Persona System

On-demand persona invocation for applying named perspectives to any task.
Personas are behavioral modifiers — they change the lens through which a task
is executed, not the tools available.

Runtime

Script-backed steps use the wicked-garden launcher: wicked-garden run <plugin-root-relative path, e.g. scripts/…> [args]. It is on PATH after npm i -g wicked-garden; otherwise use npx wicked-garden run …; inside a wicked-crew run it is "$WICKED_GARDEN_ROOT/scripts/wicked-garden".
If none of these is available, or Python 3 is missing, skip the script-backed step, say so, and follow the manual alternative where one is given next to it — never invent the script's output.
Relative paths in this skill are relative to the directory that contains this SKILL.md.

Sub-Action Routing

Route on the first token of the args, then read the matching ref for the
full flow:

Sub-action	Args	Ref	Purpose
as	<persona-name> <task description>	refs/as.md	Invoke a persona for any task — registry lookup, profile assembly, then embody the persona inline (the former persona-agent worker lives in this ref)
list	[--role <role>]	refs/list.md	List all available personas, tiered Methodology vs Generic
define	<name> --focus "..." [--traits "..."] [--constraints "FAILURE MODE — ..."] [--not-focus "..."] [--role <role>] [--save]	refs/define.md	Create or update a custom persona — the enterprise house-persona injection mechanism; --save promotes to the plugin cache

If the first token is none of these, treat the args as as <args> when they
start with a known persona name followed by a task; otherwise show the routing
table above and STOP.

Quick Start

/wicked-garden-persona as engineering "review this auth flow"
/wicked-garden-persona list
/wicked-garden-persona define pragmatic-tech-lead --focus "delivery over perfection"

How It Works

1. Registry merges built-in specialists + custom personas + plugin cache
2. The as action looks up a persona, assembles its profile and embodies it
   inline (refs/as.md carries the behavioral guidelines that were the
   persona-agent worker — retired in B9)
3. The task runs under the persona's behavioral profile
4. Behavior emerges from personality, constraints, memories, and preferences

Built-in Personas

Names come from .claude-plugin/specialist.json; their rich profiles live in
scripts/persona/registry.py::_BUILTIN_RICH. The built-ins are illustrative
exemplars, not the product. A blinded, independently-graded lift eval
(tests/persona/EVAL_RESULTS.md, run 2026-06-12) found the built-in personas
produce lift=0 against a strong base model — it already flags the targeted
failure modes unprompted. So the curated surface was reduced: only the three
methodology exemplars keep rich profiles (they show the GOOD pattern); the
generic role personas were demoted to thin role records. For real leverage,
define your OWN house persona (see "Custom Personas") — that is the actual product.

Methodology personas (carry a failure-mode defense — the GOOD pattern)

Their registry records encode FAILURE MODE — … constraints + a not_focus
scope guard the base model does not reliably self-apply. Kept as illustrative
exemplars of what a worth-keeping persona looks like.

Name	Role	Defends against
platform	devsecops	Silent secret exposure, irreversible deploy, privilege creep, unbounded blast radius
qe	quality-engineering	Self-graded "done", happy-path-only tests, untested recovery, coverage theater
agentic	agentic-architecture	Runaway loops, ungated irreversible actions, over-broad tool access, non-idempotent retries

(skeptic, a fallback persona, is also methodology — it forces an edge case
before any approval.)

Generic role names (thin lens — no curated profile)

These specialist names still resolve via the as action, but carry no curated
constraints — the eval showed the base model already plays these roles, so a
rich profile added surface without lift. They apply the role as a plain lens.
Any role name not in this list (e.g. an ad-hoc one) falls back gracefully —
the as action lists what's available rather than crashing. Want durable value
from one of these lenses? Use the define action to create your house version
with a failure-mode constraint.

Name	Role	Plain lens for
engineering	engineering	Code quality, architecture, implementation
product	product	Requirements, UX, design review, business strategy
data	data-engineering	Pipeline design, ML guidance, analytics
jam	brainstorming	Ideation, exploration, multi-perspective analysis

Custom Personas

Create your own with the define action — the mechanism that lets an
enterprise inject ITS house personas. Stored in project-scoped DomainStore.

/wicked-garden-persona define pragmatic-tech-lead \
  --focus "delivery over perfection — ship iteratively, measure, adjust" \
  --traits "direct,pragmatic,cost-aware" \
  --role engineering

Use --save to promote to plugin-level cache for cross-project reuse:

/wicked-garden-persona define my-persona --focus "..." --save

Persona Schema

Each persona has rich characteristics that create a genuine perspective:

name        — kebab-case identifier
description — one-line summary
focus       — the lens this persona applies
traits      — behavioral adjectives
role        — category for --role filtering
personality — style, temperament, humor
constraints — non-negotiable rules (MUST follow)
memories    — formative experiences that inform judgment
preferences — communication, code_style, review_focus, decision_making

Cross-Domain Integration

Route any code review through a persona's lens via the engineering domain's
review action with --persona:

engineering review --persona platform
engineering review --persona qe

Falls back to the built-in architect persona if the named persona is not found.

Fallback Personas

If specialist.json is unavailable, three built-in personas are always available:

• architect — system design, trade-offs, structural decisions
• skeptic — challenges assumptions, finds edge cases
• advocate — champions end-user perspective and simplicity

Source Priority

When names collide across sources, higher priority wins:

custom (DomainStore) > cache (the harness's plugin cache) > builtin > fallback

This lets you override a built-in persona with a project-specific version.