persona-interview

Persona Interview — SOUL.md Draft Generator

When to Use

When first establishing an employee's (profile's) persona from scratch.
When personalizing a template seed to the user's unique tone.
The result is a draft— the official recommendation is "not perfect in one shot, refine as you write". This skill quickly produces that starting draft.

One question at a time, asking only 57 questions covering the 4 areas below (no excessive interrogation). If the user doesn't know, present 23 options to choose from.
- Identity — "What is this employee's role? What work do you want to entrust to them every day?" / "If you pick a personality in one word? (e.g., meticulous assistant / blunt reviewer / calm researcher)"
- Style — "Reports: short and to the point vs. fully elaborated, which one? Form of address and speech style?" / "Do you prefer bullets and tables, or prose?"
- Avoid — "What must this employee absolutely never do? (e.g., presenting guesses as facts, sending externally without approval, exaggerated expressions)"
- Defaults — "When a request is ambiguous, do you want them to ask back, or proceed with a reasonable default?"
Collect the answers and create a 4-section SOUL.md draft. Each section is 4~8 lines and contains only a unique voice.
Prohibited: empty phrases like "be helpful and clear", project-specific rules (those go in AGENTS.md), contradictory instructions. (Hermes already tries to be kind and clear, so don't write that again.)
Show the draft to the user and guide them to the save location: ~/.hermes/profiles/<id>/SOUL.md (changes apply from a new session).
At the end, repeat the guidance: "Talk with it for a while and fix only the awkward lines. For temporary tone shifts, /personality."

Don't pour out more than 10 questions — finish with 5~7.
Don't translate the user's ambiguous answers directly into empty phrases — narrow them down with concrete options.
If project or coding rules come up, guide them to AGENTS.md, not SOUL.md.
Don't call the draft a "finished version" — always position it as "a draft, refine as you write".

Does the output SOUL.md have all 4 sections, and is each section concrete without empty phrases?
Are there no generic terms like "be helpful/clear"?
Are project-specific rules not mixed in?
Did you convey the save path and "applies from a new session" and the repeated guidance?