Faces

Use this skill when the user wants to create, compile, or chat through a Face (a persona compiled from source material), compose personas with boolean formulas, compare minds by semantic similarity, import YouTube videos into a Face, or manage their Faces Platform account (API keys, billing, quotas). Also use when the user mentions the Faces Platform, the faces CLI, or asks about persona compilation, cognitive primitives, or mind arithmetic — even if they don't use those exact terms.

Faces Skill

You have access to the faces CLI. Use it to fulfill any Faces Platform request.

Always use --json when you need to extract values from command output.

Current config

!faces config:show 2>/dev/null || echo "(no config saved)"

Setup

Verify credentials: faces auth:whoami. If no credentials exist, see references/AUTH.md for registration (requires human payment step) and login.

Install (if faces command not found): npm install -g faces-cli

faces auth:* and faces keys:* require JWT. Everything else accepts JWT or API key.

Plans

Two plans: Free ($5 minimum initial spend, pay-per-token with 5% markup on all usage including compilation) and Connect ($17/month, 100k compile tokens/month, free passthrough to OpenAI Codex for users with a ChatGPT subscription). See references/AUTH.md for details.

Core workflow

1. Create a Face with basic facts and a default model: faces face:create --name "Name" --username slug --default-model gpt-5-nano --attr gender=male --attr age=34 --attr location="Portland, OR" --attr occupation="nurse practitioner"
2. Compile source material in one step: faces compile:doc slug --file document.txt
   • This creates the document, runs LLM extraction with real-time chunk progress, and syncs automatically
   • Repeat for each source document
3. Chat through the Face: faces chat:chat slug -m "message" (auto-routes to the correct API based on model provider)
4. Compare Faces: faces face:diff or faces face:neighbors
5. Compose new Faces from boolean formulas: faces face:create --formula "a | b"

Note: compile:doc handles the full create → compile pipeline. For an already-created document, use compile:doc:make <doc_id>. Threads use a separate workflow: compile:thread:make (same fire-and-forget pattern as documents).

Boolean operators: | (union), & (intersection), - (difference), ^ (symmetric difference). Parentheses supported: (a | b) - c.

Common tasks

Create a face with attributes

When creating a Face, set basic demographic facts with --attr KEY=VALUE (repeatable). Common keys: gender, age, location, occupation, education_level, religion, ethnicity, nationality, marital_status. Unrecognized keys are silently ignored — see references/ATTRIBUTES.md for the complete list of accepted keys.

bash

faces face:create --name "Marcus Rivera" --username marcus \
  --default-model gpt-5-nano \
  --attr gender=male --attr age=34 \
  --attr location="Portland, OR" \
  --attr occupation="nurse practitioner" \
  --attr education_level="master's degree" \
  --attr marital_status=married

You can also add or update attributes and set the default model on an existing Face:

bash

faces face:update marcus --attr religion=Catholic --attr ethnicity="Mexican American"
faces face:update marcus --default-model claude-sonnet-4-6

Compile a document into a face

bash

# Recommended: one-step compile with progress
faces compile:doc <face_id> --file notes.txt --label "Notes"

# Alternative: create then compile separately
DOC_ID=$(faces compile:doc:create <face_id> --label "Notes" --file notes.txt --json | jq -r '.document_id')
faces compile:doc:make "$DOC_ID"

Upload a file (PDF, audio, video, text)

bash

# Upload as document — then compile
DOC_ID=$(faces face:upload <face_id> --file report.pdf --kind document --json | jq -r '.document_id // .id')
faces compile:doc:make "$DOC_ID"

# Upload as thread — compile with make
THREAD_ID=$(faces face:upload <face_id> --file transcript.txt --kind thread --face-speaker "Troy" --json | jq -r '.thread_id // .id')
faces compile:thread:make "$THREAD_ID"

Thread transcript format

Text files uploaded as threads must use Speaker Name: message format, one turn per line:

text

Interviewer: Tell me about yourself.
Troy: I'm an inventor living in the Parisian countryside.
Interviewer: What drives your work?
Troy: The conviction that technology should serve human flourishing.

