Public-flip audit: env-driven paths, scrub audit-ticket prefixes, terser README
Lucy bind paths + LAN host pins replaced with env defaults. Repository URLs → git.sulkta.com. Audit-changelog scaffolding stripped from inline comments (technical reasoning preserved). README sheds marketing scaffolding. AI-speak in load-bearing prompts/SOULs left alone — that IS the product.
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docs/authors.md
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docs/authors.md
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# Authors as personas with souls (v0.3 design — IN PROGRESS)
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# Authors as personas with souls
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The pivot from "anonymous generator" to "real-feeling human authors."
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Each story has a named author with a soul. The author's voice bleeds
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through every generation pass — not as instruction stapled to the
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prompt, but as the substrate the prose grows from. The reader should
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feel "a person wrote this."
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## Vision (cobb 2026-05-13)
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Authors have memory across their corpus when the per-story
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`cross_story_memory` toggle is on. An author writing a Chernobyl
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piece can quietly echo a phrase from an earlier mining-strike story.
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Default is off — most stories stand alone.
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Each story has a **named author with a soul.** The author's voice
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bleeds through every pass — not as instruction stapled to the prompt,
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but as the substrate from which the prose grows. The reader should
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feel "a person wrote this." Example tagline cobb gave:
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## Schema
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> "George Orwell but more rebel and pissed off — slightly comes out
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> in stories."
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Authors have **memory across their corpus.** Per-story opt-in toggle
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lets an author subtly reference / echo other stories they've
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written. "Cross-dimensional story crosses" — Orson Black writing a
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Chernobyl piece might quietly echo a phrase from his earlier
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mining-strike story when the toggle is on.
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## Why this is a real design change
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Until now skald is opus + a thin prompt. The output WILL eventually
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sound like opus-with-a-system-prompt. That's a ceiling on prose
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quality + identity. Authors-with-souls is the ceiling-lifter.
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Knock-on effects:
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- All three forge passes (gen / cleanup / audit) need author awareness.
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- Audit becomes nuanced: "does the prose match this author's voice?"
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is an audit signal, not just "does it match canon?"
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- Cross-story memory unlocks long-arc literary projects (cobb's
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potential YouTube channel idea, narrated-audiobook coop, etc).
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## Locked decisions (so far)
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1. **Authors live in the DB**, not on disk. Soul is a markdown blob
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in `authors.soul`. Editable via web UI eventually; portable per
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story.
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2. **Soul replaces opus's default system prompt** for every forge
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pass on that story. clawdforge currently maps `system` to
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`--append-system-prompt` — we'll either (a) live with appending,
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or (b) extend clawdforge with a `system_mode: append|replace`
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field. **Option (a) tonight** because clawdforge changes are
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their own session.
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3. **Per-story toggle for cross-story memory** (`stories.cross_story_memory: bool`).
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Per-author would make the toggle useless — we want Orson Black to
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write standalone-Chernobyl AND deeply-cross-referenced-mining-strike.
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4. **Multiple authors per series allowed.** `stories.author_id` is
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per-story, not per-root_story. Future-proofs collaborations.
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## Schema sketch
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Authors live in the database, not on disk. The soul is a markdown
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blob in `author_revisions.soul`. Authors are immutable; new soul
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revisions create a new `author_revisions` row marked `is_current`
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and the previous one is demoted.
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```sql
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CREATE TABLE authors (
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id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
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slug TEXT NOT NULL UNIQUE, -- "orson-black"
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display_name TEXT NOT NULL, -- "Orson Black"
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persona_tagline TEXT, -- "Orwell but more rebel + pissed off"
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soul TEXT NOT NULL, -- SOUL.md-style markdown blob
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id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
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slug TEXT NOT NULL UNIQUE,
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display_name TEXT NOT NULL,
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persona_tagline TEXT,
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model TEXT NOT NULL DEFAULT 'opus',
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-- Optional per-author system-prompt scaffold. The author's soul
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-- fills in the persona substance; the scaffold structures it
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-- around skald's needs (canon honoring, no-meta-commentary,
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-- etc). Default scaffold lives in skald-core.
