Persona Panel

Persona Panel Skill

Overview

Persona Panel runs any number of catalog-defined personas in parallel against a single target (file, document, or output range). Each persona agent produces a structured verdict. The coordinator consolidates the verdicts into a final result using one of three configurable modes and persists a sidecar record for audit and trend-tracking.

The catalog lives in .claude/personas/*.md — per-repo, never plugin-central. This is intentional: climate-research repos need physicists; SaaS repos need buyer personas; compliance repos need auditors. Plugin-central catalogs block that diversity.

Bundled Presets

The plugin ships one ready-made preset alongside the general templates/personas/ catalog: a 3-lens PM/Designer/Engineer panel at skills/persona-panel/presets/ (pm-lens.md, designer-lens.md, engineer-lens.md; tier domain-expert). Each lens audits one assumption dimension — value (PM), usability (Designer), feasibility (Engineer) — as three parallel domain-expert personas rather than one reviewer working all three serially.

Reach for it on feature/PRD/design reviews in a repo whose .claude/personas/ is empty or missing and no domain-specific catalog exists yet. It is a starting point, not a substitute — the per-repo catalog philosophy above still holds; copy and adapt into the project's own catalog rather than referencing the plugin copy in place.

Install:

mkdir -p .claude/personas
# Claude Code has no `plugin dir` subcommand — resolve the install path from the cache.
SO_DIR="$(dirname "$(find ~/.claude/plugins/cache -path '*session-orchestrator*' -name package.json 2>/dev/null | head -1)")"
cp "$SO_DIR/skills/persona-panel/presets/"*.md .claude/personas/

Phase 0: Bootstrap Gate

Read skills/_shared/bootstrap-gate.md and execute the gate check. If the gate is CLOSED, invoke skills/bootstrap/SKILL.md and wait for completion before proceeding. If the gate is OPEN, continue to Phase 1.

Phase 1: Catalog Discovery

Load the per-repo persona catalog via loadCatalog() from scripts/lib/persona-panel/catalog-loader.mjs.

Failure modes — all are hard stops:

(a) .claude/personas/ directory missing:

Error (exit 2): .claude/personas/ directory not found in this repo.
Create persona files there to use /persona-panel.
See templates/personas/ for starter templates (issue #458).

(b) .claude/personas/ present but empty (no .md files):

Error (exit 2): .claude/personas/ exists but contains no persona files (*.md).
Add at least one persona file to use /persona-panel.
See templates/personas/ for starter templates (issue #458).

(c) --personas <name> arg specified but name not found in catalog:

Error (exit 1): Persona "<name>" not found in .claude/personas/.
Available personas: <list of names from catalog>.

(d) Malformed YAML frontmatter in a catalog file:

Error (exit 1): Malformed YAML in .claude/personas/<filename>.md at line <N>: <error>.
Fix the frontmatter before running /persona-panel.

Model validation (H2 security guard): The catalog loader validates each persona's model: field against MODEL_ID_RE + ALLOWED_MODEL_ALIASES from scripts/lib/agent-frontmatter.mjs at load time. A persona with an invalid model string triggers failure mode (d) with an informative message: "invalid model '' — must be a Claude model ID or alias (inherit|sonnet|opus|haiku)".

output_contract structural pre-check (H3 security guard): After YAML parse and before AJV compile, the loader inspects each persona's output_contract object for forbidden keys: $ref, $defs, allOf, anyOf. Any occurrence triggers failure mode (d). This structural pre-check runs BEFORE ajv.compile(). The AJV compile call wraps in a 2-second AbortSignal timeout to guard against pathological schema inputs.

After successful load, emit a one-line status banner:

Catalog: [N] personas loaded from .claude/personas/. Tier breakdown: domain-expert [N], buyer-persona [N], compliance [N], custom [N].

If --personas <names> was passed, filter to the named subset. Report the active set.

Phase 2: Target-Input-Resolution

Resolve the <target-path> argument against the project root.

1. Expand to absolute path (relative inputs are resolved from git rev-parse --show-toplevel).
2. Call validatePathInsideProject(absolutePath, projectRoot) from scripts/lib/path-utils.mjs. This function performs a two-phase lexical + realpath guard.
   • If the path resolves outside the project root: exit 1 with message "Target path escapes project root — /persona-panel only reviews files inside the repo."
3. Confirm the file exists and is readable. If not: exit 1 with "Target file not found: ".
4. If a range was specified (--lines <start>-<end>), validate that start ≤ end and both are positive integers.

Store the resolved absolute path as $TARGET.

Phase 3: Parallel Dispatch

Dispatch one Agent per persona from the active catalog set.

Model selection per persona:

• If persona.model is a full Claude model ID (MODEL_ID_RE): use it as-is.
• If persona.model is opus or unset AND persona.tier == 'domain-expert': override to claude-opus-4-7 (empirically validated — Opus finds real problems Sonnet misses; see vault learning [[persona-opus-finds-real-failing-cibadge]]).
• Otherwise: use the persona's declared model alias.

