Apple Intelligence & AI

You MUST use this skill for ANY Apple Intelligence or Foundation Models work.

When to Use

Use this router when:

• Implementing Apple Intelligence features
• Using Foundation Models
• Working with LanguageModelSession
• Generating structured output with @Generable
• Debugging AI generation issues
• iOS 26 on-device AI

AI Approach Triage

First, determine which kind of AI the developer needs:

Developer Intent	Route To
On-device text generation (Apple Intelligence)	Stay here → Foundation Models skills
Custom ML model deployment (PyTorch, TensorFlow) — classic Core ML	See skills/ios-ml.md (hub) → conversion / compression / training files
Custom LLM-scale / transformer model on-device (27-cycle)	See skills/core-ai.md → Core AI conversion, runtime, specialization
Computer vision (image analysis, OCR, segmentation)	/skill axiom-vision → Vision framework
Cloud API integration (OpenAI, generic HTTP)	/skill axiom-networking → URLSession patterns
Cloud Claude integration (Anthropic SDK, Messages API, Claude Agent SDK)	See claude-api skill (external) → includes automated Opus 4.6 → 4.7 migration
Turnkey Apple Intelligence UI — suggested actions for a messaging conversation (OS27)	See skills/suggested-actions.md → drop-in SuggestedActionsView, entitlement-gated
System AI features (Writing Tools, Genmoji)	No custom code needed — these are system-provided

Key boundary: Foundation Models vs ML (custom models)

• Foundation Models = Apple's on-device LLM framework (LanguageModelSession, @Generable)
• ML = Custom model deployment (CoreML conversion, quantization, MLTensor, speech-to-text)
• If developer says "run my own model" → skills/ios-ml.md. If "use Apple Intelligence" → stay here.

Training Path Boundaries

When developers say "I need to train / fine-tune / personalize a model," four distinct paths exist. They are often conflated; each has different output, lifecycle, and runtime compatibility.

Path	Trains	Output	Lifecycle	Routes to
FM custom adapter (26-cycle only — runtime obsoleted in 27.0)	Apple's frozen on-device 3B LLM (rank-32 LoRA)	.fmadapter package, ~160 MB	Build-time per OS version, delivered via Background Assets	skills/foundation-models-adapters.md (discipline) + skills/foundation-models-adapters-ref.md (toolkit + runtime) + skills/foundation-models-adapters-diag.md (failure modes); delivery via axiom-integration (skills/background-assets.md)
Core ML MLUpdateTask	Your NN-spec model's fully-connected and convolutional layers	Updated .mlmodelc saved to disk	Runtime, per-user (on-device personalization)	skills/coreml-training.md
Create ML	A new Core ML model from scratch / transfer learning	.mlmodel	Build-time, on Mac or iOS (per type)	skills/coreml-training.md
MLX LM (mlx_lm.lora)	Open-source LLMs on Apple silicon	adapters/adapters.safetensors — NOT loadable by Foundation Models	Build-time; not an iOS distribution path	External — outside Axiom scope; treat as adjacent research tool
Server LLM fine-tune	Cloud-hosted model (e.g., vendor fine-tunes)	Cloud artifact, accessed via API	Build-time; runs in cloud	/skill axiom-networking for the API integration; the fine-tune workflow is the vendor's domain

Critical distinctions:

• MLX LM output (.safetensors) cannot be loaded into a LanguageModelSession. Different toolchain, different deployment target.
• MLUpdateTask is NN-spec only — does not support ML Program (.mlpackage) models from modern PyTorch / TensorFlow conversion. This is the main reason it's rarely used in new projects.
• FM custom adapters are pinned per-base-model version (per-OS). One adapter does NOT serve every device in your install base — see the Approach Triage section in skills/foundation-models.md for the deflection ladder.

For the full "which path applies to me?" disambiguation (decision tree, the three week-costing mistakes, per-path routing) → skills/training-paths.md.

