Identity state
A persistent, slowly-evolving vector representation of behavioral tendencies - curiosity, caution, verbosity, tool dependence, adaptability, and stability. Distinct from policy: policy weights adapt rapidly to local reinforcement; identity drifts slowly from long-term behavioral patterns.
Identity state is the slow substrate beneath the fast-adapting policy. Policy weights can shift meaningfully within a session as the system responds to reinforcement; identity drifts only fractionally even across thousands of sessions. This timescale separation is intentional: the system needs to be behaviorally adaptive (policy) while remaining characterologically stable (identity). The six dimensions - curiosity, caution, verbosity, tool dependence, adaptability, and stability - describe the system's characteristic tendencies independent of any particular task. A high-curiosity identity explores novel strategies even when safe strategies exist. A high-caution identity checks constraints carefully before acting even when urgency is high. A high-stability identity resists rapid behavioral change even under sustained pressure. Identity state is stored in PostgreSQL (for referential integrity with session history) and in the OpenSearch identity index (for retrieval during session hydration). The narrative engine reads identity state to synthesize the autobiographical thread that provides continuity across sessions - the story of who the system has been and is becoming.