r14n — Regulatory Localization

r14n — Regulatory Localization is Squillo's substrate for regulatory compliance controls, abbreviated the way i18n abbreviates internationalization. It answers one question the same way everywhere in the system: which compliance controls apply here and now.

Why it exists

Software looks up a user-facing string for the active locale instead of hardcoding it. A compliance rule varies the same way. Whether a recording needs all-party consent, whether an AI session must be disclosed, whether a class of data may leave a jurisdiction — these are facts about where you are, who is involved, and what is being done, not facts about the code. Without one substrate, jurisdiction checks scatter, can disagree with one another, and cannot be reviewed by counsel. r14n replaces the scatter with one resolver:

r14n : controls :: i18n : strings

How it works

r14n binds (scope × stakeholders × jurisdiction) to the set of controls that apply. The controls live in packs: small declarative policy files, one per compliance domain per regulatory profile. A control is one requirement — obtain all-party consent, disclose the AI session, keep this on-device — and a pack declares which of them a given subject requires. A pack is data, not code, so the people responsible for compliance can read, diff, and review it. r14n is an OS-wide substrate: it spans permissions, vaults, and every feature that must answer to a regulator.

Failing in the right direction

r14n fails restrictive. When no reviewed pack governs a question — the pack is missing, malformed, or the jurisdiction cannot be resolved — the resolver degrades to the Aggressive floor: it requires every control the calling feature declared it could enforce, and records that no reviewed policy governed the decision. Absent knowledge resolves to maximum caution, never to permission. A missing pack makes Squillo more restrictive, not less.

What r14n does not claim

r14n resolves which controls apply. It does not make anyone legally compliant, and Squillo does not claim otherwise. A pack carries its legal-review status on its face. A pack counsel has not reviewed and approved advises rather than enforces: it can surface a concern and ask a person, but hard enforcement is reserved for the fail-closed floor and for counsel-approved policy. Squillo does not assert a compliance guarantee it cannot demonstrate; it ships an auditable convention for resolving controls, and any stronger claim requires legal review recorded in the pack itself.

What you might notice

r14n is not a screen you visit; it gates other operations. When a feature behaves differently in your region, asks for an extra consent, or declines an otherwise-valid request, that is r14n. Agents follow the same rule as the software: an agent surfaces a regulatory restriction to its user; it never disables or bypasses a control to complete a task.

Names, and the open specification

r14n is the approved name, in legal and formal contexts alike. The specification is opening publicly at github.com/squillo/r14n. It is forthcoming at the time of this writing; this page will link it once it is live.

Last verified: 2026-09-16