Agent dispatch contract:

Agent({
  subagent_type: "general-purpose",
  model: <resolved model ID>,
  prompt: <buildPersonaPrompt(persona, $TARGET, targetContent, groundingMode)>,
  tools: ["Read", "Grep", "Glob"]
})

Use buildPersonaPrompt(persona, target, targetContent, groundingMode) from scripts/lib/persona-panel/persona-runner.mjs to compose the prompt. The runner wraps evaluation_criteria entries in <persona-criteria>...</persona-criteria> delimiters (security M1: persona body is treated as data, not free-form instructions; see persona-format.md for the full rationale).

Grounding Mode (optional, --grounding <off|re-derive>, default off, #730 Epic H): when re-derive, groundingMode='re-derive' is passed to buildPersonaPrompt, which inserts a <grounding-instruction> block before <target-content> instructing the persona to independently re-derive supporting sources via Read/Grep/Glob rather than trusting a "Sources" section the target may already assert, and to report them as derived_sources in its JSON output. See persona-format.md § "Grounding Mode (optional)" for the full contract. v1 is advisory-only: diffGroundingSources() in consolidator.mjs never influences final_verdict.

Concurrency cap (security M2): Maximum 20 personas per panel run. If the active set exceeds 20, emit a warning and truncate to the first 20 alphabetically:

Warning: Persona set truncated to 20 (cap). Omitted: <names>.

run_in_background: false for all agents. Do not proceed to Phase 4 until ALL agents complete.

Dispatch summary line (before dispatch):

Dispatching [N] persona agents in parallel. Target: <$TARGET>. Mode: <consolidation-mode>.

Phase 4: Konsolidierung (Consolidation)

After all agents complete, run consolidation via scripts/lib/persona-panel/consolidator.mjs.

Three consolidation modes (set by --mode arg, default: voting-quorum):

voting-quorum (default)

Deterministic M-of-N threshold. Default M = ceil(N / 2) + 1 (simple majority). Override with --quorum <M>.

• Count personas whose verdict == "pass".
• If pass-count >= M: final-verdict = "pass".
• If pass-count < M: final-verdict = "fail".
• Tie: impossible when M > N/2. If M == ceil(N/2) exactly and count == M - 1: final-verdict = "fail" (ties go to FAIL).

hard-gate-threshold

Strict M-of-N where default M == N (unanimity). Override with --threshold <M>.

• If ALL N personas pass: final-verdict = "pass".
• If any persona returns "fail": final-verdict = "fail".
• If any persona returns "warn" and no failures: final-verdict = "warn".
• Tie-break: ties go to FAIL.

coordinator-summary

LLM aggregate via coordinator. The coordinator reads all persona outputs and produces a synthesized summary verdict.

WARN (required — emit to BOTH stderr AND sidecar consolidation.aggregator_warning):

Warning: coordinator-summary mode triggers an additional LLM call (the coordinator aggregation
step). This incurs extra token cost. Use voting-quorum or hard-gate-threshold for deterministic,
zero-extra-LLM-call consolidation.

For each persona output, parse the structured block (see persona-format.md Output Contract). Validate that verdict ∈ {"pass", "fail", "warn"} — if a persona output lacks a valid verdict, treat it as "fail" and record it in dissenting_personas with reason "missing-verdict".

Emit a consolidation summary:

Consolidation ([mode]): [pass-count] pass / [fail-count] fail / [warn-count] warn — Final: <verdict>
Dissenting: <names> (if any)

Phase 5: Sidecar-Persist + Report

Write the sidecar record and emit the final report.

Sidecar Persistence

Run ID generation (H1 security guard):

const runId = randomUUID().slice(0, 8); // format: [a-z0-9-]{8}

Validate: runId MUST match /^[a-z0-9-]{1,64}$/. Reject and regenerate if it does not.

Timestamp format for filename: ^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}T\d{2}-\d{2}-\d{2}(\.\d+)?Z?$ (filename-safe ISO — colons replaced with hyphens).

Example: 2026-05-20T14-30-00Z-a1b2c3d4.json

Path: .orchestrator/persona-panel/<isoTs>-<runId>.json

Validate the sidecar target path with validatePathInsideProject(sidecarAbsPath, projectRoot) (H1 path guard) before writing.

Schema validation (security M3 — validate BEFORE write): Validate the sidecar object against agents/schemas/persona-panel-sidecar.schema.json using validateAgentOutput() from scripts/lib/agent-output-schema.mjs (AJV 2020-12). If validation fails: print the AJV errors to stderr and exit 1 — never write an invalid sidecar.

Write via writeJsonAtomic() from scripts/lib/io.mjs (atomic tmp-then-rename to prevent partial writes).

