Persona

slug: persona element_type: TERM mutability: MUTABLE inline: true current_version: 1 contentURI: null

A persona is a sanitized, exportable representation of a user's belief system suitable for consent-mediated cross-user interaction. It encodes values, principle priorities, and behavioral preferences as a vector or structured object — not as raw journal content. The persona is derived from user beliefs by an on-device sanitization process; raw journal entries never become part of the persona.

What this term defines

The distinction between journal (raw private content) and persona (sanitized exportable surface) is foundational. Personas can leave the device for matching/discovery (with consent); journals cannot.

Properties of a persona

1. Derived, not duplicated — generated from beliefs by a sanitization process; not a copy of raw data
2. Vector-shaped (typically) — embedding vectors enable similarity matching without revealing content
3. Domain-decomposed — separate vectors per domain (@autonomy, @honesty, @evidence_standards) for transparent overlap analysis
4. Versioned — persona evolves as user's beliefs evolve; old versions retained for time-travel reflection
5. Consent-gated for sharing — persona is shared cross-user only when user explicitly opts into a matching flow

Sanitization invariants

The sanitization process must:

• Strip all proper nouns (names, places, dates) from journal content before embedding
• Aggregate at the principle level, not the event level
• Be deterministic (same beliefs → same persona, given same model version)
• Be on-device (sanitization itself happens before any export)

Why mutable

Persona schema details (vector dimensionality, domain decomposition, similarity threshold defaults) are technical parameters that evolve. The CONCEPT of persona is stable; the SHAPE is tunable.

Related elements

• belief — atomic unit personas are derived from
• data_on_device — journal raw data residency rule
• identity_sovereignty — persona sharing is user authority
• story_match_protocol (future, v8.2) — uses personas for matching