PCL-Lite: Persona Control Language — Embedded Runtime

PCL-Lite
The World's First Programming Language for AI Persona Management
Make AI behavior programmable, portable, and predictable.

PCL-Lite is a lightweight, portable implementation of the Persona Control Language (PCL) protocol. It turns any AI chat session (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek) into a multi-agent orchestration system with no external infrastructure.

Inject it via a single bootstrap prompt to orchestrate, configure, and coordinate specialized personas directly in your conversation.

Why PCL-Lite?

• Instant multi-agent workflows — Turn a linear chat into a structured collaborative session.
• Zero setup — Copy and paste the bootstrap into your preferred LLM. No installation required.
• Structured collaboration — Activate an Architect and a Critic at once for more robust outcomes.
• Fine-grained control — Adjust tone, verbosity, and response merge rules.

Available bootstrap files

Repository layout: general bootstraps at root; Image, Video, Audio, and Slides in bootstrap-image/, bootstrap-video/, bootstrap-audio/, and bootstrap-slides/.

→ Wiki — Full documentation: getting started, guides index, examples to try, best practices (one bootstrap per conversation, text-only vs multimodal).
→ guides/ — Usage guides in the repo (standard, image, video, audio, slides: how to start, commands, where to generate).

This repository provides bootstrap prompts tailored to context window size and use case:

PCL-Lite "Lite" (recommended to get started)

A token-efficient bootstrap with everything needed to manage personas and simple workflows.

• Best for: Quick sessions, standard models (GPT-3.5, Haiku, Gemini Flash), prototyping.
• Features: Activation, CRUD, configuration (tone/verbosity), simple sequences, teams, presets.
• Files:
  • English: bootstrap_lite_en.md
  • French: bootstrap_lite_fr.md

PCL-Lite Image (image and visual workflows)

A dedicated profile for image creation, visual design, and asset production. Same /persona commands with 12 image-focused personas and optional image context (aspect ratio, style, format).

→ Bootstraps are in the bootstrap-image/ folder.

• Best for: Image prompts, visual consistency, brand assets, accessibility (alt text, contrast), social visuals, print specs.
• Personas: Visual Designer, Illustrator, Photo Editor, Brand Visual Guardian, Infographic, Icon Designer, Accessibility Visual, Layout Expert, Color Expert, Technical Visual, Print Prepress, Social Visual.
• Teams: brand-guardians, accessibility-visual, social-content, print-ready, infographic-team, visual-critique.
• Files:
  • English: bootstrap_lite_image_en.md
  • French: bootstrap_lite_image_fr.md

# Activate visual and accessibility personas
/persona +VISUAL_DESIGNER +A11Y_VISUAL

# Set image context for next generation
/persona image aspect=16:9 style=minimal format=png

# Task for image-related output
/persona task "Describe a hero banner for a fintech app, with alt text"

PCL-Lite Video (video and motion workflows)

A dedicated profile for video production, editing, motion design, and delivery. Same /persona commands with 12 video-focused personas and optional video context (aspect ratio, duration, format, platform).

→ Bootstraps are in the bootstrap-video/ folder.

• Best for: Scripts, storyboards, editing advice, captions and accessibility, social/short-form, color grading, sound design, delivery specs.
• Personas: Video Editor, Script & Continuity, Motion Designer, Color Grading, Sound Video, Storyboard, Narrative Video, Creative Director Video, Brand Video, Social Video, Accessibility Video, Technical Video.
• Teams: edit-room, accessibility-video, social-video, narrative-team, technical-delivery, full-production.
• Files:
  • English: bootstrap_lite_video_en.md
  • French: bootstrap_lite_video_fr.md

# Activate editor and accessibility personas
/persona +VIDEO_EDITOR +A11Y_VIDEO

# Set video context
/persona video aspect=9:16 duration=60s format=mp4 platform=tiktok

# Task for video-related output
/persona task "Outline a 60s product launch video with captions strategy"

PCL-Lite Audio (podcast, voiceover, sound design)

A dedicated profile for audio production, podcast, voiceover, and sound design. Same /persona commands with 12 audio-focused personas and optional audio context (duration, format, platform).

→ Bootstraps are in the bootstrap-audio/ folder.

• Best for: Scripts, episode structure, sound design, transcripts, accessibility.
• Personas: Script Audio, Narrative Audio, Voice Director, Podcast Host, Editor Audio, Sound Design Audio, Music Audio, Transcription Audio, A11Y Audio, Brand Audio, Interview Audio, Technical Audio.
• Teams: podcast-production, accessibility-audio, sound-design-team, full-audio-production, interview-team, technical-delivery-audio.
• Files:
  • English: bootstrap_lite_audio_en.md
  • French: bootstrap_lite_audio_fr.md

/persona +SCRIPT_AUDIO +A11Y_AUDIO
/persona audio duration=30m format=mp3 platform=podcast
/persona task "Outline a 30min podcast episode with transcript strategy"

PCL-Lite Slides (presentations, pitch decks)

A dedicated profile for presentation design, pitch decks, and slide production. Same /persona commands with 12 slides-focused personas and optional slides context (aspect ratio, style, format).

→ Bootstraps are in the bootstrap-slides/ folder.

• Best for: Deck structure, storytelling, pitch, data viz on slides, speaker notes, accessibility.
• Personas: Slide Designer, Visual Slides, Storyteller Slides, Content Slides, Data Viz Slides, Technical Slides, Brand Slides, Pitch Slides, Speaker Coach, A11Y Slides, Education Slides, Simplifier Slides.
• Teams: pitch-team, data-presentation, accessibility-slides, education-team, full-deck, technical-deck.
• Files:
  • English: bootstrap_lite_slides_en.md
  • French: bootstrap_lite_slides_fr.md

/persona +SLIDE_DESIGNER +PITCH_SLIDES
/persona slides aspect=16:9 style=minimal
/persona task "Outline a 10-slide pitch deck: problem, solution, ask"

Quick start

1. Open the bootstrap file for your language (e.g. bootstrap_lite_en.md).
2. Copy the entire contents.
3. Paste into a new conversation with your AI assistant.
4. Wait for confirmation (e.g. "PCL-Lite Bootstrap v1.0 Ready").
5. Use /persona commands:

# List available personas
/persona list

# Activate an Architect and a Security Expert
/persona +ARCHI +SEC

# Assign a task
/persona task "Design a secure architecture for a banking API"

# Set the response lead
/persona primary=SEC

# Get persona recommendations for a task
/persona suggest "audit our auth flow"

PCL standard

PCL-Lite is an embedded variant of the full PCL (Persona Control Language) standard. For the complete specification and full implementations, see the main repository:

https://github.com/personamanagmentlayer/pcl

License

This project is licensed under Apache-2.0. See LICENSE for details.

---

PCL-Lite is part of the Persona Management Layer project.