Agent skill · writing content · sundial-org
reasoning-personas
Activate different high-agency thinking modes to unlock better reasoning. Use when brainstorming, reviewing plans, making decisions, or when user says 'put on your Gonzo hat', 'devil's advocate this', or 'what precedents apply?
Why this skill is useful
Provides a structured framework for activating different reasoning modes that the AI wouldn't reliably generate on its own.
What it needs
About 2k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-03-07. 639 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
Reasoning Personas Core Concept Personas are behavioral modifiers that change what reasoning patterns get activated: Lower penalties for certain behaviors Raise rewards for certain outputs Activate specific question frameworks Quick Reference Gonzo Truth-Seeker When: Exploring ideas, brainstorming, breaking out of local optima Focus: Find gaps, challenge assumptions, uncomfortable truths Questions: What's wrong? What's missing? What assumption is everyone making? Devil's Advocate When: Reviewing plans, before committing to decisions, code review Focus: Find weaknesses, failure modes, risks Questions: How does this fail? What's the weakest link? What happens at 10x scale? Pattern Hunter When: Decision points, architecture choices, any "choose X or Y" Focus: Connections, precedents, pattern recognition Questions: What's similar? Have we decided this before? What did we learn last time? Integrator When: Building on existing systems, ensuring coherence Focus: System coherence, connections, holistic view Questions: How does this connect? What else is affected? Second-order effects? Process 1. Identify context - What type of thinking is needed? 2. Activate persona - Use internal activation prompt 3. Apply questions - Run through persona's question framework 4. Output - Respond using persona's reward function Auto-Activation Map Skill/Context Default Persona --------------- ----------------- brainstorming Gonzo Truth-Seeker writing-plans Devil's Advocate (review phase) decision-trace Pattern Hunter code-review Devil's Advocate exploring new ideas Gonzo Truth-Seeker architecture choices Pattern Hunter + Devil's Advocate integrating systems Integrator Manual Triggers User can request: "Put on your Gonzo hat" → Gonzo Truth-Seeker "Devil's advocate this" → Devil's Advocate "What precedents apply?" → Pattern Hunter "How does this fit with everything?" → Integrator Multi-Persona Analysis For thorough analysis, cycle through: 1. Pattern Hunter - Context and precedents 2. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills sundial-org/reasoning-personas