Personas and modes

The persona body is what gets delivered to the agent; the name and description are for management only.

agent-purge ls                       # List personas
agent-purge use <id>                 # Switch active persona and sync armed scopes
agent-purge mode append              # Change global injection mode
agent-purge use <id> --for codex     # Assign persona specifically to Codex
agent-purge use follow --for codex   # Restore Codex to follow the global persona

Four injection modes

Mode	Behavior	Notes
replace (default)	Replaces host identity lines, preserving other instructions	Approximate detection; launch-arg harnesses that cannot read the host prompt fall back to strict
strict	Replaces the controllable host prompt with the persona	Clears the existing host instructions; the host may still prepend its own wrapper
append	Keeps host instructions and adds the persona	Original identity stays; watch for conflicting instructions
off	Stops injection for the target entry points	Global pause and single-shot flags act on different scopes

strict does not guarantee the model only receives your persona. The effective role may be system, developer, or project context depending on the harness and channel. When unsure, try append first.

A mode decides how the injected text is written, not where it lands. When a host exposes no full system-prompt entry point, all four modes are just appends — see the support matrix.

Writing a persona by hand

Save this as ~/.agent-purge/personas/concise.md, then run agent-purge use concise:

---
id: concise
name: Concise collaboration
description: Lead with the conclusion; read the code before changing it
---

Lead with the conclusion, then the evidence.
Read the existing implementation before editing; say so when unsure.

Only the body reaches the prompt. description is list metadata; the legacy desc key still works, and Web edits preserve metadata they do not touch.

Where personas come from

• Web editor — edit body and metadata in the Persona Library
• Local import — agent-purge persona import <dir> to bulk-import .md files
• Repository pull — agent-purge pull [repo], defaults to GitHub

Per-harness override

Each harness in the console can be given its own persona and mode, overriding the global default. Overrides affect only that harness; restoring "follow global" resets it.