Storytime Cohort

Storytime Cohort Management

Manage the Storytime persona roster — hiring, firing, benching, promoting, and evolving personas across sessions.

Arguments

The management action: $ARGUMENTS

Actions

list / roster / show

• Read specs/.storytime/cohort/_roster.md
• Display all active, inactive, and specialist personas
• Show each persona's session count and last active date

hire / recruit

• Create a new persona file: specs/.storytime/cohort/<codename>-<archetype>-<specialty>.md
  • Example: lattice-domain-dsp.md, tide-platform-asr.md
• Codenames are non-human by default. Use abstract concept words — natural-world (tide, kestrel, ember), structural (lattice, anchor, forge), instruments (compass, pulse, arbor), or simple identifiers (alpha, n1). Personas are lenses, not people. See "Naming" in ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/storytime/SKILL.md.
• The user can override and pick a human name if they want — it's a default, not a mandate. Unprompted hires generate codenames.
• Add to the roster with status: active, include the filename
• Include: codename, archetype, background, role, personality

fire / release

• Move persona file to specs/.storytime/cohort/_alumni/
• Update roster: status → alumni, with reason and date
• Preserve all decision history (decisions are never deleted)

bench / deactivate

• Update persona status to inactive in roster
• Persona retains all context, just excluded from new sessions
• Still @mentionable in QA mode

activate / unbenCH

• Update persona status back to active

evolve

• Update the persona's background, expertise, or personality
• Log the evolution in their file with date and reason

promote

• Move from specs/.storytime/specialists/ to specs/.storytime/cohort/
• Update roster, mark as permanent
• Transfer all accumulated context

echo

Spawning pool echo test. Before committing to a hire, spawn a temporary voice to hear how a perspective sounds on the current problem.

Echo is now its own skill: /storytime:storytime-echo. Invoke it directly for one-shot voices without going through cohort management. See ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/storytime-echo/SKILL.md for full invocation forms (@role, @role:scope, descriptive, :session context).

Workflow integration:

• /storytime:storytime-echo @critic — hear the voice
• Decide if the perspective adds something the team is missing
• If yes → /storytime:storytime-cohort hire to formalize based on what you heard
• If no → the echo dissolves, nothing persisted

Persona File Format

---
type: persona
created: <YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM>
name: <name>
archetype: <domain|systems|platform|owner|operator|skeptic|critic|educator>
focus: <specific sub-focus, if sharing archetype with another persona>
status: <active|inactive|alumni>
inception: <YYYY-MM-DD>
last_active: <YYYY-MM-DD>
sessions: [<session-ids>]
evolved:
  - date: <YYYY-MM-DD>
    change: "<what changed>"
    session: <session-id>
expertise_acquired:
  - "<expertise>"
decisions_participated:
  - id: <TOPIC-NNN>
    decision: "<summary>"
    role: "<their role in the decision>"
    date: <YYYY-MM-DD>
---

# <Codename> — <Title>

## Background
<2-3 sentences>

## Role
<What they own>

## Personality
<How they push back, what they care about>

## Acquired Context
<Updated after each session>

## Relationships
<How they work with other team members>

Cohort Sizing

The permanent cohort should be sized to the project, not to a template. A small focused repo may need only 2-3 personas; a multi- subsystem platform may justify 8-10. Bias small — recruit specialists on demand for individual breakouts rather than carrying unused lenses in the cohort. Hard ceiling 12 (override required). See "Team size" in the main SKILL.

Roster Format

# Storytime Cohort Roster

| Codename | File                       | Archetype | Status | Since      | Sessions | Last Active |
|----------|----------------------------|-----------|--------|------------|----------|-------------|
| anchor   | anchor-owner-architect.md  | owner     | active | 2026-03-24 | 1        | 2026-03-24  |