agent-keyboard

May 13, 2026 · View on GitHub

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agent-keyboard

agent-keyboard is an Android IME — a full keyboard you can use day-to-day — that also exposes a secure AIDL API so a co-signed agent app can type, read, and navigate the active text field in any app, on any screen, without needing an Accessibility Service.

It is a fork of FlorisBoard. All upstream keyboard behaviour (layouts, themes, clipboard manager, emoji panel, extensions, etc.) is preserved unchanged. The only addition is the agent API backend.

Why a keyboard?

The keyboard is the canonical Android entry point for writing into a text field: as the active IME you already hold a live InputConnection for the focused editor. Routing agent input through the IME means no Accessibility Service, no overlay tricks, no per-app integrations — if the field accepts typing, the agent can drive it.

API surface

AIDL is defined in IKeyboardApi.aidl:

Method	Purpose
`connect()`	Handshake. Returns a session token.
`getApiVersion()`	Protocol version.
`typeText(token, text)`	Commit text into the active field.
`pressKey(token, keyCode)`	Send a `KeyEvent` (e.g. `KEYCODE_ENTER`).
`deleteChars(token, count)`	Delete N chars backward.
`clearField(token)`	Empty the field.
`getCurrentText(token)`	Return full field contents.
`getSelectedText(token)`	Return current selection.
`getEditorInfo(token)`	Hint, input type, package name, password flag, selection.
`setCursorPosition(token, pos)`	Move the caret.
`selectRange(token, start, end)`	Select a range.

Security model

Layer	Mechanism
Caller identity	`signature`-level permission `dev.patrickgold.florisboard.permission.AGENT_KEYBOARD_API`. Only apps signed with the same key as the keyboard can bind. Enforced by the OS.
Session binding	A fresh token is issued per bind via `connect()` and required on every subsequent call. Tokens are revoked when the binding drops.
Rate limiting	Token-bucket limiter, 120 chars/s sustained, 240 burst — bounds runaway agents.
Field sensitivity	Password and other sensitive input types are refused. The agent gets a clear `false` / `null` back.

Connecting from an agent app

The agent app must:

Be signed with the same keystore as agent-keyboard.
Declare <uses-permission android:name="dev.patrickgold.florisboard.permission.AGENT_KEYBOARD_API"/>.
Ship a copy of the .aidl files under the same package path (dev/patrickgold/florisboard/api/).
Bind to the service:

val intent = Intent("dev.patrickgold.florisboard.api.action.BIND").apply {
    setPackage("dev.patrickgold.florisboard")
}
context.bindService(intent, connection, Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE)

In onServiceConnected, call IKeyboardApi.Stub.asInterface(binder).connect() and reuse the returned token on subsequent calls.

The IME must, of course, be set as the user's active keyboard for any of the text actions to take effect.

Building

Standard Gradle build, same toolchain as upstream FlorisBoard:

./gradlew :app:assembleDebug

The agent API service is included in every build variant.

Credits

This project is a fork of FlorisBoard, a free and open-source keyboard for Android by patrickgold and The FlorisBoard Contributors. All keyboard functionality in this repo — layouts, themes, clipboard manager, emoji handling, extensions, spell checking, the entire IME pipeline — is their work. The agent-keyboard fork only adds the AIDL API backend on top.

Upstream project: https://github.com/florisboard/florisboard

Used libraries, components and icons (from upstream)

AndroidX libraries by Android Jetpack
AboutLibraries by mikepenz
Google Material icons by Google
JetPref preference library by patrickgold
KotlinX coroutines library by Kotlin
KotlinX serialization library by Kotlin

Many thanks to Nikolay Anzarov (@BloodRaven0) for designing and providing the main app icons to the upstream project.

License

Copyright 2020-2026 The FlorisBoard Contributors
Copyright 2026 ExTV (agent-keyboard fork)

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.

Thanks to The FlorisBoard Contributors for making this project possible.