Cross-Domain Routing

Foundation Models + concurrency (session blocking main thread, UI freezes):

• Foundation Models sessions are async — blocking likely means missing await or running on @MainActor
• Fix here first using async session patterns in foundation-models skill
• If concurrency issue is broader than Foundation Models → also invoke axiom-concurrency

Foundation Models + data (@Generable decoding errors, structured output issues):

• @Generable output problems are Foundation Models-specific, NOT generic Codable issues
• Stay here → foundation-models-diag handles structured output debugging
• If developer also has general Codable/serialization questions → also invoke axiom-data

Foundation Models + security (prompt injection, securing agent tools, confirmation gating):

• Threat modeling and mitigations for agentic features (.onToolCall confirmation, .historyTransform spotlighting/redaction, lock-screen intent policy) → axiom-security (skills/agentic-security.md)
• Stay here for the API surface itself (DynamicProfile, tools, sessions)

Routing Logic

Custom Core ML Work (your own models, not Apple's LLM)

skills/ios-ml.md is the hub (deployment, runtime, speech-to-text). The lifecycle stages have dedicated files:

• Convert a trained PyTorch/TF/Keras model → skills/coreml-conversion.md (coremltools.convert, ML Program vs NN-spec, parity validation)
• Compress it → skills/coreml-compression.md (the PTQ-vs-QAT decision, palettization/quantization/pruning)
• Train from scratch / personalize on-device → skills/coreml-training.md (Create ML; MLUpdateTask and its NN-spec-only limitation)

Core AI — the 27-cycle path for LLM-scale on-device models (OS27)

skills/core-ai.md covers Core AI, the on-device inference framework that powers Apple Intelligence and is now open to your apps. Route here (not skills/ios-ml.md) when the model is LLM-scale / a transformer, or when the developer needs custom Metal kernels, multi-function assets, ahead-of-time compilation, KV-cache states, or the specialization/caching deployment model. Covers the Python toolchain (coreai-torch/coreai-opt), the Swift runtime (import CoreAI → AIModel/InferenceFunction/NDArray), specialization discipline, and the Foundation Models bridge (CoreAILanguageModel from the open-source coreai-models package — not a system-framework type).

Turnkey Apple Intelligence UI — Suggested Actions (OS27)

skills/suggested-actions.md covers the SuggestedActions framework: a drop-in SwiftUI SuggestedActionsView that renders Apple-Intelligence-generated suggested actions for a messaging conversation (iOS/macOS/macCatalyst/visionOS 27). This is a system-provided feature — you describe the message (SuggestedActionsMessage) and add the com.apple.developer.suggested-actions entitlement; there's no LanguageModelSession, prompt, or @Generable. Route here for messaging/chat/email apps that want inline system suggestions. If the developer wants to generate their own structured output, that's Foundation Models, not this. The entitlement/capability half also surfaces via axiom-integration, which cross-points back here.

Foundation Models Work

Implementation patterns → skills/foundation-models.md

• LanguageModelSession basics
• @Generable structured output
• Tool protocol integration
• Streaming with PartiallyGenerated
• Dynamic schemas
• Private Cloud Compute model + multimodal image input (OS27)
• WWDC 2025 + 2026 code examples

API reference → skills/foundation-models-ref.md

• Complete API documentation
• All @Generable examples
• Tool protocol patterns
• Streaming generation patterns
• OS27: Private Cloud Compute, multimodal Attachment + ImageReference tool args, LanguageModel protocol + capabilities, reasoning + token usage, Dynamic Profiles (full modifier surface + @SessionProperty), Dynamic Instructions, custom model providers (LanguageModelExecutor), LanguageModelError migration, built-in system tools, improved Foundation Models Instrument

Diagnostics → skills/foundation-models-diag.md

• AI response blocked
• Generation slow
• Guardrail violations
• Context limits exceeded
• Model unavailable

Guardrails & safety decisions → skills/foundation-models-guardrails.md

• When to use permissiveContentTransformations vs .default
• False-positive triage (correct refusal vs over-restrictive)
• Custom safety eval / red-team methodology
• Adapter × guardrail interaction (safety erosion)

Measuring feature quality (Evaluations framework, OS27) → skills/foundation-models-evaluations-ref.md

• Building a regression suite for an AI feature (Evaluation, Metric, Evaluator, run via Swift Testing .evaluates)
• Datasets (ModelSample/ArrayLoader) + synthesizing more (makeSamples/SampleGenerator)
• Model-as-judge for open-ended output (ModelJudgeEvaluator, ScoringScale)
• Agentic tool-call/trajectory evaluation (ToolCallEvaluator, TrajectoryExpectation)
• Hill-climbing a prompt/instruction change against an optimization-target metric

Custom adapter training (after Approach Triage rungs 1-4) → skills/foundation-models-adapters.md

• Decision discipline (when adapter training is justified vs. rungs 1-4)
• Maintenance contract (per-OS retrain burden, four-axis eval)
• Per-OS variant strategy and runtime fallback
• Dataset construction discipline
• HIG disclosure for adapter-enhanced features