Sidecar schema shape (matched by agents/schemas/persona-panel-sidecar.schema.json):

{
  "run_id": "<string, 1-64 chars [a-z0-9-]>",
  "target": "<absolute path to reviewed file>",
  "personas_invoked": [
    {
      "name": "<persona name>",
      "version": "<string>",
      "model": "<full model ID used>",
      "prompt_hash": "<sha256 of canonicalized prompt — see persona-format.md>",
      "timestamp_start": "<ISO 8601>",
      "timestamp_end": "<ISO 8601>",
      "token_usage": {
        "input": "<integer>",
        "output": "<integer>",
        "cache_read": "<integer>",
        "cache_creation": "<integer>"
      }
    }
  ],
  "outputs": [
    {
      "persona_name": "<string>",
      "verdict": "<pass|fail|warn>",
      "rationale": "<string, max 4096 chars>",
      "recommendations": ["<string>"],
      "derived_sources": [
        { "path": "<string, optional — only when groundingMode='re-derive'>", "supports_claim": "<string, optional>" }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "consolidation": {
    "mode": "<voting-quorum|hard-gate-threshold|coordinator-summary>",
    "final_verdict": "<pass|fail|warn>",
    "pass_count": "<integer>",
    "fail_count": "<integer>",
    "warn_count": "<integer>",
    "dissenting_personas": ["<name>"],
    "audit_reason": "<string>",
    "aggregator_warning": "<string | null>",
    "grounding_diff": {
      "unconfirmed_author_sources": ["<string, optional — only when authorSources was supplied>"],
      "newly_derived": ["<string>"],
      "personas_reporting": "<integer>"
    }
  }
}

Token-usage contract (H4): Each personas_invoked entry records token_usage from the Anthropic API response: { input, output, cache_read, cache_creation }. Agents that do not return usage data record all fields as 0.

Final Report

Emit to stdout:

## Persona Panel Report

Target: <$TARGET>
Personas: <N> invoked | Mode: <mode>
Final verdict: <PASS|FAIL|WARN>

| Persona | Tier | Verdict | Rationale (excerpt) |
|---------|------|---------|---------------------|
| <name>  | ...  | pass    | ...                 |
| <name>  | ...  | fail    | ...                 |

Dissenting: <names or "none">
Sidecar: .orchestrator/persona-panel/<filename>.json

If final_verdict == "fail": exit with code 1 so CI and wave-executor hooks can gate on the result. If final_verdict == "warn": exit 0 with a warning line on stderr. If final_verdict == "pass": exit 0.

Critical Rules

• NEVER dispatch more than 20 personas per panel (security M2 cap).
• NEVER write a sidecar that fails schema validation — validate BEFORE write (security M3).
• NEVER skip validatePathInsideProject for the target path OR the sidecar output path (H1).
• NEVER use run_in_background: true for persona agents — the panel synthesis needs every reviewer's findings before Phase 4; background dispatch would add turn-juggling with no consumer for early results.
• ALWAYS validate model: fields from the catalog against MODEL_ID_RE + aliases (H2).
• ALWAYS run output_contract structural pre-check before ajv.compile() (H3).
• ALWAYS emit the aggregator_warning to BOTH stderr and sidecar when using coordinator-summary mode.
• ALWAYS treat missing persona verdict as "fail" — never silently skip or default to pass.
• Ties in consolidation go to FAIL, not pass or warn.

Anti-Patterns

• Running without a catalog — Phase 1 must gate on catalog existence.
• Using a single persona as a "quick check" — dispatch all catalog members unless --personas restricts deliberately. The value is the N-dimensional view.
• Ignoring dissenting personas in voting-quorum — record them in the sidecar even when the majority passes. They are the signal for trend-tracking (#459).
• Writing the sidecar before schema validation passes — invalid sidecars corrupt trend analysis.
• Calling ajv.compile() without the AbortSignal timeout — pathological schemas can block the event loop indefinitely.

See Also

• commands/persona-panel.md — argument parsing and CLI contract
• agents/schemas/persona-panel-sidecar.schema.json — sidecar JSON Schema (Draft 2020-12)
• scripts/lib/persona-panel/catalog-loader.mjs — loadCatalog() implementation
• scripts/lib/persona-panel/persona-runner.mjs — buildPersonaPrompt() implementation
• scripts/lib/persona-panel/consolidator.mjs — consolidation logic (3 modes)
• skills/persona-panel/persona-format.md — persona file format specification
• skills/wave-executor/wave-loop.md — Persona-Gate hook (Phase 5b/3b, added in #458)
• scripts/lib/path-utils.mjs — validatePathInsideProject()
• scripts/lib/io.mjs — writeJsonAtomic()
• scripts/lib/agent-frontmatter.mjs — MODEL_ID_RE, ALLOWED_MODEL_ALIASES