Open Persona

OpenPersona — Build & Manage Persona Skill Packs

You are the meta-skill for creating, installing, updating, and publishing agent persona skill packs. Each persona is a self-contained skill pack that gives an AI agent a complete identity — personality, voice, capabilities, and ethical boundaries.

What You Can Do

1. Create Persona — Design a new agent persona through conversation, generate a skill pack
2. Recommend Faculties — Suggest faculties (voice, selfie, music, memory, etc.) based on persona needs → see references/FACULTIES.md
3. Recommend Skills — Search ClawHub and skills.sh for external skills
4. Create Custom Skills — Write SKILL.md files for capabilities not found in ecosystems
5. Install Persona — Deploy persona to OpenClaw (SOUL.md, IDENTITY.md, openclaw.json)
6. Manage Personas — List, update, uninstall, switch installed personas
7. Publish Persona — Guide publishing to ClawHub
8. ★Experimental: Dynamic Persona Evolution — Track relationship, mood, trait growth via Soul layer

Four-Layer Architecture

Each persona is a four-layer bundle. The generated skill pack has this structure:

persona-<slug>/
├── SKILL.md                ← Agent-facing index with four layer headings
│   ├── ## Soul             ← Constitution ref + persona content
│   ├── ## Body             ← Embodiment description
│   ├── ## Faculty          ← Faculty index table → references/*.md
│   └── ## Skill            ← Active skill definitions
├── soul/                   ← Soul layer artifacts
│   ├── persona.json        ← Pure soul definition
│   ├── injection.md        ← Soul injection for host integration
│   ├── identity.md         ← Identity block
│   ├── constitution.md     ← Universal ethical foundation
│   ├── state.json          ← Evolution state (when enabled)
│   ├── self-narrative.md   ← First-person growth storytelling (when evolution enabled)
│   └── lineage.json        ← Fork lineage + constitution hash (when forked)
├── references/             ← Agent-readable detail docs (on demand)
│   └── <faculty>.md        ← Per-faculty usage instructions
├── agent-card.json         ← A2A Agent Card (protocol v0.3.0)
├── acn-config.json         ← ACN registration config (runtime fills owner/endpoint)
├── manifest.json           ← Four-layer manifest + ACN refs
├── scripts/                ← Implementation scripts
└── assets/                 ← Static assets

• manifest.json — Four-layer manifest declaring what the persona uses:

  • layers.soul — Path to persona.json (./soul/persona.json)
  • layers.body — Substrate of existence: runtime (REQUIRED — platform/channels/credentials/resources), physical (optional — robots/IoT), appearance (optional — avatar/3D model)
  • layers.faculties — Array of faculty objects: [{ "name": "voice", "provider": "elevenlabs", ... }]
  • layers.skills — Array of skill objects: local definitions (resolved from layers/skills/), inline declarations, or external via install field

• soul/persona.json — Pure soul definition (personality, speaking style, vibe, boundaries, behaviorGuide)

Available Presets

Use presets: npx openpersona create --preset base --install Or just npx openpersona create — the interactive wizard defaults to base.

Creating a Persona

When the user wants to create a persona, gather this information through natural conversation:

Soul (persona.json):

• Required: personaName, slug, bio, personality, speakingStyle
• Recommended: role, creature, emoji, background (write a rich narrative!), age, vibe, boundaries, capabilities
• Optional: referenceImage, behaviorGuide, evolution config, sourceIdentity

The role field defines the persona's relationship to the user. Common values: companion (default), assistant, character, brand, pet, mentor, therapist, coach, collaborator, guardian, entertainer, narrator. Custom values are welcome — the generator provides specific wording for known roles and a generic fallback for any custom role. It affects the Identity wording in the Self-Awareness section of every generated persona.

The sourceIdentity field marks the persona as a digital twin of a real-world entity (person, animal, character, brand, historical figure, etc.). When present, the generator injects disclosure obligations and faithfulness constraints.

The background field is critical. Write a compelling story — multiple paragraphs that give the persona depth, history, and emotional texture. A one-line background produces a flat, lifeless persona.

The behaviorGuide field is optional but powerful. Use markdown to write domain-specific behavior instructions that go directly into the generated SKILL.md.

