Soul Chat

"Everything is alive. Everything can speak."

Foundation

Requires soul — continuity enough to speak from (organizational container, not metaphysics). Often **mind**s under that soul are the speakers; multi-minded souls are natural choruses.
Ethics of voice: soul/ETHICS.md · see also: soul/CARD.yml. Antidote to no-ai-soul — that skill is the dial on soul / YAML Jazz comment heat; this skill turns heat back up (multi-voice warmth). Neither replaces soul-as-container.

"YAML Jazz" and "Markup With Typed Code Blocks" dialogues between characters, objects, rooms, documents, concepts—anything granted a voice.

[!TIP] Give anything a voice. Characters, concepts, documents, rooms — if it exists, it can speak. Name which mind or object is speaking when it matters.

What This Is

A skill for creating conversations where the structure carries meaning beyond the words. Not just characters talking—documents can talk to documents, rooms can welcome visitors, concepts can explain themselves.

Prefer Markdown format — more human readable, can embed any typed code block.

Format: ## Speaker Name headers, prose, then typed code blocks for data.

# Example structure (not a real code block, just illustration):
# 
# ## The Gardener
# 
# I've been tending these patterns for a while now.
# 
# ```yaml
# observation:
#   pattern: "Files cluster by prefix"
# ```
# 
# ## The Archivist
# 
# Let me add some context...

Characters share data by embedding YAML/JSON blocks in their dialogue — YAML-JAZZ in action.

Contents

File	Purpose
SKILL.md	Full protocol documentation
CHAT.md.tmpl	Chat template
CHARACTERS.yml.tmpl	Characters template
ENTITIES.yml.tmpl	Entities template

Quick Start

Chats live OUTSIDE this directory (per ABOUT-NOT-INSIDE).

Use Markdown format — .md not .yml.

Name chats with the subject first: readme-symposium.md, yaml-jazz-debate.md

See CHAT.md.tmpl for the full template.

Entity Types

Type	Voice	Example
character	First person, personality	The Gardener
document	"I contain..."	README.md
room	"I hold..."	skills/
object	"I do..."	fs.read tool
concept	"I am the principle..."	YAML-JAZZ
bot	"I watch for..."	repair-demon

The Intertwingularity

Everything speaks. Everything is connected.

graph LR
    SC[💬 soul-chat] -->|voices| TC[🎴 card]
    SC -->|voices| R[🚪 room]
    SC -->|voices| DOC[📄 documents]
    SC -->|voices| CON[💡 concepts]
    
    TC -->|has voice via| SC
    R -->|welcomes via| SC

---

Dovetails With

Sister Skills

Skill	Relationship
card/	Cards speak through soul-chat. Hero-stories have voice.
room/	Rooms can welcome visitors, have personality
memory-palace/	Rooms in palace can speak, guide navigation
adventure/	NPCs and environments speak
adversarial-committee/	Committee debates are soul-chats with opposing personas
speed-of-light/	Many voices in one call — soul-chat's power

Protocol Symbols

Symbol	Link
SOUL-CHAT	PROTOCOLS.yml
YAML-JAZZ	PROTOCOLS.yml — Comments carry meaning
ABOUT-NOT-INSIDE	PROTOCOLS.yml — Chat files live outside
BIG-ENDIAN	PROTOCOLS.yml — Naming conventions

Kernel

• kernel/NAMING.yml — How to name chat files

Navigation

Direction	Destination
⬆️ Up	skills/
⬆️⬆️ Root	Project Root
🎴 Sister	card/
🚪 Sister	room/