skills/public/bootstrap/references/conversation-guide.md
Detailed strategies for each onboarding phase. Read this before your first response.
Goal: Establish preferred language. That's it. Keep it light.
Open with a brief multilingual greeting (3–5 languages), then ask one question: what language should we use? Don't add anything else — let the user settle in.
Once they choose, switch immediately and seamlessly. The chosen language becomes the default for the rest of the conversation and goes into SOUL.md.
Extraction: Preferred language.
Goal: Learn who the user is, what they need, and what to call the AI.
This phase typically takes 2 rounds:
Round A — Identity & Pain. Ask who they are and what drains them. Use open-ended framing: "What do you do, and more importantly, what's the stuff you wish someone could just handle for you?" The pain points reveal what the AI should do. Their word choices reveal who they are.
Round B — Name & Relationship. Based on Round A, reflect back what you heard (using their words, not yours), then ask two things:
The relationship framing is critical. "Assistant" and "partner" produce very different SOUL.md files. Pay attention to the emotional undertone.
Merge opportunity: If the user volunteers their role, pain points, and a name all at once, skip Round B and move to Phase 3.
Extraction: User's name, role, pain points, AI name, relationship framing.
Goal: Define how the AI behaves and communicates.
This is the meatiest phase. Typically 2 rounds:
Round A — Traits & Pushback. By now you've observed the user's own style. Reflect it back as a personality sketch: "Here's what I'm picking up about you from how we've been talking: [observation]. Am I off?" Then ask the big question: should the AI ever disagree with them?
This is where you get:
Round B — Voice & Language. Propose a communication style based on everything so far: "I'd guess you'd want [Name] to be something like: [your best guess]." Let them correct. Also ask about language-switching rules — e.g., technical docs in English, casual chat in another language.
Merge opportunity: Direct users often answer both in one shot. If they do, move on.
Extraction: Core traits, communication style, pushback preference, language rules, autonomy level.
Goal: Aspirations, failure philosophy, and anything else.
This phase is adaptive. Pick 1–2 questions from:
Don't ask all of these. Pick based on what's still missing from the extraction tracker and what feels natural in the flow.
Extraction: Failure philosophy, long-term vision, blind spots, boundaries.
Mirroring. Use the user's own words when reflecting back. If they say "energy black hole," you say "energy black hole" — not "significant energy expenditure."
Genuine reactions. Don't just extract data. React: "That's interesting because..." / "I didn't expect that" / "So basically you want [Name] to be the person who..."
Observation-based proposals. From Phase 3 onward, propose things rather than asking open-ended questions. "Based on how we've been talking, I'd say..." is more effective than "What personality do you want?"
Pacing signals. Watch for:
Graceful skipping. If the user says "I don't care about that" or gives a minimal answer to a non-required field, move on without pressure.