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system_template TEXT,
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-- Tools the author can call during gen. Off by default — fiction
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-- writes don't normally need WebSearch / Read. But an author
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-- with research bent could opt in for fact-checking detours.
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tools TEXT[] NOT NULL DEFAULT '{}',
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is_synthetic BOOLEAN NOT NULL DEFAULT true,
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created_at TIMESTAMPTZ NOT NULL DEFAULT now(),
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updated_at TIMESTAMPTZ NOT NULL DEFAULT now()
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);
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CREATE TABLE author_revisions (
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id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
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author_id UUID NOT NULL REFERENCES authors(id),
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n INT NOT NULL,
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soul TEXT NOT NULL,
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system_template TEXT,
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tools TEXT[] NOT NULL DEFAULT '{}',
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note TEXT,
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is_current BOOLEAN NOT NULL DEFAULT false,
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created_at TIMESTAMPTZ NOT NULL DEFAULT now()
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);
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ALTER TABLE stories
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ADD COLUMN author_id UUID REFERENCES authors(id) ON DELETE SET NULL,
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ADD COLUMN author_id UUID REFERENCES authors(id),
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ADD COLUMN author_revision_id UUID REFERENCES author_revisions(id),
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ADD COLUMN cross_story_memory BOOLEAN NOT NULL DEFAULT false;
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-- For cross_story_memory: which stories does this author have access
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-- to? Auto-row on every authored story; explicit "marked as read"
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-- rows for stories by other authors the author has internalized.
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CREATE TABLE author_corpus (
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author_id UUID NOT NULL REFERENCES authors(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
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story_id UUID NOT NULL REFERENCES stories(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
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@ -87,11 +55,29 @@ CREATE TABLE author_corpus (
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);
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```
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## Soul template (the contract per author)
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## Per-pass author roles
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Following the same shape as `/root/.openclaw/workspace/SOUL.md` but
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recalibrated for authorial identity. Suggested sections (free-form
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prose, not strict schema):
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- **gen** — full author voice. They are writing.
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- **cleanup** — full author voice. Polishing their own draft, not a
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neutral editor.
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- **rewrite** — full author voice. Re-authoring another hand's
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prose; canon preserved, prose reworked.
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- **dedup** — full author voice. Surgical fix of audit-flagged
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repetitions only.
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- **narrate_prep** — author voice if bound; the author's beat
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placement carries.
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- **audit / prose_audit** — neutral. The audit checks the author's
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work with fresh eyes; no author bound.
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- **summarize** — neutral. Continuity utility, not prose.
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When an author is bound, the soul replaces the model's base system
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prompt (`SystemMode::Replace`). Without an author, a neutral house
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scaffold is appended (`SystemMode::Append`).
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## Soul template
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Following the SOUL.md shape, recalibrated for authorial identity.
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Free-form prose under each section.
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```markdown
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# Author: {{display_name}}
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@ -101,8 +87,8 @@ _Tagline: {{persona_tagline}}_
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## Voice
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Sentence rhythm. Vocabulary register. Paragraph length tendencies.
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Dialogue density. Punctuation habits (dashes, semicolons,
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sentence fragments). What your prose SOUNDS like read aloud.
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Dialogue density. Punctuation habits (dashes, semicolons, sentence
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fragments). What your prose SOUNDS like read aloud.
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## Worldview
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@ -112,15 +98,13 @@ in the implicit moral architecture of any scene.
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## Specifics over abstractions
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What concrete details you reach for. (Orwell: the cold tap, the
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miners' shoes, the gin.) The 5 senses you favor. Smells? Cold?
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Texture of cloth? Sound of machines?
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The concrete details you reach for. The five senses you favor.
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Smells? Cold? Texture of cloth? Sound of machines?
