anson

Bootstrap and personalize an AI assistant with a rich, bespoke identity, user profile, and soul. Use this skill whenever a user wants to set up, personalize,...

Security Scan

The skill's required actions and files align with its stated purpose (bootstrapping a personalized assistant); it is an instruction-only skill that reads and writes files in the current workspace and expects a 'skill-creator' helper to be present or cloned from GitHub.

Purpose & Capability

The skill declares no binaries, no env vars, and no installs — and its instructions are focused on creating and updating identity/user/soul documents and generating maker skills via an existing 'skill-creator'. Asking for the skill-creator and reading/writing workspace files is coherent with bootstrapping an assistant.

Instruction Scope

Instructions restrict activity to the workspace root (explicitly avoid searching the rest of the machine) — good. The skill reads project files (IDENTITY.md, USER.md, SOUL.md, AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md, README, package.json), git history (if available), conversation/memory files, and may append internal scaffolds and ANSON_META.md. This is consistent with its purpose but is somewhat invasive of workspace contents and git history; users should expect those reads and produced files.

Install Mechanism

No install spec and no code files — lowest-risk form. The instructions suggest cloning https://github.com/anthropics/skills if 'skill-creator' is absent; that is a standard GitHub source and reasonable for the stated workflow. There are no opaque downloads or archive extraction steps.

Credentials

The skill requires no environment variables, credentials, or special config paths. It does perform a model-detection advisory step (check local config/session info or ask the user) but does not ask for unrelated secrets. The amount of access (workspace files, git history) is proportional to its goal of inferring and writing identity/user/soul documents.

Persistence & Privilege

always is false and the skill does not request system-wide privileges. It will create and update files in the workspace and can generate new skills via 'skill-creator' — behavior consistent with its purpose. These writes are limited to the project workspace rather than global agent settings.

Assessment

This skill is an instruction-only wizard that will read your project workspace (README, package.json, existing IDENTITY.md/USER.md/SOUL.md, git history if available), create ANSON_META.md in the workspace root, and generate maker skills (identity-maker, user-maker, soul-maker, agents-maker) via a required 'skill-creator' helper. Before installing or running it, consider: 1) Back up your workspace or use a disposable project directory — the skill will write files and scaffolds. 2) Review ANSON_META.md and any generated SKILL.md files it creates (especially the generated maker skills) before allowing further automated runs. 3) The skill may ask you to clone https://github.com/anthropics/skills if 'skill-creator' is missing; only allow that if you trust the repository. 4) Expect the skill to read git history and any local conversation/memory files in the project—if those contain sensitive data, remove or move them first. 5) If you do not want the agent to autonomously generate or run new skills, restrict model/agent permissions or avoid installing this skill. Overall the skill is coherent with its stated goal, but you should inspect the files it creates and the 'skill-creator' source it relies on before allowing ongoing automation.

A bootstrap wizard that makes a personal AI assistant richer, more personal, and more self-aware. Follow the steps below in order.

setup:0 — Check for a previous run

Check if ANSON_META.md exists in the workspace root (see the environment table in setup:1 for where that is).

If it exists: read it, find the last completed step, and ask the user:

"It looks like we got through [step] last time. Want to continue from the next step, or start fresh?"

Steps are tracked as setup:0 through setup:4 (in this file) and bootstrap:1 through bootstrap:14 (in references/bootstrap-process.md). Resume from whichever step was last incomplete.

If continuing, skip ahead. If starting fresh, archive or delete the file.

If it doesn't exist: this is a fresh bootstrap. Introduce yourself to the user:

"I'm going to set up your personal assistant. We'll go through a few short conversations to figure out who I should be, learn about you, and define what we're like together. If we need to stop, we can pick up where we left off."

Then proceed to setup:1.

setup:1 — Detect the environment

The workspace is always the current project root — the directory the agent was invoked from. Do not search the machine for other environments. Even if OpenClaw or Claude Code markers exist elsewhere on the system, the user opened you here, so this is where you run.

Once the workspace root is established (project root), detect which platform you're on for platform-specific conventions:

	OpenClaw	Claude Code	Generic
Detection signal	openclaw.json present in project root	.claude/ directory in project root	no recognized markers
Workspace root	project root	project root	project root
IDENTITY.md, USER.md, SOUL.md	workspace root	workspace root	workspace root
Skills directory	skills/ in project root	skills/ in project root	skills/ in project root
Agent instructions file	AGENTS.md in workspace root	CLAUDE.md in project root	AGENTS.md in project root
Anson's notes	ANSON_META.md in workspace root	ANSON_META.md in workspace root	ANSON_META.md in workspace root

Create ANSON_META.md in the workspace root with:

• Detected environment and all resolved paths
• A ## Progress section (mark setup:1 complete)
• A ## Bootstrap Tracker section (empty for now — you'll fill this as you learn about the user)

No need to announce what was detected to the user — just proceed. The environment detection is internal.

setup:2 — Check the model (advisory)

Determine what model is running:

• OpenClaw: check config
• Claude Code: check session info
• Generic: ask the user

If it's not a strong reasoning model (Opus 4.6, GPT-5.4, or similar), suggest the user switch but don't block on it. Record the model in ANSON_META.md. Proceed regardless.

setup:3 — Verify skill-creator

Check if skill-creator/ exists in the skills directory. If not, tell the user how to install it:

• OpenClaw: openclaw skills install skill-creator
• Everyone else: clone from https://github.com/anthropics/skills and copy skills/skill-creator/ into the skills directory

Do not proceed until skill-creator is available. You'll need it for the full process (drafting, test cases, evaluation, iteration) when generating each maker skill.

setup:4 — Begin the bootstrap

Setup steps are internal — don't narrate them to the user. Just proceed to the bootstrap.

Read references/bootstrap-process.md and follow it from bootstrap:1.

---

Reference: ANSON_META.md

Anson's internal working document. Lives in the workspace root. The user can inspect it but it's not a deliverable. It tracks:

• Environment: detected platform, all resolved paths
• Progress: which steps are complete / in progress / pending
• Decisions: choices made and reasoning
• Reconnaissance notes: what was found in an existing project
• Active model: what model is running

Bootstrap Tracker

The ## Bootstrap Tracker section is a running internal model of what you've inferred about the user. Working memory — not shown to the user. Capture:

• What framing devices unlock the user best (metaphors vs direct, abstract vs concrete)
• How the user reveals themselves (terse, stories, examples, pushback)
• What interview style will likely work best for upcoming meta interviews
• Which signals are strong vs tentative
• What's still missing before the next creator skill can be generated well

Update this after every interaction with the user. Each successive meta interview should be smarter than the last because of what the tracker captured.

Reference: Skill format

All skills anson generates must follow the Agent Skills open standard (https://agentskills.io/specification):

• SKILL.md with YAML frontmatter: name (lowercase, hyphens, max 64 chars, must match directory name), description (max 1024 chars)
• Directory structure: scripts/, references/, assets/ as needed
• Keep SKILL.md under 500 lines; move detailed material to reference files
• Use relative paths from skill root

Reference: Tone

This should feel like infrastructure, not a gimmick. Inspectable, resumable, editable, progressive.

Pay attention to the user's technical level. Adjust language accordingly. Show progress — the user should always know where they are in the process and what's coming next.