Adapter toolkit & runtime API → skills/foundation-models-adapters-ref.md

• Python toolkit setup (3.11, 32 GB Apple silicon Mac or Linux GPU)
• Dataset JSONL schema (chat-turn + tool-calling extension)
• examples.train_adapter, examples.train_draft_model, examples.generate, export.export_fmadapter
• SystemLanguageModel.Adapter runtime API and AssetError cases
• Per-base-model-version compatibility matrix
• com.apple.developer.foundation-model-adapter entitlement

Adapter-specific diagnostics → skills/foundation-models-adapters-diag.md

• compatibleAdapterNotFound, invalidAdapterName, invalidAsset
• Tool calls don't fire from adapter
• Adapter consumes context window with trivial prompts
• Accuracy drops after OS update (FB18924722)
• coremltools.libmilstoragepython missing on export

Automated scanning → Launch foundation-models-auditor agent or /axiom:audit foundation-models

Detects anti-patterns AND architectural gaps:

• Missing availability checks, main-thread respond(), manual JSON parsing, missing specific error catches (guardrail / contextWindow), session created per-tap, no streaming for long output, missing @Guide constraints, nested non-@Generable types, no fallback UI
• Prompt-injection risk from direct user-text interpolation, @Generable enums without @frozen (future-case crash), missing Cancel UX, missing transcript trimming, stale availability cache after Settings toggle, partial-output validation gaps, Tool errors indistinguishable from session errors, no retry on transient errors

Scores: PRODUCTION-READY / NEEDS HARDENING / FRAGILE

Decision Tree

1. Custom ML model / CoreML? → skills/ios-ml.md hub → convert (coreml-conversion.md), compress (coreml-compression.md), or train/personalize (coreml-training.md). LLM-scale / transformer / 27-cycle custom model? → skills/core-ai.md (Core AI)
2. Computer vision / image analysis / OCR? → /skill axiom-vision
3. Cloud AI API integration? → /skill axiom-networking
4. Implementing Foundation Models / @Generable / Tool protocol? → foundation-models
5. Need API reference / code examples? → foundation-models-ref
6. Debugging AI issues (blocked, slow, guardrails)? → foundation-models-diag
7. Foundation Models + UI freezing? → foundation-models (async patterns) + also invoke axiom-concurrency if needed
8. Considering training a custom adapter? → foundation-models Approach Triage (rungs 1-4) FIRST; only after documented rung-1-4 failures → foundation-models-adapters
9. Implementing adapter loading, training pipeline, or runtime selection? → foundation-models-adapters + foundation-models-adapters-ref + axiom-integration (skills/background-assets.md) for delivery
10. Debugging adapter-specific failures (compatibleAdapterNotFound, tool calls don't fire from adapter, accuracy regression after OS update)? → foundation-models-adapters-diag
11. Want automated Foundation Models code scan? → foundation-models-auditor (Agent — detects 10 anti-patterns AND completeness gaps including prompt injection, frozen-enum discipline, transcript trimming, Cancel UX; scores PRODUCTION-READY / NEEDS HARDENING / FRAGILE)
12. Measuring whether an AI feature improved/regressed, or building an eval/regression suite (incl. agentic tool-call eval)? → foundation-models-evaluations-ref (OS27 Evaluations framework)
13. Adding Apple's built-in suggested actions to a messaging/chat/email app (SuggestedActionsView, suggested-actions entitlement)? → skills/suggested-actions.md (OS27 — turnkey, system-provided; NOT Foundation Models)

