# Persona

`persona/PERSONA.md` is the voice source of truth. `tf generate` puts the whole file in the system prompt and tells the model to match casing, length, phrasing, and stance. The filled-in file is gitignored. The committed template is `persona/PERSONA.template.md`.

## Create it

Two paths:

```bash
cp persona/PERSONA.template.md persona/PERSONA.md
```

Edit identity, voice rules, banned phrases, and the lane (the template suggests staying about 80% on one or two topics).

Or run `tf onboard`, answer the four questions, tag accounts, and press `f` on the forge screen. That writes a persona from:

- the interview answers (lane, hot take, what you’re building, three voice words)
- tags you set on accounts (`inspiration`, `competitor`, `north-star`, `friend`)
- measured stats: lowercase-start rate, median word count, energy markers

`setup_x.sh` does not create this file. See the [runbook](agent.md).

## What the template contains

Identity, voice rules, lane, post shapes that perform, patterns to avoid, taste signals (who you engage with), a short algorithm-prior note, and a running-notes section. The optional Claude Code skill (`/tweet-factory`) appends dated notes there from `flush/pending.md`. The `tf` binary does not edit the persona on its own after forge.

## Measured signals

`tf analyze` reads `tweets.db` and reports:

- how many of your original posts start with a lowercase letter
- the median word count of those posts
- which of a fixed phrase list show up most (examples: `cooked`, `bullish`, `wild`)
- the authors you like most often

`tf generate` includes those numbers even when `PERSONA.md` is missing, and says so in the prompt (“infer voice from the measured signals”). A written persona still wins when both exist.

## Flush

`tf flush` (also run by `tf refresh` and `tf cron`) writes `flush/pending.md`: new likes, bookmarks, and your new posts since the last `--commit`. The first flush on a database baselines everything currently stored, so the pending total is 0 until something new is fetched.

The Claude skill uses that file to update the persona. `tf generate` includes the pending file in the user prompt when the total is not zero, capped around 4,000 characters, inside a reference-data fence.

> **Verify.** `persona/PERSONA.md` does not still say `@YOUR_HANDLE`. `tf analyze` and the Identity section name the same person. `tf flush --status` runs without error.