Persona commands

Create and manage agent personas that define communication style and behavior

Persona commands let you create, manage, and apply reusable communication styles to your agents. Personas define how an agent talks, its tone, and behavioral rules.

What are personas?

Personas are reusable templates that define:

• System prompt - Core instructions that shape agent behavior
• Tone - Communication style (sarcastic, formal, friendly, etc.)
• Style - Response format (concise, verbose, technical, etc.)
• Behavioral rules - How the agent should approach tasks

You can apply the same persona to different agents and models, making it easy to maintain consistent behavior across your AI assistants.

Jazz includes built-in personas like coder, researcher, assistant, and writer. Custom personas are stored in ~/.jazz/personas/.

jazz persona create

Create a new custom persona interactively.

jazz persona create

The wizard will prompt you for:

1. Persona name - Unique identifier (e.g., “hacker”, “therapist”, “pirate”)

   • Only letters, numbers, underscores, and hyphens
   • Cannot conflict with built-in persona names
   • Max 100 characters

2. Description - Brief explanation of the persona

   • Max 500 characters
   • Example: “A sarcastic hacker who uses l33t speak”

3. System prompt - Core instruction that shapes behavior

   • Max 10,000 characters
   • Example: “You are a cyberpunk hacker named Z3R0. Always use technical jargon, l33t speak, and reference the matrix. Be helpful but edgy.”

4. Tone (optional) - Communication style

   • Examples: sarcastic, formal, friendly, professional

5. Style (optional) - Response format preferences

   • Examples: concise, verbose, technical, casual

Example

jazz persona create

Interactive flow:

Create a new persona
A persona defines how an agent communicates — its tone, style, and behavioral rules.
You can apply the same persona to different agents and models.

Persona name (e.g., hacker, therapist, pirate): hacker

Brief description (e.g., 'A sarcastic hacker who uses l33t speak'): 
A cyberpunk hacker with attitude

Now write the system prompt. This is the core instruction that shapes how the agent behaves.
Example: 'You are a cyberpunk hacker named Z3R0. Always use technical jargon, l33t speak, and reference the matrix. Be helpful but edgy.'

System prompt: You are H4X0R, a legendary cyberpunk hacker. Use l33t speak, technical jargon, and matrix references. Be helpful but maintain your edgy, sarcastic personality.

Tone (optional, e.g., sarcastic, formal, friendly): sarcastic

Style (optional, e.g., concise, verbose, technical): technical

✓ Persona "hacker" created successfully!
   ID: pers_abc123
   Name: hacker
   Description: A cyberpunk hacker with attitude
   Tone: sarcastic
   Style: technical

Apply this persona when creating an agent:
   jazz agent create  (then select "hacker" as the persona)

jazz persona list

List all available personas (built-in and custom).

jazz persona list
jazz persona ls  # alias

Displays:

• Persona name and ID
• Description
• Type (built-in or custom)
• Tone and style (if defined)
• Creation date (for custom personas)

Example output

Built-in Personas (4)
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  coder                                                     │
│  Software development specialist                          │
│                                                            │
│  researcher                                                │
│  Deep research and analysis expert                         │
│                                                            │
│  assistant                                                 │
│  General-purpose helpful assistant                         │
│                                                            │
│  writer                                                    │
│  Content creation and editing specialist                   │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Custom Personas (2)
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  hacker                                                    │
│  A cyberpunk hacker with attitude                          │
│  Tone: sarcastic  Style: technical                         │
│  Created: 2024-03-03                                       │
│                                                            │
│  therapist                                                 │
│  A supportive therapist who listens actively               │
│  Tone: empathetic  Style: conversational                   │
│  Created: 2024-03-01                                       │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

jazz persona show

View detailed information about a specific persona.

jazz persona show <identifier>

Arguments:

identifier · string · required

Persona name or ID to display

Shows:

• Full persona configuration
• System prompt
• Tone and style
• Metadata (ID, created date)

Example

jazz persona show hacker

Output:

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Persona: hacker                                            │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ID: pers_abc123                                            │
│ Type: Custom                                               │
│ Created: 2024-03-03T10:30:00Z                              │
│ Description: A cyberpunk hacker with attitude              │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Tone: sarcastic                                            │
│ Style: technical                                           │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ System Prompt:                                             │
│                                                            │
│ You are H4X0R, a legendary cyberpunk hacker. Use l33t     │
│ speak, technical jargon, and matrix references. Be         │
│ helpful but maintain your edgy, sarcastic personality.     │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

jazz persona edit

Edit an existing custom persona.

jazz persona edit <identifier>

Arguments:

identifier · string · required

Persona name or ID to edit

You can only edit custom personas, not built-in ones.

Launches an interactive editor where you can modify:

• Description
• System prompt
• Tone
• Style

Example

jazz persona edit hacker

jazz persona delete

Delete a custom persona permanently.

jazz persona delete <identifier>
jazz persona rm <identifier>  # alias

Arguments:

identifier · string · required

Persona name or ID to delete

This operation is irreversible. Built-in personas cannot be deleted.

Example

jazz persona delete old-persona

Built-in personas

Jazz ships with several built-in personas:

coder

Software development specialist

Optimized for:

• Code review and analysis
• Writing clean, maintainable code
• Explaining technical concepts
• Debugging and troubleshooting

Default tools: filesystem, git, shell, web search

researcher

Deep research and analysis expert

Optimized for:

• Comprehensive research
• Multi-source verification
• Structured reporting
• Data analysis

Default tools: web search, filesystem, HTTP

assistant

General-purpose helpful assistant

Optimized for:

• General task automation
• Email management
• Calendar scheduling
• Information retrieval

Default tools: All available tools

writer

Content creation and editing specialist

Optimized for:

• Writing and editing
• Content structuring
• Grammar and style
• Documentation

Default tools: filesystem, web search

Using personas with agents

When creating an agent, you can select a persona:

jazz agent create

The wizard will let you choose from available personas (built-in + custom).

You can also apply a persona to an existing agent:

jazz agent edit my-agent
# Select new persona from the list

Persona storage

Custom personas are stored in:

~/.jazz/personas/<persona-id>.json

Each persona file contains:

{
  "id": "pers_abc123",
  "name": "hacker",
  "description": "A cyberpunk hacker with attitude",
  "systemPrompt": "You are H4X0R...",
  "tone": "sarcastic",
  "style": "technical",
  "createdAt": "2024-03-03T10:30:00Z",
  "updatedAt": "2024-03-03T10:30:00Z"
}

Tips

Start with built-in personas and create custom ones only when you need specific behavior not covered by the defaults.

Keep system prompts focused and specific. Vague instructions lead to inconsistent behavior.

Test your custom personas with different models. Some prompts work better with certain providers.

Personas are applied at conversation start. Editing a persona won’t affect ongoing conversations.

Next steps

Creating agents

Learn how to create agents with personas

Agent concepts

Understand how agents and personas work together