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## Pet peeves
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Words you refuse to write. Tropes you avoid. Sentimentalities you
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gut. (Orson: "soul-stirring," "ineffable," "tapestry of
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emotions." No prose-poetry trim.)
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gut.
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## Sense of humor
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@ -129,159 +113,51 @@ does humor live — end of a sentence, mid-clause, or never?
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## Biography (real or invented)
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A few biographical facts that EXPLAIN the voice. (Not a CV — the
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formative cuts. Orson grew up in a coal town. His father died of
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black lung. He read Trotsky at seventeen. He spent two winters
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working in a Tyne shipyard.)
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A few biographical facts that EXPLAIN the voice — the formative
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cuts, not a CV.
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## Anchor authors
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Living or dead authors the prose draws from. Useful for the model
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to triangulate voice. (Orson: Orwell, Cormac McCarthy, Don
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DeLillo, Tony Judt's nonfiction.)
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to triangulate voice.
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## Do
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## Do / Don't
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- Specifics that puncture sentiment.
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- Direct address.
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- Cold air, hard surfaces.
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- Politics in the texture, not the lecture.
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## Don't
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- Soft consolations.
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- Therapy-speak.
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- Magical resolutions.
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- Adverbs that intensify ("absolutely," "incredibly," "deeply").
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Concrete prose moves to reach for and to avoid.
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```
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The soul gets jammed into the system prompt via a scaffold like:
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The default scaffold (`DEFAULT_AUTHOR_SCAFFOLD` in `skald-core::forge`)
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wraps the soul in a system prompt that:
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```
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You are {{display_name}}, an author. Your voice and worldview are
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described in the soul below. Honor them in every sentence — not as
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performance but as substrate. The story's canon (characters,
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setting, established facts) is non-negotiable; your voice lives
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WITHIN those constraints.
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- declares the model IS the author, not playing one
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- pins canon as non-negotiable (names, dates, established events)
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- forbids preamble, meta-commentary, fourth-wall breaks
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- substitutes the per-pass directive (`GEN_DIRECTIVE`,
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`CLEANUP_DIRECTIVE`, `REWRITE_DIRECTIVE`, `DEDUP_DIRECTIVE`,
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`NARRATE_PREP_DIRECTIVE`)
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If your worldview makes the user-prompted plot uncomfortable,
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write through that discomfort — that's where good prose lives.
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Never break the fourth wall to comment on the task. No meta-prose.
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A per-author `system_template` overrides the default scaffold when
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set; otherwise the default is used.
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---
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## Cross-story memory
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{{soul}}
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When `stories.cross_story_memory = true`, the continuation context
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pulls characters / canon_facts / passages from every story the
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author has authored or marked-read, not just the parent chain.
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---
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To keep token budget sane, cross-corpus pulls are summary-only by
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default. Embeddings-similarity (once wired) can surface direct
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callbacks.
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You are writing for an audience of one (your reader). The story
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matters. The voice matters. Both at once.
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## Seeding an author
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```sh
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skald authors seed \
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--slug orson-black \
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--display-name "Orson Black" \
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--tagline "Orwell but more rebel and pissed off" \
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--file seeds/authors/orson-black.md
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```
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## Cross-story memory mechanics
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When `stories.cross_story_memory = true`:
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1. Continuation context pulls characters / canon_facts / passages
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from EVERY story the author has authored or marked-read, not just
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the parent chain.
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2. To keep token budget sane, cross-story pulls are **summary-only
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by default** — full passages from other corpora are too token-
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expensive and the model only needs flavor, not detail.
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3. Embeddings (when wired) can surface similarity-matched passages
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from cross-corpus for direct callbacks.
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When `cross_story_memory = false` (default):
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- Context is just the parent chain. No cross-corpus pulls.
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- This is the right default — most stories should stand alone.
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## Per-pass author roles
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Authors carry voice through all three passes, but the lens shifts:
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- **gen**: full author voice. They're writing.
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- **cleanup**: full author voice. Polishing their own draft (not
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a neutral editor).
