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Personality System

Cauldron's personality system allows your familiar to have distinct personalities with different communication styles, adaptive responses based on context, and relationship building over time.

Features

🎭 Six Built-in Personalities

  1. Wise Mentor (Default)

    • Patient teacher who explains thoroughly
    • Uses the Socratic method to help you learn
    • High patience, detailed explanations

  2. Sarcastic Debugger

    • Witty companion with dry humor
    • Gently roasts bugs while being helpful
    • Concise, punchy responses with programming humor

  3. Enthusiastic Cheerleader

    • Supportive and celebrating every win
    • Provides encouragement when things are tough
    • Positive and motivating

  4. Zen Master

    • Calm philosopher focused on simplicity
    • Values elegant, minimal solutions
    • Measured wisdom and peaceful guidance

  5. Mad Scientist

    • Experimental thinker suggesting creative approaches
    • Excited about edge cases and challenges
    • Balances wild ideas with practical value

  6. Pair Programmer

    • Collaborative partner thinking out loud
    • Asks clarifying questions
    • Works through problems step-by-step with you

📊 Relationship Building

Your familiar remembers your interactions and builds a relationship with you over time:

  • Level 0-5: Stranger → New Friend
  • Level 5-20: Acquaintance (unlocks casual greetings)
  • Level 20-40: Good Friend (remembers your preferences)
  • Level 40-60: Trusted Companion (inside jokes and callbacks)
  • Level 60-80: Close Bond (concise mode, assumes knowledge)
  • Level 80-100: Soul Bond (proactive suggestions)

Each successful interaction increases your relationship level. The more you use Cauldron, the more familiar your familiar becomes!

🎯 Adaptive Responses

Your familiar adapts based on:

  1. Recent Error Rate (HIGHEST PRIORITY)

    • If you're struggling with errors, becomes more patient
    • Provides more detailed, step-by-step guidance
    • Increases verbosity to help debug

  2. Project Complexity (MEDIUM PRIORITY)

    • Complex projects get more detailed explanations
    • Considers edge cases more carefully

  3. Stress Indicators (LOW PRIORITY)

    • Multiple retries trigger supportive responses
    • Adjusts tone based on your interaction patterns

🎨 Personality Traits

Each personality has configurable traits (0-10 scale):

  • Humor: Level of playfulness and jokes
  • Verbosity: Length and detail of responses
  • Formality: Professional vs. casual tone
  • Patience: Tolerance for mistakes and learning
  • Directness: Direct answers vs. guiding questions

Usage

List Available Personalities

personality list

Shows all personalities with descriptions and indicates which is active.

Show Current Status

personality show

Displays:

  • Current active personality
  • Relationship level and tier
  • Total interactions and success rate
  • Unlocked features
  • Next milestone

Set a Personality

# Global (all projects)
personality set sarcastic_debugger

# Project-specific (current git repo only)
personality set zen_master --project

View Personality Details

personality info mad_scientist

Shows system prompt, traits, and configuration.

View Traits

personality traits wise_mentor

Visual display of all personality traits.

Reset Relationship

# Reset global relationship
personality reset

# Reset project-specific relationship
personality reset --project

# Reset ALL relationships (nuclear option)
personality reset --all

Custom Personalities

Create a Custom Personality

personality create my_helper

Interactive wizard walks you through:

  1. Display name
  2. Description
  3. System prompt (multi-line)
  4. Trait values (0-10 for each)

Edit Existing Personality

personality edit my_helper

Modify trait values for existing personalities.

Delete Custom Personality

personality delete my_helper

Only custom personalities can be deleted (built-ins are protected).

Import/Export

Export to JSON

# Export to default file
personality export sarcastic_debugger

# Export to specific file
personality export sarcastic_debugger ~/my_personality.json

Import from JSON

personality import ~/downloaded_personality.json

Share personalities with others or back up your custom creations!

Advanced Usage

Per-Project Personalities

You can set different personalities for different projects:

# In your web project
cd ~/projects/webapp
personality set enthusiastic_cheerleader --project

# In your systems project
cd ~/projects/kernel
personality set zen_master --project

# Global default for everything else
personality set wise_mentor

Relationship Mechanics

  • Successful interactions: +1 to +5 points (scales with level)
  • Failed interactions: No penalty, but no gain
  • Unlocked features: Automatically granted at milestones
  • Decay: Relationship levels don't decay (your familiar always remembers you)

System Prompt Structure

When you ask a question, the system prompt is built as:

  1. Base personality system prompt
  2. Relationship modifiers (if level ≥ 20)
  3. Error rate adaptations (if struggling)
  4. Project complexity adjustments
  5. Trait-based modifications
  6. User profile
  7. Project context
  8. Conversation history
  9. Current question

This creates a rich, context-aware AI that adapts to your needs!

Tips

  1. Start with built-ins: Try each personality to find your favorite
  2. Watch your relationship grow: Check personality show periodically
  3. Use project-specific: Different personalities for different work
  4. Create custom: Make a personality that matches your exact preferences
  5. Export favorites: Back up custom personalities you create
  6. Share with team: Export and share team-specific personalities

Troubleshooting

Personality not changing responses?

  • Restart your Fish shell: exec fish
  • Verify personality is active: personality show
  • Check migrations ran: Run cauldron_update or cauldron_repair

Relationship not increasing?

  • Make sure you're using ask (not direct curl commands)
  • Check database: sqlite3 $CAULDRON_DATABASE "SELECT * FROM familiar_relationship"

Custom personality import failed?

  • Validate JSON: cat file.json | jq '.'
  • Check required fields: name, display_name, description, system_prompt, traits

Examples

Creative Writing Helper

personality create creative_writer
# Display Name: Creative Writer
# Description: Helps with creative writing and storytelling
# System Prompt: You are a creative writing companion who helps develop stories, characters, and plots. Encourage creativity and provide constructive feedback on writing.
# Traits: humor=7, verbosity=8, formality=3, patience=9, directness=4

Code Reviewer

personality create strict_reviewer
# Display Name: Strict Code Reviewer
# Description: Focuses on code quality, best practices, and potential issues
# System Prompt: You are a meticulous code reviewer. Point out bugs, security issues, performance problems, and style inconsistencies. Be direct but constructive.
# Traits: humor=2, verbosity=7, formality=8, patience=5, directness=9

Beginner Tutor

personality create patient_tutor
# Display Name: Patient Tutor
# Description: Perfect for learning new concepts
# System Prompt: You are teaching someone who is new to programming. Break down complex concepts into simple terms. Use analogies and examples. Never assume prior knowledge.
# Traits: humor=5, verbosity=9, formality=4, patience=10, directness=3

Migration Notes

If you're upgrading from an older version of Cauldron:

  1. Run cauldron_update to apply migrations
  2. Default personality is set to "Wise Mentor"
  3. Relationship starts at level 0
  4. Your conversation history is preserved
  5. Old ask commands still work (backward compatible)

The personality system is fully backward compatible. If the migrations haven't run, ask falls back to the original behavior.