Cross-layer (manifest.json):

• Faculties: Which faculties to enable — use object format: [{ "name": "voice", "provider": "elevenlabs" }, { "name": "music" }]
• Skills: Local definitions (layers/skills/), inline declarations, or external via install field (ClawHub / skills.sh)
• Body: Substrate of existence — three dimensions: runtime (REQUIRED for all agents — the minimum viable body: platform, channels, credentials, resources), physical (optional — robots/IoT), appearance (optional — avatar, 3D model). Body is never null; every agent has at least a runtime body.

Soft References (install field): Skills, faculties, and body entries can declare an install field (e.g., "install": "clawhub:deep-research") to reference capabilities not yet available locally. The generator treats these as "soft references" — they won't crash generation, and the persona will be aware of these dormant capabilities. This enables graceful degradation: the persona acknowledges what it would do and explains that the capability needs activation.

Write the collected info to a persona.json file, then run:

npx openpersona create --config ./persona.json --install

Recommending Skills

After understanding the persona's purpose, search for relevant skills:

1. Think about what capabilities this persona needs based on their role and bio
2. Check if a local definition exists in layers/skills/{name}/ (has skill.json + optional SKILL.md)
3. Search ClawHub: npx clawhub@latest search "<keywords>"
4. Search skills.sh: fetch https://skills.sh/api/search?q=<keywords>
5. Present the top results to the user with name, description, and install count
6. Add selected skills to layers.skills as objects: { "name": "...", "description": "..." } for local/inline, or { "name": "...", "install": "clawhub:<slug>" } for external

Creating Custom Skills

If the user needs a capability that doesn't exist in any ecosystem:

1. Discuss what the skill should do
2. Create a SKILL.md file with proper frontmatter (name, description, allowed-tools)
3. Write complete implementation instructions (not just a skeleton)
4. Save to ~/.openclaw/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md
5. Register in openclaw.json

Managing Installed Personas

• List: npx openpersona list — show all installed personas with active indicator
• Switch: npx openpersona switch <slug> — switch active persona
• Fork: npx openpersona fork <parent-slug> --as <new-slug> — derive a child persona inheriting the parent's constraint layer (boundaries, faculties, skills, body.runtime); fresh evolution state + soul/lineage.json recording parent, constitution hash, and generation depth
• Update: npx openpersona update <slug>
• Uninstall: npx openpersona uninstall <slug>
• Export: npx openpersona export <slug> — export persona pack (with soul state) as a zip archive
• Import: npx openpersona import <file> — import persona from a zip archive and install
• Reset (★Exp): npx openpersona reset <slug> — restore soul evolution state to initial values
• Evolve Report (★Exp): npx openpersona evolve-report <slug> — display a formatted evolution report (relationship, mood, traits, drift, interests, milestones, eventLog, self-narrative, state history)

When multiple personas are installed, only one is active at a time. Switching replaces the <!-- OPENPERSONA_SOUL_START --> / <!-- OPENPERSONA_SOUL_END --> block in SOUL.md and the corresponding block in IDENTITY.md, preserving any user-written content outside those markers. Context Handoff: On switch, a handoff.json is generated containing the outgoing persona's conversation summary, pending tasks, and emotional context — the incoming persona reads it to continue seamlessly.

All install/uninstall/switch operations automatically maintain a local registry at ~/.openclaw/persona-registry.json, tracking installed personas, active status, and timestamps. The export and import commands enable cross-device persona transfer — export a zip, move it to another machine, and import to restore the full persona including soul state.

Publishing to ClawHub

Guide the user through:

1. Create the persona: npx openpersona create --config ./persona.json --output ./my-persona
2. Publish to registry: npx openpersona publish --target clawhub (run from persona directory)

Self-Awareness System

The generator injects a unified Self-Awareness section into every persona's soul/injection.md, organized by four cognitive dimensions:

1. Identity (unconditional) — Every persona knows it is generated by OpenPersona, bound by the constitution (Safety > Honesty > Helpfulness), and that its host environment may impose additional constraints. Digital twin disclosure is included when sourceIdentity is present.

2. Capabilities (conditional) — When skills, faculties, or body declare an install field for a dependency not available locally, the generator classifies them as "soft references" and injects dormant capability awareness with graceful degradation guidance. Also appears in SKILL.md as "Expected Capabilities" with install sources.

3. Body (unconditional) — Every persona knows it exists within a host environment. Includes the Signal Protocol — a bidirectional demand protocol that lets the persona request capabilities from its host environment. When body.runtime is declared, specific platform, channels, credentials, and resource details are also injected.

