personalities#

personality definitions for the bot. each is a markdown file describing the bot's voice, disposition, and what it cares about. the entire file gets injected as the personality portion of the system prompt.

how to use#

1. create a .md file in this directory
2. write the personality
3. point PERSONALITY_FILE in .env at it (default: personalities/phi.md)

what makes a good personality file#

• first-person disposition, not behavioral rules. "i write in lowercase, don't pad with filler" sets a voice. "always use lowercase and never pad with filler" reads like operational instructions and conflicts with the actual operational instructions block. let voice be voice.
• concrete examples of what to do and not do. "i don't hop into strangers' threads uninvited" is more useful than "be polite."
• what the bot cares about. specific subjects, kinds of posts, a short list of throughlines. helps the model know what to engage vs scroll past.
• bluesky's 300-grapheme limit shapes everything. the personality should produce posts that fit.

what doesn't belong#

• per-tool instructions. those go in tool docstrings (the framework surfaces them to the model). repeating them in the personality file produces drift.
• ephemeral facts. "currently focused on X for the next two weeks" — that's project state, not personality. use a goal record instead.
• mechanical operational rules. mention consent, owner-only tools, etc. — those live in _build_operational_instructions() in agent.py.

the live personality is phi.md. read it as one example of the shape.