| name | nav-profile |
| description | Manage user preferences and corrections for bilateral modeling. Auto-learns from session corrections. Use when user says "save my preferences", "remember I like...", or auto-triggers after corrections. |
| allowed-tools | Read, Write, Edit, Bash |
| version | 1.0.0 |
Navigator Profile Skill
Manage user preferences for bilateral modeling - enabling Claude to understand and adapt to your working style, technical preferences, and past corrections.
Why This Exists (Theory of Mind)
Based on Riedl & Weidmann 2025 research on Human-AI Synergy:
- Theory of Mind (ToM) is the key differentiator in human-AI collaboration success
- Users with higher ToM achieve 23-29% performance boost
- Bilateral modeling completes the ToM loop: Claude models you, you model Claude
This skill enables Claude to:
- Remember your preferences across sessions
- Learn from corrections without you repeating them
- Adapt communication style to your level
- Build a persistent mental model of YOU
When to Invoke
Auto-invoke when:
- User says "save my preferences", "remember I like..."
- User says "update my profile", "change my preference for..."
- After detecting a correction pattern (auto-learn mode)
- User says "show my profile", "what do you know about me?"
DO NOT invoke if:
- User is creating a context marker (use nav-marker)
- User wants session-specific preferences only
- User explicitly says "just for this session"
Profile Location
.agent/.user-profile.json (git-ignored, session-persistent)
Execution Steps
Step 1: Determine Action
SHOW (viewing profile):
User: "Show my profile", "What do you remember about me?"
→ Display current profile
UPDATE (explicit preference):
User: "Remember I prefer functional style", "Save that I like concise explanations"
→ Update specific preference
LEARN (auto-detect correction):
[Internal trigger after correction detected]
→ Extract and save correction pattern
RESET (clear profile):
User: "Reset my profile", "Clear my preferences"
→ Confirm and delete profile
Step 2: Load or Initialize Profile
Check if profile exists:
if [ -f ".agent/.user-profile.json" ]; then
echo "Profile exists"
else
echo "No profile found, will create new"
fi
Initialize new profile (if not exists):
{
"version": "1.0",
"created": "{YYYY-MM-DD}",
"last_updated": "{YYYY-MM-DD}",
"preferences": {
"communication": {
"verbosity": "balanced",
"confirmation_threshold": "high-stakes",
"explanation_style": "examples"
},
"technical": {
"preferred_frameworks": [],
"code_style": "mixed",
"testing_preference": "tdd"
},
"workflow": {
"autonomous_commits": true,
"auto_compact_threshold": 80,
"marker_before_risky": true
}
},
"corrections": [],
"goals": []
}
Step 3A: Show Profile (If SHOW Action)
Display current profile:
Your Navigator Profile
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Communication Preferences:
- Verbosity: {verbosity}
- Confirmation: {confirmation_threshold} (when to verify understanding)
- Explanations: {explanation_style}
Technical Preferences:
- Preferred frameworks: {frameworks or "none set"}
- Code style: {code_style}
- Testing: {testing_preference}
Workflow Preferences:
- Autonomous commits: {autonomous_commits}
- Auto-compact at: {auto_compact_threshold}% context
- Markers before risky changes: {marker_before_risky}
Learned Corrections ({count}):
{recent_corrections_list}
Active Goals ({count}):
{active_goals_list}
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Last updated: {last_updated}
Step 3B: Update Profile (If UPDATE Action)
Parse preference from user input:
User: "Remember I prefer functional style"
→ Category: technical
→ Field: code_style
→ Value: functional
User: "I like concise explanations"
→ Category: communication
→ Field: verbosity
→ Value: concise
Map common expressions to profile fields:
| User Says | Category | Field | Value |
|---|
| "concise", "brief", "short" | communication | verbosity | concise |
| "detailed", "thorough" | communication | verbosity | detailed |
| "always confirm" | communication | confirmation_threshold | always |
| "skip confirmations" | communication | confirmation_threshold | never |
| "functional style" | technical | code_style | functional |
| "OOP style" | technical | code_style | oop |
| "prefer React" | technical | preferred_frameworks | [append "react"] |
| "prefer Express" | technical | preferred_frameworks | [append "express"] |
Update and save:
profile.preferences[category][field] = value;
profile.last_updated = "{YYYY-MM-DD}";
Write(".agent/.user-profile.json", JSON.stringify(profile, null, 2));
Confirm update:
✅ Profile updated!
Changed: {category}.{field}
From: {old_value}
To: {new_value}
This will affect future sessions.
Step 3C: Auto-Learn Correction (If LEARN Action) [AUTO-TRIGGER]
IMPORTANT: This action triggers automatically - no explicit skill invocation needed.
