Personas

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A normal skill or prompt shapes a single reply, then Claude drifts back to default. A persona doesn't — a hook re-asserts it each turn, so contrarian keeps pressure-testing you for the whole session. Personas are plain Markdown files you own, and you can author new ones through a guided interview.

Install

/plugin marketplace add zvoque/claude-personas
/plugin install personas@claude-personas

No install scripts, no manual settings.json edits — the plugin registers its own hooks. Requires Node (the hooks and CLI are plain Node.js).

To remove it later: claude plugin uninstall personas@claude-personas.

Quick start

/personas contrarian      # Claude becomes a sharp skeptic — and stays one
/personas off             # back to normal
/personas list            # what's available, what's active, current mode
/personas new             # build your own persona, guided
/personas parallel        # let several run at once
/personas team "Postgres vs Mongo at our scale"   # your personas debate it

Bundled personas

Ships with one to start — create your own with /personas new or drop a file into ~/.claude/personas/.

Persona	What it does
contrarian	A sharp, skeptical advisor that pressure-tests every decision instead of validating it: names the load-bearing assumption, fires three concrete counterarguments, proposes a superior alternative, surfaces the blind-spot risk, and ends with a verdict — Proceed / Reconsider / Stop. Persists every turn; steps aside for destructive actions and direct questions.

Usage

Everything runs through the /personas command — there are no natural-language triggers (the hooks never parse your prompts for control, so nothing fires by accident). Each row below is a <verb> you pass to it, e.g. /personas off:

<verb>	Effect
<name>	Activate a persona. solo replaces the current one; parallel appends it.
off [name]	Deactivate everything, or just one persona.
solo · parallel	Switch operating mode (parallel warns past ~4 active).
(empty) · status	Status report — the current mode and which personas are active.
list	List all available personas (* = active).
new	Create a persona through a guided interview.
team [topic]	Convene your personas as a debate panel, then synthesize.
delete <name>	Delete a personal persona (bundled ones are protected).

How it works

Personas are plain data files, not skills — a Markdown file with name + description frontmatter and the instructions. Bundled ones ship in the plugin; yours live at ~/.claude/personas/<name>.md and override a bundled one of the same name.

Event	Hook	What it does
UserPromptSubmit	personas-tracker.js	Re-injects the active persona(s) every turn — that's what makes them stick. Self-suppresses on /personas turns so commands run clean.
SessionStart	personas-activate.js	Injects the active persona(s) before the first prompt of a new or resumed session.

personas-ctl.js is the sole writer of state and persona files; the command and hooks both go through it. State lives at ~/.claude/.personas-active.

Injection defaults to the full persona body each turn. Set PERSONAS_TERSE=1 for a short re-assertion instead — validate it holds the persona over a long session first.

Team debates

/personas team [topic] turns your personas into a panel that argues a question. Claude acts as moderator — casts the panel, runs the rounds, and hands you a synthesis. Your active personas are auto-paused for the duration so they can't bias the moderator, then restored when it's done — your enabled set and solo/parallel mode are never touched (and if a debate ever dies before cleanup, the pause self-heals on its own — it auto-expires, no restart needed).