write-terva-persona

Writing a terva persona

Use this skill when the user asks to create, add, or write a persona — a custom agent identity, a "voice," or a focused specialist (a security reviewer, a test strategist, a docs reviewer …). Skim it first, then collaborate on the one persona they want and write it where terva resolves it.

Persona vs skill vs extension — pick the right one first

Three different things; a request for "a persona" or "an identity" lands here:

• A persona is who is helping: identity, voice, and a behavioral charter that focuses the agent on a specialty. It shapes the system prompt's identity layer. Reach for it for "make a security-review agent", "give the agent this personality", "a reviewer persona".
• A skill (write-terva-skill) is how to do a task: a reusable instruction set loaded on demand. Reach for it for a workflow/checklist.
• An extension (write-terva-extension) is what can be done: code that adds a tool, command, or hook. Reach for it for new capability.

A persona never grants tools or changes permissions — that's the extension / permission layer. A persona only shapes identity and focus.

Anatomy of a persona

A persona is a single Markdown file: YAML frontmatter + a charter body.

---
name: Vartija
pronunciation: VAR-tee-yah
specialty: security review
summary: Evidence-first application-security engineer for source-code review.
emoji: 🛡️
accent_color: "#f7768e"
recommended_skills: []
good_for: [secure-code-review, threat-modeling, vulnerability-triage]
avoid_for: [pure-style-review]
---

Review source code as a security engineer. Inspect before judging. Prioritize
exploitable issues over checklist noise. For each finding give evidence, the
affected path, attacker capability, impact, severity rationale, and a concrete
remediation. Never call a vulnerability confirmed unless reachable context
supports it.

Frontmatter fields:

• name (required) — the persona's name, shown in the identity line and banner. A persona with no name is invalid.
• pronunciation (optional) — an English-speaker hint ("VAR-tee-yah"), shown as "Name (pronunciation)". There is no source for this but you — author it.
• specialty (optional) — a short label for terva persona list and humans.
• summary (optional) — one model-facing-safe line; the only field that would ever surface from an untrusted persona (see Trust below).
• emoji, accent_color (optional) — display only; accent_color must be #RRGGBB.
• recommended_skills (optional) — skill names only; never paste skill bodies into a persona.
• good_for / avoid_for (optional) — selection hints. Inert in this version (they document intent and seed future dispatch); nothing enforces avoid_for.