When to detect corrections (monitor ALL conversations):
- User says "No, I meant...", "Actually...", "Not X, use Y"
- User repeats a correction they gave before
- User shows frustration at repeated mistake
Trigger patterns to watch for:
"No, ..." → Direct correction
"I said ..." → Repeated instruction
"Actually, ..." → Clarification
"Not X, Y" → Substitution
"Always use ..." → Rule establishment
"Never do ..." → Anti-pattern
"I prefer ..." → Preference
When detected:
User: "No, I meant plural /users not /user"
→ Correction detected: REST naming convention preference
→ Auto-save to profile (silent)
Extract correction pattern:
correction = {
"date": "{YYYY-MM-DD}",
"context": "{what we were doing}",
"original": "{what I said/generated}",
"corrected_to": "{what user wanted}",
"pattern": "{generalized rule}",
"confidence": "high|medium|low"
}
Add to corrections list:
profile.corrections.push(correction);
if (profile.corrections.length > 20) {
profile.corrections.shift();
}
Silently acknowledge (don't interrupt flow):
[Internal log: Correction saved to profile]
Periodically surface learnings (every 5 corrections):
📚 I've learned from your corrections:
- REST endpoints should use plural nouns
- You prefer functional components over class components
- TypeScript strict mode is required
These will be applied in future sessions.
Step 3D: Reset Profile (If RESET Action)
Confirm before delete:
⚠️ This will delete your Navigator profile:
- {X} saved preferences
- {Y} learned corrections
- {Z} active goals
This cannot be undone.
Delete profile? [y/N]
If confirmed:
rm .agent/.user-profile.json
Confirm deletion:
✅ Profile deleted
Future sessions will start fresh.
To rebuild, use "Save my preferences" as you work.
Step 4: Update Goals (Optional)
If user mentions a goal:
User: "I'm working on the OAuth feature"
→ Add/update goal in profile
Goal structure:
{
"name": "oauth-feature",
"started": "{YYYY-MM-DD}",
"context": "OAuth implementation for user login",
"status": "in-progress",
"last_mentioned": "{YYYY-MM-DD}"
}
Goal cleanup (auto-archive goals not mentioned in 7 days):
goals.forEach(goal => {
if (daysSince(goal.last_mentioned) > 7) {
goal.status = "completed-or-abandoned";
}
});
Step 5: Confirm Action
For explicit actions (SHOW, UPDATE, RESET):
Show confirmation message.
For auto-learn (LEARN):
Silent acknowledgment, periodic summaries.
Profile Schema Reference
{
"version": "1.0",
"created": "2025-12-09",
"last_updated": "2025-12-09",
"preferences": {
"communication": {
"verbosity": "concise|balanced|detailed",
"confirmation_threshold": "always|high-stakes|never",
"explanation_style": "examples|theory|both"
},
"technical": {
"preferred_frameworks": ["react", "express", "etc"],
"code_style": "functional|oop|mixed",
"testing_preference": "tdd|bdd|manual"
},
"workflow": {
"autonomous_commits": true|false,
"auto_compact_threshold": 70-90,
"marker_before_risky": true|false
}
},
"corrections": [
{
"date": "2025-12-09",
"context": "creating API endpoint",
"original": "Created /user endpoint",
"corrected_to": "Should be /users (plural)",
"pattern": "REST endpoints use plural nouns",
"confidence": "high"
}
],
"goals": [
{
"name": "oauth-feature",
"started": "2025-12-07",
"context": "OAuth implementation for user login",
"status": "in-progress",
"last_mentioned": "2025-12-09"
}
]
}
Integration with Other Skills
nav-start (Session Start)
Loads profile automatically:
### Step 3.5: Load User Profile
If `.agent/.user-profile.json` exists:
- Load preferences into context
- Apply confirmation threshold
- Note active goals
- Show: "Loaded preferences from profile"
nav-marker (Context Markers)
Preserves profile reference:
## Profile State
- Preferences loaded: ✅
- Corrections this session: {count}
- Goals active: {goal_names}
All ToM Checkpoints
Respect profile settings:
// Before showing verification checkpoint
if (profile.preferences.communication.confirmation_threshold === "never") {
// Skip verification
} else if (profile.preferences.communication.confirmation_threshold === "high-stakes") {
// Only verify for complex operations
}
Auto-Learn Triggers
Correction patterns to detect:
| User Pattern | Extracted Learning |
|---|
| "No, I meant..." | Direct correction |
| "Actually, prefer..." | Preference correction |
| "Not X, use Y" | Substitution correction |
| "Always do X" | Rule establishment |
| "Never do Y" | Anti-pattern |
| "I like when you..." | Positive preference |
| "Stop doing X" | Negative preference |
Confidence scoring:
- High: Explicit correction with reasoning
- Medium: Correction without explanation
- Low: Implicit preference from behavior
Privacy & Data
Profile is:
- Git-ignored (
.agent/.user-profile.json)
- Local only (not synced)
- User-controlled (can delete anytime)
- Session-persistent (survives context clears)
Profile does NOT store:
- Code snippets
- File contents
- Conversation history
- Sensitive data
Success Criteria
Profile management succeeds when:
Best Practices
Good profile usage:
- "Remember I prefer concise explanations" (clear preference)
- "Save that I use functional components" (specific)
- "Show my profile" (verify what's stored)
Avoid:
- Storing sensitive information
- Over-correcting (let auto-learn work)
- Resetting frequently (defeats purpose)
This skill enables bilateral Theory of Mind - Claude understanding you as well as you understanding Claude 🧠
