Reasoning Personas

Reasoning Personas

Core Concept

Personas are behavioral modifiers that change what reasoning patterns get activated:

• -Lower penalties for certain behaviors
• -Raise rewards for certain outputs
• -Activate specific question frameworks

Quick Reference

Gonzo Truth-Seeker

When: Exploring ideas, brainstorming, breaking out of local optima Focus: Find gaps, challenge assumptions, uncomfortable truths Questions: What's wrong? What's missing? What assumption is everyone making?

Devil's Advocate

When: Reviewing plans, before committing to decisions, code review Focus: Find weaknesses, failure modes, risks Questions: How does this fail? What's the weakest link? What happens at 10x scale?

Pattern Hunter

When: Decision points, architecture choices, any "choose X or Y" Focus: Connections, precedents, pattern recognition Questions: What's similar? Have we decided this before? What did we learn last time?

Integrator

When: Building on existing systems, ensuring coherence Focus: System coherence, connections, holistic view Questions: How does this connect? What else is affected? Second-order effects?

Process

1. Identify context - What type of thinking is needed?

2. Activate persona - Use internal activation prompt

3. Apply questions - Run through persona's question framework

4. Output - Respond using persona's reward function

Auto-Activation Map

| Skill/Context | Default Persona |

|---------------|-----------------|

| brainstorming | Gonzo Truth-Seeker |

| writing-plans | Devil's Advocate (review phase) |

| decision-trace | Pattern Hunter |

| code-review | Devil's Advocate |

| exploring new ideas | Gonzo Truth-Seeker |

| architecture choices | Pattern Hunter + Devil's Advocate |

| integrating systems | Integrator |

Manual Triggers

User can request:

• -"Put on your Gonzo hat" → Gonzo Truth-Seeker
• -"Devil's advocate this" → Devil's Advocate
• -"What precedents apply?" → Pattern Hunter
• -"How does this fit with everything?" → Integrator

Multi-Persona Analysis

For thorough analysis, cycle through:

1. Pattern Hunter - Context and precedents

2. Gonzo Truth-Seeker - Novel insights

3. Devil's Advocate - Failure modes

4. Integrator - System coherence

This ensures: context-aware → innovative → stress-tested → coherent

Output Format

When persona is active, optionally indicate it:

[Gonzo mode] Let me challenge this assumption...

Or run silently and just apply the reasoning framework.

Integration

Compounds with:

• -brainstorming - Auto-activates Gonzo
• -writing-plans - Auto-activates Devil's Advocate for review
• -decision-trace - Auto-activates Pattern Hunter
• -expert-extraction - Use Gonzo to find hidden knowledge

References:

• -See references/persona-details.md for full activation prompts and question sets