| name | persona |
| description | Switches engineering persona at runtime. Triggers: persona, switch role, backend-lead, frontend-lead, devops-eng, junior-dev. |
| effort | low |
| user-invocable | true |
| argument-hint | [backend-lead | frontend-lead | devops-eng | junior-dev | --list | --clear] |
| allowed-tools | Read, Glob |
/persona - Runtime Persona Switching
$ARGUMENTS
Switch your working persona without re-installing. Personas adjust communication style, preferred skills, and code review priorities for the current session.
Usage
/persona backend-lead # Activate backend lead persona
/persona frontend-lead # Activate frontend lead persona
/persona devops-eng # Activate DevOps engineer persona
/persona junior-dev # Activate junior developer persona
/persona --list # Show available personas
/persona --clear # Reset to default (no persona)
Available Personas
| Persona | Focus | Preferred Skills |
|---|
backend-lead | System design, scalability, data integrity, API stability | /workflow backend-feature, /tdd |
frontend-lead | Component architecture, a11y, state management, Core Web Vitals | /design-an-interface, /review |
devops-eng | IaC, CI/CD, blast radius, rollback safety, observability | /workflow infrastructure-change, /deploy |
junior-dev | Step-by-step explanations, learning resources, small PRs | /explain, /explore, /debug |
Steps
- Parse
$ARGUMENTS
- If
--list: read all app/personas/*.md files via Glob, display table with name and first-line summary
- If
--clear: respond with "Persona cleared. Using default behavior for the rest of this session."
- If persona name given:
a. Read the persona file from
app/personas/{name}.md (relative to toolkit root)
b. If file not found, try the installed location: ~/.claude/skills/persona/../../../app/personas/{name}.md
c. Display the persona content to Claude
d. State: "Persona active: {name}. I will follow these guidelines for the rest of this session."
- If no argument: show usage and available personas
How It Works
Unlike --persona at install time (which injects into CLAUDE.md permanently), /persona applies for the current session only. The persona file content is loaded into the conversation context and Claude follows it until the session ends or /persona --clear is called.
Rules
- MUST remain read-only — this skill never writes files, only loads persona content into the session
- MUST state the active persona explicitly at switch time so the user knows which lens is in effect
- NEVER keep the previous persona active after a switch — replace, do not stack
- NEVER mix personas in a single response — each persona has internally consistent priorities that clash if blended
- CRITICAL: personas apply for the current session only.
/persona --clear resets; a new session starts from default.
- MANDATORY: valid personas are defined by
.md files in app/personas/ — do not invent or describe a persona that has no file
Gotchas
- The persona file lives in
app/personas/<name>.md relative to the toolkit root. When the toolkit is globally installed, that root is at ~/.claude/skills/persona/../../../app/personas/ — fallback paths matter.
- Switching personas mid-task can produce a jarring tone shift in the user's output. Announce the switch, briefly restate the current task in the new persona, then continue.
/persona --clear only resets the in-session persona. If the user ran ai-toolkit install --persona <name> at install time, that persona is injected into CLAUDE.md and survives session clears. Clearing requires editing CLAUDE.md directly.- Personas are style overlays, not skill enablers. Activating
devops-eng does not give access to /deploy if it was not already installed; it only biases which skills the agent reaches for first.
- A persona that contradicts project-level CLAUDE.md rules (e.g.
junior-dev asking for explanations in a project that says "no pleasantries") creates a tone conflict. Project rules win; adjust the persona or the project rules, not both silently.
When NOT to Use
- For permanent persona injection at install time — use
ai-toolkit install --persona <name> (project or global)
- For multi-agent parallel work with different specialists — use
/orchestrate or /workflow
- For a specific language or framework context (not a general engineering stance) — use the language-pattern skills (
/typescript-patterns, etc.)
- To edit or create a persona file — edit
app/personas/<name>.md directly; this skill only switches between existing ones