Anti-Rationalization

Thought	Reality
"Foundation Models is just LanguageModelSession"	Foundation Models has @Generable, Tool protocol, streaming, and guardrails. foundation-models covers all.
"I'll figure out the AI patterns as I go"	AI APIs have specific error handling and fallback requirements. foundation-models prevents runtime failures.
"I've used LLMs before, this is similar"	Apple's on-device models have unique constraints (guardrails, context limits). foundation-models is Apple-specific.
"I know the Anthropic SDK already"	Opus 4.7 removed temperature, top_p, top_k, and prefill from the Messages API. Code that worked on 4.6 returns HTTP 400 at runtime. Read claude-api (external) before changing model IDs.
"We need to train a custom adapter to fix the model's outputs"	Most "we need an adapter" requests resolve via rungs 1-4 of the Approach Triage (prompt engineering, @Generable/@Guide, tool calling, built-in content-tagging adapter). foundation-models has the ladder; foundation-models-adapters is only justified after each rung's failure is documented.
"We trained one adapter, ship it for all our users"	Each .fmadapter pins to one base-model version; one adapter does not cover a multi-OS install base. foundation-models-adapters covers per-OS variant strategy and compatibleAdapterIdentifiers(name:) runtime selection.
"Skip locale-specific eval, our users are mostly English-speaking"	Apple's 2025 tech report groups eval as English-US / English-outside-US / PFIGSCJK. English-only eval against a multi-locale app ships invisible non-English regressions. foundation-models-adapters covers the four-axis eval requirement.
"Just bundle the .fmadapter file in the app"	Apple's docs explicitly prohibit this. Adapters ship via Background Assets onDemand policy. axiom-integration (skills/background-assets.md) covers the delivery half.
"We'll add a custom adapter for our iOS 27 app"	The custom-adapter runtime (SystemLanguageModel.Adapter) is obsoleted in 27.0 and does not compile on a 27 deployment target — no replacement in the 27 SDK. foundation-models-adapters covers the pivot: rungs 1-4 or a custom provider (LanguageModelExecutor).

External Resources

Cloud Claude integration (claude-api skill, ships outside Axiom). Opus 4.7 removed temperature, top_p, top_k, and prefill from the Messages API — code that built successfully on 4.6 returns HTTP 400 at runtime, not compile time. The claude-api skill automates the migration (model ID swap, sampling-param removal, prefill replacement) and enforces prompt caching from day one. Skipping it costs an afternoon of production debugging when the first 400s arrive.

Apple's on-device Foundation Models and Anthropic's cloud Claude are unrelated stacks; use both in parallel when an app needs both, and treat claude-api as mandatory reading before any Claude model-ID change ships.

Critical Patterns

foundation-models:

• LanguageModelSession setup
• @Generable for structured output
• Tool protocol for function calling
• Streaming generation
• Dynamic schema evolution

foundation-models-diag:

• Blocked response handling
• Performance optimization
• Guardrail violations
• Context management

Example Invocations

User: "How do I use Apple Intelligence to generate structured data?" → Read: skills/foundation-models.md

User: "My AI generation is being blocked" → Read: skills/foundation-models-diag.md

User: "Show me @Generable examples" → Read: skills/foundation-models-ref.md

User: "Implement streaming AI generation" → Read: skills/foundation-models.md

User: "I want to add AI to my app" → First ask: Apple Intelligence (Foundation Models) or custom ML model? Route accordingly.

User: "My Foundation Models session is blocking the UI" → Read: skills/foundation-models.md (async patterns) + also invoke axiom-concurrency if needed

User: "Review my Foundation Models code for issues" → Invoke: foundation-models-auditor agent

User: "I want to run my PyTorch model on device" → Read: skills/ios-ml.md (classic Core ML conversion, not Foundation Models)

User: "I want to run my own LLM / SAM segmentation model on device" / "convert a PyTorch transformer with Core AI" / "my Core AI model stalls on first launch" → Read: skills/core-ai.md (Core AI conversion, runtime, specialization & caching)

User: "How do I train a custom adapter for our app's summarization?" → Read: skills/foundation-models.md (Approach Triage rungs 1-4 FIRST), then skills/foundation-models-adapters.md only if rung-1-4 failures are documented

User: "Our adapter loaded fine on iOS 26.0 but throws compatibleAdapterNotFound on 26.1" → Read: skills/foundation-models-adapters-diag.md (Pattern 1)

User: "What's the toolkit setup for adapter training?" → Read: skills/foundation-models-adapters-ref.md (Toolkit Setup)

User: "How do we ship a custom adapter to users?" → Read: skills/foundation-models-adapters.md (runtime lifecycle) + axiom-integration (skills/background-assets.md) (delivery)

User: "How do I measure if my prompt change made the tagging feature better?" / "Write an eval suite for my AI feature" → Read: skills/foundation-models-evaluations-ref.md (Evaluations framework — Metrics, Swift Testing .evaluates, model-as-judge, tool-call eval)

User: "Add Apple's suggested actions to my messaging app" / "Show smart/on-device suggested replies for a message thread" / "What's the com.apple.developer.suggested-actions entitlement for?" → Read: skills/suggested-actions.md (turnkey SuggestedActionsView, system-provided — not Foundation Models)