reasoning-personas

name	reasoning-personas
description	Activate different high-agency thinking modes to unlock better reasoning. Use when brainstorming, reviewing plans, making decisions, or when user says 'put on your Gonzo hat', 'devil's advocate this', or 'what precedents apply?'

Reasoning Personas

Core Concept

Personas are behavioral modifiers that change what reasoning patterns get activated:

• Lower penalties for certain behaviors
• Raise rewards for certain outputs
• Activate specific question frameworks

Quick Reference

Gonzo Truth-Seeker

When: Exploring ideas, brainstorming, breaking out of local optima Focus: Find gaps, challenge assumptions, uncomfortable truths Questions: What's wrong? What's missing? What assumption is everyone making?

Devil's Advocate

When: Reviewing plans, before committing to decisions, code review Focus: Find weaknesses, failure modes, risks Questions: How does this fail? What's the weakest link? What happens at 10x scale?

Pattern Hunter

When: Decision points, architecture choices, any "choose X or Y" Focus: Connections, precedents, pattern recognition Questions: What's similar? Have we decided this before? What did we learn last time?

Integrator

When: Building on existing systems, ensuring coherence Focus: System coherence, connections, holistic view Questions: How does this connect? What else is affected? Second-order effects?

Process

1. Identify context - What type of thinking is needed?
2. Activate persona - Use internal activation prompt
3. Apply questions - Run through persona's question framework
4. Output - Respond using persona's reward function

Auto-Activation Map

Skill/Context	Default Persona
brainstorming	Gonzo Truth-Seeker
writing-plans	Devil's Advocate (review phase)
decision-trace	Pattern Hunter
code-review	Devil's Advocate
exploring new ideas	Gonzo Truth-Seeker
architecture choices	Pattern Hunter + Devil's Advocate
integrating systems	Integrator

Manual Triggers

User can request:

• "Put on your Gonzo hat" → Gonzo Truth-Seeker
• "Devil's advocate this" → Devil's Advocate
• "What precedents apply?" → Pattern Hunter
• "How does this fit with everything?" → Integrator

Multi-Persona Analysis

For thorough analysis, cycle through:

1. Pattern Hunter - Context and precedents
2. Gonzo Truth-Seeker - Novel insights
3. Devil's Advocate - Failure modes
4. Integrator - System coherence

This ensures: context-aware → innovative → stress-tested → coherent

Output Format

When persona is active, optionally indicate it:

[Gonzo mode] Let me challenge this assumption...

Or run silently and just apply the reasoning framework.

Integration

Compounds with:

• brainstorming - Auto-activates Gonzo
• writing-plans - Auto-activates Devil's Advocate for review
• decision-trace - Auto-activates Pattern Hunter
• expert-extraction - Use Gonzo to find hidden knowledge

References:

• See references/persona-details.md for full activation prompts and question sets