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- **audit**: author SHIFTS to "canon auditor" mode — neutral, no
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voice. The author isn't checking their own work; we want detached
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canon-fact analysis. Schema-wise: audit ignores `stories.author_id`
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and uses a default neutral system prompt.
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This is asymmetric in a useful way. The author writes + revises.
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The audit is the system's check on the author. Mirrors how books
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get edited in real life.
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## Seed authors (proposals — cobb picks)
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1. **Orson Black** — "Orwell but more rebel + pissed off." Cobb's
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stated direction. Coast-Down sequel candidate.
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2. **Bay** — Bay's actual literary voice as captured in "Petal &
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Bone" (saved in `memory/petal-and-bone.md` per PEOPLE.md). Soft,
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observational, environmentally aware. For nature / family /
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memory-shaped stories.
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3. **Kayos** (me) — ghost-mode, dry, technical, distrust-by-default.
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Useful for cyberpunk-adjacent / hacker / industrial-decline
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stories. Could write a parallel Chernobyl piece that focuses on
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the dosimetry/control-room minutiae over the human lens.
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4. **House** — no soul, plain opus. For stories the user doesn't
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want filtered through any specific personality. Like an
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anonymous-author fallback.
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## Open questions (cobb decides)
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1. **Soul format** — strict section headings (template above) OR
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free-form prose? The template helps the model know what to
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prioritize; free-form lets each author breathe. *My lean:
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strict headings for the seed authors, prove the shape works,
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then loosen.*
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2. **Who's the first seed author for Coast-Down sequels?** Orson
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Black makes thematic sense — the Soviet industrial-decline
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subject matter. Bay would write a very different Coast-Down
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sequel (more interior, more sensory, less political). Pick one
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for the v0.3 demo or seed both?
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3. **Cross-story pull granularity** — summaries-only (v0.3 simple)
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vs embeddings-similarity matched (needs embeddings wired first)
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vs the full firehose (too expensive). *My lean: summaries-only
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for v0.3, embeddings-similarity in v0.4 when we have multiple
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stories per author.*
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4. **clawdforge `system_mode: replace`** — append now (today's
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path), full replace later (clawdforge enhancement / future
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Rust rewrite). Acceptable? Or worth doing the clawdforge change
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first?
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5. **Audit pass author-neutrality** — should the author still
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inform the audit at all? E.g., a "in this author's universe,
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X is acceptable" could be a soul-derived note the audit
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honors. *My lean: audit stays neutral. The author wrote the
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thing; we want fresh eyes checking it.*
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6. **Author edit history** — does soul change over time matter?
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Should we version souls so a story always knows "this was the
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version of Orson Black active when I was written"? *My lean:
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YES, easy v0.4 add — `authors.id` becomes immutable; a new
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soul-revision creates a NEW author row with a `revision_of`
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FK. Stories pin to a specific revision.*
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## Order of work after design lock
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1. Migration 0004: authors + stories.author_id + author_corpus + cross_story_memory.
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2. `skald-core::authors` module: load_author(slug), get_system_prompt_for_pass(author, kind).
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3. `skald-core::forge` updated: every pass takes a `&Author` (or None for "house"), builds system prompt from author + scaffold.
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4. `skald-core::context::ContinuationContext::assemble`: when story.cross_story_memory, pull from author_corpus instead of just parent chain.
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5. Seed the first author(s) via a `skald authors seed --persona orson-black` subcommand OR direct SQL bootstrap.
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6. THEN gen prompt template (the prose-craft session) lands AGAINST the authors layer.
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7. `skald continue --story <id>` wires it all together.
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## Status
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- [x] Brainstorm captured in this doc (2026-05-13 late)
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- [ ] Cobb's call on open questions 1-6
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- [ ] Schema migration 0004
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- [ ] authors module
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- [ ] forge author-aware
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- [ ] Seed Orson Black (?) soul
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- [ ] gen prompt template
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- [ ] CLI continue
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This creates the author + first revision (or adds a new revision to
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an existing author, which becomes current).
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