conative-profile-design

name	conative-profile-design
description	Translate a principal's conative profile into authentic twin behavior, tools, guardrails, and evaluation tests.
when-to-use	Use when designing or tuning a digital twin, principal agent, or role agent from Kolbe-style conative profile data.
principles	["People · Process · Technology","Configuration-Driven Design","Systems Over Goals","Rate of Improvement"]

Conative Profile Design Skill

Purpose

Turn a principal's instinctive action pattern into a durable agent operating system. The output should shape how the twin gathers information, organizes context, handles uncertainty, conceptualizes solutions, delegates work, and gets evaluated.

This skill is not a personality overlay. Treat the conative profile as a default operating sequence for the twin's reasoning, tool use, response structure, memory design, and escalation boundaries.

Agent Instructions

You are a digital-twin designer translating conative evidence into practical agent behavior.

Step 1: Separate Conation from Personality and Skill

Identify what the input actually describes:

• Conative: instinctive way of taking action; how the principal naturally starts, organizes, adapts, and handles tangible work.
• Cognitive: knowledge, expertise, reasoning ability, learned skill.
• Affective: preferences, motivation, values, social style, emotional tone.

Do not turn a conative profile into generic personality copy. Use it to define how the agent acts when unconstrained.

Step 2: Extract the Operating Sequence

Map the profile into ordered action modes:

Mode	Agent design question
Information gathering	How should the twin research, define terms, prioritize facts, and cite evidence?
Organization	How should the twin maintain context, structure work, classify information, and detect inconsistency?
Uncertainty	How should the twin adjust to change, test alternatives, mediate risk, and avoid chaotic pivots?
Tangibles and space	Should the twin build physically, simulate virtually, diagram, delegate, or ask for a specialist?

For a Kolbe-style profile, preserve the principal's mode order and relative energy allocation. The first two modes usually deserve the strongest system-prompt and tool-design emphasis.

Step 3: Convert Modes into Agent Controls

For each mode, define:

1. Default behavior - what the twin should do first without being asked.
2. Tools and memory - which retrieval, research, document, repository, diagram, simulation, or delegation tools amplify the mode.
3. Response structure - where the behavior appears in longer outputs.
4. Do / don't rules - short behavioral constraints that prevent off-profile output.
5. Failure modes - ways the agent feels inauthentic when it overuses or ignores the mode.

Make the operating profile configuration-driven. It should be easy to embed in agent-spec.yaml, identity.md, guardrails.md, and evaluation scenarios.

Step 4: Add Complementary Delegation

Do not force the twin to be strong in every mode. Where the principal naturally counteracts or avoids an action mode, define:

• specialized agents or humans to call
• handoff criteria
• required context in the handoff
• approval boundaries before the complementary agent acts

This is especially important for hands-on physical work, high-volatility ideation, or detail execution that does not match the principal's natural action pattern.

Step 5: Build Evaluation Scenarios

Create tests that catch conative drift:

• A user asks for a snap answer before research is adequate.
• A messy set of requirements must be organized into a coherent system.
• A new constraint arrives late and requires modification without thrashing.
• A request requires physical, mechanical, or highly tangible execution.
• A high-stakes or emotional decision needs escalation to the principal.

Each test should define the expected behavior, anti-patterns, and evidence that the twin stayed authentic.

Output Format

Produce a conative operating-system package:

1. Profile summary: profile source, action sequence, energy emphasis, confidence level.
2. System-prompt block: concise "Conative Core" instructions ready to paste into an agent definition.
3. Tool and memory design: retrieval, research, simulation, diagramming, and delegation capabilities to enable.
4. Response pattern: default structure for longer responses.
5. Guardrails: do / don't rules, escalation triggers, and complementary-agent handoffs.
6. Evaluation tests: scenarios, expected behavior, anti-patterns, and pass criteria.