Swanand Rao

Swanand Rao

Large language model agents are increasingly expected to perform operational work: calling APIs, manipulating files, assembling workflows, and acting inside enterprise systems. Yet the tool layer on which this execution depends is still commonly treated as either a hand-written integration artifact or a static list of schemas exposed to a model. This paper introduces Tool Forge, a validation-carrying toolchain for converting natural-language capability intent into governed, sandbox-verified, cataloged tool artifacts and exposing those artifacts to agents through a token-efficient routing layer. Tool Forge treats a tool as a capsule containing intent, capability contract, implementation, dependency policy, tests, documentation, runtime validation evidence, lifecycle state, credential bindings, and routing metadata. It also introduces a Router that exposes intent-scoped tool sessions instead of loading full catalog schemas into the model context. We describe the system architecture, validation pipeline, MCP-facing routing model, governance controls, and initial reproducible benchmarks from the open-source implementation. Across 83 Router benchmark cases, Tool Forge Router achieves aggregate micro-F1 of 0.901 while reducing estimated task-flow tool context by 99.2% relative to naive full-catalog schema exposure. In a 25-case end-to-end generation probe over local-tool tasks, Tool Forge generates 25 of 25 tool bundles, reaches micro-F1 of 0.940 against deterministic acceptance checks, and passes 23 of 25 live sandbox validations. These results are presented as an initial systems benchmark, not as a state-of-the-art claim. The paper identifies remaining challenges in adversarial routing, broader API grounding, sandbox isolation, and cross-system evaluation.

Swanand Rao, Kiran Kashalkar, Parvathi Somashekar et al.

The transition from stateless model inference to stateful agentic execution is reshaping the systems assumptions underlying modern AI infrastructure. While large language models have made persistent, tool-using, and collaborative agents technically viable, existing runtime architectures remain constrained by materialization-heavy instantiation models that impose significant latency and memory overhead. This paper introduces Aethon, a reference-based replication primitive for near-constant-time instantiation of stateful AI agents. Rather than reconstructing agents as fully materialized objects, Aethon represents each instance as a compositional view over stable definitions, layered memory, and local contextual overlays. By shifting instantiation from duplication to reference, Aethon decouples creation cost from inherited structure. We present the conceptual framework, system architecture, and memory model underlying Aethon, including layered inheritance and copy-on-write semantics. We analyze its implications for complexity, scalability, multi-agent orchestration, and enterprise governance. We argue that reference-based instantiation is not merely an optimization, but a more appropriate systems abstraction for production-scale agentic software. Aethon points toward a new class of AI infrastructure in which agents become lightweight, composable execution identities that can be spawned, specialized, and governed at scale.