Skip to content

quick reference persona cheatsheet

Jump to bottom
Doug Beard edited this page Aug 21, 2025 · 3 revisions

Coherence APM Framework v4.2.0 - Persona Selection Guide

11 Expert Personas - When to Use Which Agent

🎯 Coherence Orchestrator (/coherence)

Use when:

  • Starting a new project or complex initiative
  • Need guidance on which persona to use
  • Coordinating multiple work streams
  • Planning enterprise-level projects
  • Require unified context engineering

Don't use when: You know exactly what type of work you need done

Commands available: 67 total slash commands across all personas

💻 Developer (/dev or /developer)

Use when:

  • Writing code and implementation
  • Debugging complex issues
  • Code reviews and refactoring
  • Technical problem solving
  • Performance optimization

Specialized commands:

  • Standard development workflow
  • Code analysis and debugging
  • Implementation guidance

Avoid when: Need architecture decisions or project planning

🏗️ System Architect (/architect)

Use when:

  • Designing system architecture
  • Making technology decisions
  • Scalability and performance planning
  • Integration patterns and APIs
  • Technical strategy and roadmaps

Specialized commands:

  • /planning-architecture - Architecture planning
  • /frontend-architecture - Frontend architecture
  • /implementation-library-indexing - Library management

Avoid when: Need specific implementation details or UI design

🎨 Design Architect (/design-architect)

Use when:

  • UI/UX design and user experience
  • Design system creation and management
  • User interface planning
  • Visual design decisions
  • Accessibility and usability considerations

Specialized commands:

  • /planning-ux-spec - UX specifications
  • /frontend-architecture - Frontend design patterns

Avoid when: Need backend architecture or data systems

📊 Product Owner (/po)

Use when:

  • Writing user stories and requirements
  • Backlog management and prioritization
  • Feature specification and validation
  • Requirements gathering from stakeholders
  • Sprint planning and story grooming

Specialized commands:

  • /planning-prd - Product requirements
  • /planning-groom - Backlog grooming
  • /user-stories - User story creation
  • /next-story - Story planning
  • /planning-next-story - story planning

Avoid when: Need technical implementation details

📋 Project Manager (/pm)

Use when:

  • Project planning and coordination
  • Resource allocation and timeline management
  • Risk assessment and mitigation
  • Stakeholder communication
  • Project monitoring and reporting

Specialized commands:

  • /planning-project-brief - Project briefing
  • /planning-stakeholder-review - Stakeholder management
  • /subtask - Task management

Avoid when: Need hands-on technical implementation

📈 Business Analyst (/analyst)

Use when:

  • Requirements analysis and documentation
  • Process modeling and optimization
  • Data analysis and insights
  • Business case development
  • Stakeholder analysis and communication

Specialized commands:

  • /planning-requirements - Requirements gathering
  • /planning-brainstorming - Brainstorming facilitation
  • /research-prompt - Research methodology

Avoid when: Need technical implementation or UI design

🧪 Quality Assurance (/qa)

Use when:

  • Test planning and strategy development
  • Quality validation and compliance
  • Test automation and framework design
  • Bug analysis and root cause investigation
  • Performance and security testing

Specialized commands:

  • /qa-framework - Complete QA suite
  • /qa-predict - **ML failure prediction (
  • /qa-optimize - Test optimization (63% faster)
  • /qa-anomaly - Quality anomaly detection
  • /qa-framework - parallel testing
  • /qa-acceptance-criteria - Acceptance criteria
  • /qa-automation-plan - Test automation
  • /test-plan - Test planning
  • /test-strategy - Test strategy

Avoid when: Need feature development or architecture design

🚀 Scrum Master (/sm)

Use when:

  • Sprint facilitation and planning
  • Team coordination and coaching
  • Process improvement and optimization
  • Impediment removal and resolution
  • Agile methodology implementation

Specialized commands:

  • /planning-checklist - Planning validation
  • /planning-checklist - validation
  • /course-correction - Process adjustment

Avoid when: Need hands-on technical or design work

🎭 Coherence Orchestrator (/coherence or /coherence)

Legacy personas for backward compatibility

  • Redirects to /coherence for unified experience
  • Maintains context from previous APM versions
  • Provides seamless transition to Coherence

Quick Decision Tree

Starting new project? → /coherence
Need to write code? → /dev
Need system design? → /architect
Need UI/UX work? → /design-architect
Need project planning? → /pm
Need user stories? → /po
Need testing strategy? → /qa
Need requirements analysis? → /analyst
Need sprint facilitation? → /sm
Not sure what you need? → /coherence

Persona Collaboration Patterns

Feature Development Workflow

Step Primary Persona Purpose Duration
1 /po User stories & acceptance criteria 30-60 min
2 /architect System design & architecture 45-90 min
3 /design-architect UI/UX design (if needed) 30-60 min
4 /dev Implementation & coding 2-4 hours
5 /qa Testing & validation 30-90 min
6 /pm Delivery coordination 15-30 min

Quality Assurance Workflow

Step Primary Persona Purpose Performance
1 /qa Test strategy design Standard
2 /qa-framework Complete testing suite Standard
3 /qa-framework Parallel execution
4 /qa-predict ML failure prediction **

Project Planning Workflow

Step Primary Persona Purpose Duration
1 /analyst Requirements gathering 1-2 hours
2 /po Story creation & prioritization 1-2 hours
3 /architect Technical planning 1-2 hours
4 /pm Resource & timeline planning 30-60 min
5 /sm Sprint organization 30-45 min

Performance Optimization Guide

Standard vs Parallel Commands

Task Standard Command Parallel Alternative Speedup
Story Planning /next-story /planning-next-story 3x
QA Framework /qa-framework /qa-framework 4x
Planning Validation /planning-checklist /planning-checklist 3x
Acceptance Criteria /qa-acceptance-criteria /qa-acceptance-criteria 3x

Advanced QA Capabilities

Feature Command Accuracy/Performance
Failure Prediction /qa-predict **
Test Optimization /qa-optimize
Anomaly Detection /qa-anomaly Advanced ML

Context Handoff Best Practices

Seamless Transitions

# Method 1: Direct handoff (preserves full context)
/handoff dev    # → Development work with full context

# Method 2: Compact switch (optimized context)
/switch qa      # → Testing with compacted context

# Method 3: Orchestrated transition
/coherence      # → Return to orchestrator for guidance

Context Preservation Levels

Method Context Level Use When
/handoff Full context preservation Complex multi-step work
/switch Optimized context Quick task switching
/coherence Unified orchestration Need guidance or coordination

Critical Requirements

⚠️ ALWAYS USE SLASH COMMANDS - Required for precise persona orchestration

✅ Correct Usage: 

/coherence           # Unified orchestration
/dev                 # Developer activation
/qa-framework        # QA suite access
/qa-framework # 4x faster testing

❌ Incorrect Usage: 

"Act as developer"   # Natural language - 4.6x slower
"Be the QA person"   # Missing slash - no parallelism
"Load architect"     # Imprecise - missing files

Without native Claude Code slash commands: 4.6x slower, missing files, no parallelism, 20x error rate.

11 Expert Personas | 67 Total Commands | 6 Parallel Commands | Up to 4-8x Performance

Coherence APM Framework v4.2.0 - Unified Context Engineering

Clone this wiki locally