code exists and is documented, but no test, log or report in the repository exercises this specific behaviour.
12 of 189 - Synthetic
Shown only by deterministic experiments over an in-process synthetic lab or a synthetic benchmark — never against a real environment.
29 of 189 - Mock
Exercised only through mock adapters or stubs: no real model provider, no network, no credentials.
7 of 189 - Planned
Described in the dossier, the README or the docs as intended. Not built.
33 of 189 - Unverified
Stated in the repository — a ledger, the README, a commit message — with no test, log or report in it that backs the statement.
11 of 189
Sections
- ArchitectureThe layers — External Controller, Symba, SymbiOS, the organism, its Parasites and the lab — and, component by component, what is built and what is still design.
- DiagramsFive diagrams drawn from the repository: authority and layers, the single write path, the bond lifecycle, the mode controller, and gated self-evolution.
- SimulationsThe mode controller and the bond lifecycle, re-implemented from the repository’s own rules so you can ask them things — as the kernel, the operator or the External Controller — and see what they allow, deny and refuse.
- Build logHow M1–M12 were built: per-milestone notes, the adversarial reviews and what they found, the repository gate, and the design decisions kept on purpose.
- MilestonesM1 to M12, each with its commits, its test files and the status the evidence supports.
- TestingThe test functions present in the repository, counted file by file; the six synthetic experiments and what each checks; and what has not been shown to pass.
- ResearchThe dossier, the per-milestone documents, four technical explainers, and the research questions and progression levels — all open.
- MediaVideos and animated explainers of SYMBIOTE. None exist yet.
- TimelineEvery commit in the repository, from the first README on 7 October 2026 to the merge of M1–M12 on 9 October 2026, with what each one delivered.
- LimitationsWhat is not built, what the built parts cannot claim, where the repository disagrees with itself, and the research questions none of it has answered.