The orb
ORBIS could have been a text box. It's an orb because a voice companion should feel present — something you glance at and instantly read, the way you read a face. This page explains what the orb is and why it's built the way it is.
For the controls, see the Orb reference.
A face, not a chrome
The orb isn't decoration around the "real" app — it is the app's surface. It reflects what ORBIS is doing at a glance:
- Idle — at rest, breathing slowly.
- Listening — engaged with your voice.
- Thinking — working on a turn (a tool call, a delegation).
- Speaking — voicing a reply.
It also reacts to sound — the orb moves with the audio envelope — so a reply looks like it's being spoken, not just played.
Variants and palettes
Two layers of customization:
- A variant is a whole rendering style — fractal, crystal, galaxy, nebula, and so on. Each is a self-contained visual with its own parameters.
- A palette is a named colour scheme within a variant. Every variant also carries the ProtoLabs palette — the brand lavender→indigo — so you can make any orb on-brand in one click.
From there, individual parameters (colour, energy, motion) let you make the orb yours, and you can save the result as a preset.
Why a plugin system
Each variant is an independent plugin over a shared signal bus: voice state, audio envelopes, an idle "breath," and gestures are provided to every variant, and each one decides how to express them. That's why there are eight very different orbs that all react identically to your voice — and why new ones can be added without touching the rest of the app.
State, not just style
Because the orb is the status surface, its look can shift per state — subtly brighter or more active while listening, for instance. The authoring context lets you tune those state-specific looks separately from the base.