MODEL-OS · MAPPING 03 / 05
Syscall Tool call
SYSCALL ⇢ TOOL CALL
From trapping into the kernel, to calling the world.
The system call is a narrow gate between userland and the kernel: three hundred numbered calls, a binary ABI for a contract, errno for bad news. It reaches only what the kernel deigns to abstract — files, sockets, memory pages.
The tool call opens that gate onto the world. A search engine, a payment gateway, a robotic arm — each declares itself with a structured schema, and the schema is the new ABI. The call table is no longer hard-coded in the kernel: it is open, discoverable, extensible. Sandboxing and audit are not afterthoughts but properties every call is born with.
Syscall
- Fixed call table
- Trap to privileged mode
- errno return codes
- Binary ABI
Tool call
- Open tool table
- Sandboxed execution
- Structured feedback
- Schema contract
LIVE · THE SAME JOB, SAID TWO WAYS
Schema is the ABI
Tools self-describe with typed schemas; the model calls them by reading the docs. The contract moves from binary layout to semantics.
Audit is the log stream
Input, output, and authorizer of every call leave a trail — security review shifts from kernel source to call traces.
Sandbox by default
Side effects are graded: reads run free, writes run sandboxed, irreversible acts require a human — built into the runtime.