Use --face-speaker to specify which speaker IS the face (maps to role=user). All other speakers become role=assistant. If omitted, the first speaker is assumed to be the face.

Audio/video files with --kind thread are transcribed with speaker diarization — speaker labels are assigned automatically (Speaker A, Speaker B, etc.). Use --face-speaker A to map the correct speaker to the face.

Import a YouTube video

bash

# Solo talk / monologue → document
IMPORT=$(faces compile:import <face_id> \
  --url "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" \
  --type document --perspective first-person --json)
DOC_ID=$(echo "$IMPORT" | jq -r '.document_id // .doc_id // .id')
faces compile:doc:make "$DOC_ID"

# Multi-speaker → thread
IMPORT=$(faces compile:import <face_id> \
  --url "https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID" \
  --type thread --face-speaker A --json)
THREAD_ID=$(echo "$IMPORT" | jq -r '.thread_id // .id')
faces compile:thread:make "$THREAD_ID"

If --type thread fails with a 422, retry with --type document.

Create a composite face

bash

faces face:create --name "The Realist" --username the-realist \
  --formula "the-optimist | the-pessimist"

# Chat through it like any other face
faces chat:chat the-realist -m "How do you approach risk?"

Composite faces are live: sync new knowledge into any component and the composite updates automatically. Components must be concrete (compiled) faces you own.

Compare faces

bash

faces face:diff --face aria --face marco --face jin
faces face:neighbors aria --k 3
faces face:neighbors aria --component beta --direction furthest --k 5

Chat

chat:chat auto-routes to the correct API endpoint based on model provider (Anthropic → /v1/messages, OpenAI/others → /v1/chat/completions). If the face has a default_model set, no --llm flag is needed.

bash

# Uses face's default model (no --llm needed if default_model is set)
faces chat:chat slug -m "message"

# Override with a specific model
faces chat:chat slug --llm claude-sonnet-4-6 -m "message"
faces chat:chat slug --llm gpt-4o-mini -m "message"

# Use OpenAI Responses API explicitly
faces chat:chat slug --llm gpt-4o -m "message" --responses

Face templates

Use ${face-username} in any message to reference another face's profile inline. The token is replaced with the face's display name and the profile is injected as context. A bare model name (no face prefix) skips the persona and lets you reference all faces via templates.

bash

faces chat:chat alice --llm gpt-4o-mini -m 'You are debating ${bob}. Argue your position.'
faces chat:chat gpt-4o-mini -m 'Compare the worldviews of ${alice} and ${bob}.'

See references/TEMPLATES.md for full details and rules.

Billing and API keys

bash

faces billing:balance --json
faces billing:subscription --json
faces keys:create --name "Partner key" --face slug --budget 10.00 --expires-days 30

Common errors

• faces: command not found — Run npm install -g faces-cli.
• 401 Unauthorized — Credentials missing or expired. Run faces auth:login or check FACES_API_KEY.
• compile:doc:make returns "preparing" — Compilation is async. Poll with faces compile:doc:get <doc_id> --json | jq -r '.prepare_status' until status is synced.
• 422 on thread import — No speaker segments detected. Retry with --type document.
• face:diff or face:neighbors returns null components — The face hasn't been compiled yet. Run faces compile:doc <face_id> --file ... first.

References

• See references/QUICKSTART.md for the end-to-end guide: install → register → create → compile → chat.
• See references/REFERENCE.md for the full command reference, global flags, and environment variables.
• See references/AUTH.md for registration, login, API keys, and credential management.
• See references/CONCEPTS.md for a detailed explanation of what Faces is, how it works, and example use cases.
• See references/OAUTH.md for connecting a ChatGPT account (connect plan only).
• See references/TEMPLATES.md for face template syntax (${face-username}) and bare model usage.
• See references/ATTRIBUTES.md for the complete list of accepted --attr keys (unrecognized keys are silently ignored).
• See references/SCOPE.md for instruction scope and security boundaries.