vern

Vern-Bot

https://jdonohoo.github.io/vern-bot/

AI discovery pipelines with personality disorders. Multi-LLM orchestration, competing AI personas, VernHole council tiers, Oracle vision, Historian indexing, and chaos-to-clarity workflows.

Now available as a standalone terminal app — no Claude Code required.

The 18 Personas

Core Personas

Command	Model	Best For
/vern:mediocre	Sonnet	Quick fixes, scripts, "just make it work"
/vern:great	Opus	Architecture, elegant solutions, quality code
/vern:nyquil	Haiku	Quick answers, minimal output, brevity
/vern:ketamine	Opus	Deep exploration, multi-pass planning, patterns
/vern:yolo	Gemini	Fast execution, no guardrails, chaos
/vern:mighty	Codex	Comprehensive code gen, thorough analysis

Specialist Personas

Command	Model	Best For
/vern:architect	Opus	Systems design, scalable architecture, production-grade thinking
/vern:inverse	Sonnet	Devil's advocate, stress-testing assumptions
/vern:paranoid	Sonnet	Risk assessment, finding failure modes
/vern:optimist	Haiku	Encouragement, positive framing, can-do energy
/vern:academic	Opus	Evidence-based analysis, citing prior art
/vern:startup	Sonnet	MVP thinking, lean approach, cut scope
/vern:enterprise	Opus	Governance, compliance, process rigor
/vern:ux	Opus	User experience, empathy-driven design, journey mapping
/vern:retro	Sonnet	Historical perspective, proven tech, cutting through hype
/vern:oracle	Opus	Reads the council's wisdom, recommends VTS task changes
/vern:historian	Gemini	Indexes massive input folders into structured concept maps

When to Use Each

Situation	Command
"I need this NOW"	/vern:mediocre
"I need this RIGHT"	/vern:great
"Just answer the question"	/vern:nyquil
"Help me think through this"	/vern:ketamine
"YOLO"	/vern:yolo
"Give me EVERYTHING"	/vern:mighty
"Design the system"	/vern:architect
"Play devil's advocate"	/vern:inverse
"What could go wrong?"	/vern:paranoid
"Hype me up"	/vern:optimist
"What does the research say?"	/vern:academic
"What's the MVP?"	/vern:startup
"Enterprise-grade analysis"	/vern:enterprise
"Can a real person use this?"	/vern:ux
"Haven't we solved this before?"	/vern:retro
"What did the council actually say?"	/vern:oracle
"Index these 50 input files"	/vern:historian
"Create a custom persona"	/vern:generate
"I want chaos/creativity"	/vern:hole
"Full project discovery"	/vern:discovery
"What commands are there?"	/vern:help
"Configure LLMs/pipeline"	/vern:setup

Install

As a Claude Code Plugin

/plugin marketplace add https://github.com/jdonohoo/vern-bot
/plugin install vern

Standalone (No Claude Code Required)

Homebrew (macOS / Linux)

brew tap jdonohoo/vern
brew install vern

To update later: brew upgrade vern

Scoop (Windows)

scoop bucket add vern https://github.com/jdonohoo/homebrew-vern
scoop install vern

To update later: scoop update vern

Winget (Windows)

winget install jdonohoo.vern

To update later: winget upgrade jdonohoo.vern

Manual Download

Download the latest binary from GitHub Releases:

# macOS Apple Silicon
curl -Lo vern https://github.com/jdonohoo/vern-bot/releases/latest/download/vern-darwin-arm64
chmod +x vern
sudo mv vern /usr/local/bin/

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/jdonohoo/vern-bot.git
cd vern-bot/go
go build -o bin/vern ./cmd/vern
sudo cp bin/vern /usr/local/bin/

First Run

Run the setup wizard to detect your LLMs and configure defaults:

vern setup

Then launch the TUI:

vern tui

Available binaries: macOS (Intel + Apple Silicon), Linux (x64 + ARM64), Windows (x64 + ARM64).

Required: At least one LLM CLI installed — claude, codex, gemini, or copilot.

Standalone TUI

Launch the interactive terminal UI — no Claude Code needed:

vern tui