Sable

Native macOS cockpit for AI agents

Features • Installation • Architecture • Contributing • License

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Early Alpha — Sable is under active development. Core features work but expect rough edges, UI bugs, and breaking changes. If you're okay with that, contributions are very welcome — there's plenty to fix and improve.

Sable is a native macOS desktop application that serves as a unified cockpit for interacting with AI agents through the OpenClaw framework. Built entirely with SwiftUI and SwiftData — zero external dependencies.

Think of it as a local-first, privacy-respecting alternative to web-based AI chat interfaces, with deep integration into agent workflows, tool execution, and multi-provider support.

Features

Chat

• Real-time SSE streaming with typewriter rendering — not fake delays, actual server-sent events
• Tool call visibility — see what the agent is doing (searching, reading, executing) in real time
• Reasoning blocks — collapsible thinking process display for reasoning models
• Auto-retry — transient failures (timeouts, 502/503) retry automatically with exponential backoff, like Claude and ChatGPT
• Rich content — Markdown rendering, code blocks with syntax differentiation, image attachments, file uploads
• Message actions — copy, regenerate, delete via hover overlay (no clutter)

Multi-Provider

• OpenClaw Gateway — primary channel via /v1/responses API (SSE streaming)
• Direct API — Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, Moonshot Kimi, Ollama
• Model discovery — auto-detect available models from each provider
• API keys — stored in macOS Keychain, never in config files

Agent Management

• Browse, configure, and edit OpenClaw agents
• Skill browser with one-click installation
• Real-time gateway health monitoring

Design

• Monochrome design system — zero accent colors, hierarchy through opacity and weight
• Dark & Light mode — full support with semantic color tokens
• Localization — English and Chinese
• Menu bar extra — quick access from the system tray

Installation

Requirements

• macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later
• XcodeGen (brew install xcodegen)
• Xcode 16+
• OpenClaw (for gateway features)

Build from Source

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/Dglsel/Sable.git
cd Sable

# Generate Xcode project
xcodegen generate

# Open in Xcode and build (⌘B), or:
xcodebuild -project Sable.xcodeproj -scheme Sable -destination 'platform=macOS' build

Configure OpenClaw (Optional)

If you want to use the OpenClaw gateway for agent features:

# Install OpenClaw
curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash

# Start the gateway
openclaw gateway start

Sable reads gateway configuration from ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json automatically.

You can also use Sable as a standalone chat client by configuring provider API keys directly in Settings.

Architecture

Sable/
├── App/                    # Entry point, DI container, window management
├── Features/               # Feature modules
│   ├── Chat/              # Message list, composer, streaming, typewriter
│   ├── Dashboard/         # Gateway status, health monitoring
│   ├── Agents/            # Agent browser & editor
│   ├── Skills/            # Skill browser & installer
│   ├── Settings/          # Provider config, appearance, data management
│   ├── Sidebar/           # Navigation, conversation history
│   └── MenuBar/           # System tray panel
├── Core/                   # Shared infrastructure
│   ├── DesignSystem/      # Tokens: theme, typography, spacing, animation
│   ├── Models/            # SwiftData entities (Conversation, Message)
│   ├── Types/             # Value types, enums, configuration
│   └── Utilities/         # Helpers
├── Services/               # Service layer
│   ├── OpenClaw/          # Gateway client, ACP protocol, SSE streaming
│   ├── Providers/         # Multi-provider abstraction (Anthropic, OpenAI, etc.)
│   ├── Security/          # Keychain integration
│   └── Persistence/       # SwiftData container management
└── Resources/              # Assets, localization strings

Key Design Decisions

Decision	Rationale
Zero dependencies	No SPM packages — ships with only Apple frameworks
SwiftData over Core Data	Type-safe, modern persistence with @Model macro
SSE over WebSocket	Simpler protocol, better compatibility with HTTP infrastructure
Monochrome UI	Intentional differentiation — content takes center stage
XcodeGen	Reproducible project generation, no .xcodeproj conflicts in git
Keychain for secrets	OS-level encryption, never stored in files or UserDefaults

Streaming Pipeline

User Input
  → URLContentFetcher (extract web content from URLs in prompt)
  → OpenResponsesService (POST /v1/responses, SSE stream)
  → StreamEvent enum (.delta, .toolCall, .reasoningDelta, .completed, .retrying)
  → ChatHomeView (state management, message accumulation)
  → TypewriterState (character-by-character rendering at 60fps)
  → MessageListView (LazyVStack + auto-scroll)

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Here's how to get started:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Make your changes
4. Run xcodegen generate if you added/removed files
5. Build and test (⌘B in Xcode)
6. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
7. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
8. Open a Pull Request

Known Issues

This is an early alpha. Known bugs and rough edges include:

• Scroll behavior — auto-scroll can be unreliable in long conversations; scroll-to-bottom button may not appear consistently
• Streaming edge cases — typewriter animation occasionally fails to render, showing content all at once
• Conversation switching — switching between conversations can sometimes cause blank content or stale state
• ThinkingIndicator — may not display correctly after certain tool call sequences
• Settings UI — some pickers don't refresh immediately after language switch
• Code blocks — syntax highlighting is minimal (monochrome only, no language detection yet)

Areas That Need Help

• Bug fixes — see Known Issues above, all of these are open for PRs
• Unit tests — test coverage is minimal, especially for services and parsing logic
• Accessibility — VoiceOver support, keyboard navigation
• Performance — LazyVStack optimization for very long conversations (1000+ messages)
• Localization — additional language support beyond English and Chinese
• Code syntax highlighting — monochrome weight/opacity-based differentiation

Code Style

• Swift 6 strict concurrency — all @MainActor annotations are intentional
• Design tokens are defined in Core/DesignSystem/ — never hardcode colors, fonts, or spacing
• Read DESIGN.md before making visual changes

License

MIT — use it however you want.