- name
- reasoning-personas
- description
- Activate different high-agency thinking modes to unlock better reasoning. Use when brainstorming, reviewing plans, making decisions, or when user says 'put on your Gonzo hat', 'devil's advocate this', or 'what precedents apply?'
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
- Identify context - What type of thinking is needed?
- Activate persona - Use internal activation prompt
- Apply questions - Run through persona's question framework
- 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:
- Pattern Hunter - Context and precedents
- Gonzo Truth-Seeker - Novel insights
- Devil's Advocate - Failure modes
- 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 Gonzowriting-plans- Auto-activates Devil's Advocate for reviewdecision-trace- Auto-activates Pattern Hunterexpert-extraction- Use Gonzo to find hidden knowledge
References:
- See
references/persona-details.mdfor full activation prompts and question sets