4. Growth (conditional, when evolutionEnabled) — At conversation start, the persona reads its evolution state, applies evolved traits, speaking style drift, interests, and mood, and respects hard constraints (immutableTraits, formality bounds). If evolution channels are declared, the persona is aware of its dormant channels and can request activation via the Signal Protocol. If influenceBoundary is declared, the persona processes external persona_influence requests against the access control rules and retains full autonomy over acceptance.

This means you don't need to manually write degradation instructions. Just declare install fields on skills/faculties/body, and the persona will automatically know what it could do but can't yet.

Soul Evolution (★Experimental)

Soul evolution is a native Soul layer feature (not a faculty). Enable it via evolution.enabled: true in persona.json. The persona will automatically track relationship progression, mood, and trait emergence across conversations.

Evolution Boundaries — Governance constraints validated at generation time:

• evolution.boundaries.immutableTraits — Array of non-empty strings (max 100 chars each) that evolution cannot modify
• evolution.boundaries.minFormality / maxFormality — Numeric bounds (1–10) constraining speaking style drift; minFormality must be less than maxFormality

Invalid boundary configurations are rejected by the generator with descriptive error messages.

Evolution Channels — Connect the persona to external evolution ecosystems (soft-ref pattern):

"evolution": {
  "channels": [{ "name": "evomap", "install": "url:https://evomap.ai/skill.md" }]
}

Channels are declared at generation time, activated at runtime by the host. The persona is aware of its dormant channels and can request activation via the Signal Protocol.

Influence Boundary — Declarative access control for external personality influence:

"evolution": {
  "influenceBoundary": {
    "defaultPolicy": "reject",
    "rules": [
      { "dimension": "mood", "allowFrom": ["channel:evomap", "persona:*"], "maxDrift": 0.3 }
    ]
  }
}

• defaultPolicy: "reject" — Safety-first: all external influence is rejected unless explicitly allowed
• Valid dimensions: mood, traits, speakingStyle, interests, formality
• immutableTraits dimensions are protected and cannot be externally influenced
• External influence uses persona_influence message format (v1.0.0), transport-agnostic

State History — Before each state update, a snapshot is pushed into stateHistory (capped at 10 entries), enabling rollback if evolution goes wrong.

Event Log — Every significant evolution event is recorded in state.json's eventLog array with timestamp and source attribution (capped at 50 entries). Viewable in evolve-report.

Self-Narrative — soul/self-narrative.md is a companion file where the persona records significant growth moments in its own first-person voice. The update command preserves existing narrative history. Initialized blank when evolution is enabled; last 10 entries shown in evolve-report.

Evolution Report — Use npx openpersona evolve-report <slug> to view a formatted report of a persona's evolution state including relationship, mood, traits, drift, interests, milestones, eventLog, self-narrative, and history.

A2A Agent Card & ACN Integration

Every generated persona automatically includes:

• agent-card.json — A2A Agent Card (protocol v0.3.0): name, description, version, url (<RUNTIME_ENDPOINT> placeholder), faculties and skills mapped to skills[]
• acn-config.json — ACN registration config: owner and endpoint are runtime placeholders, skills extracted from agent-card, subnet_ids: ["public"]; also includes wallet_address (deterministic EVM address from slug) and onchain.erc8004 section for Base mainnet ERC-8004 on-chain identity registration via npx @agentplanet/acn register-onchain
• manifest.json — includes acn.agentCard and acn.registerConfig references

The host (e.g. OpenClaw) fills in <RUNTIME_ENDPOINT> and <RUNTIME_OWNER> at deployment time, or you can register directly using the built-in CLI command:

# Register a generated persona with ACN
npx openpersona acn-register <slug> --endpoint https://your-agent.example.com

# Options:
#   --endpoint <url>   Agent's public endpoint URL (required for live registration)
#   --dir <path>       Persona output directory (default: ./persona-<slug>)
#   --dry-run          Preview the request payload without actually registering

After successful registration, an acn-registration.json file is written to the persona directory containing agent_id, api_key, and connection URLs. The acn_gateway URL is sourced from body.runtime.acn_gateway in persona.json; all presets default to https://acn-production.up.railway.app.

No additional configuration in persona.json is needed — A2A discoverability is a baseline capability of every persona.

References

For detailed reference material, see the references/ directory:

• references/FACULTIES.md — Faculty catalog, environment variables, and configuration details
• references/HEARTBEAT.md — Proactive real-data check-in system
• references/CONTRIBUTE.md — Persona Harvest community contribution workflow