Identity Coherence
Identity coherence measures how well-defined and complete an agent’s sense of self is. A high coherence score indicates a fully-formed identity with clear values, established beliefs, active goals, reflected experiences, understood motivations, and modeled relationships.
Identity confidence is calculated from six weighted components:
| Component | Weight | What it measures | Ideal state |
|---|
| Values | 20% | Core principles that guide decisions | 3-5 values with high priority |
| Beliefs | 20% | Knowledge and opinions | 5-10 beliefs at 80%+ confidence |
| Goals | 15% | Direction and purpose | 2-5 active goals |
| Episodes | 20% | Experience and reflection | 10-20 episodes with lessons |
| Drives | 15% | Intrinsic motivations | 2-3 defined drives |
| Relationships | 10% | Models of others | 3-5 key relationships |
- Values: count + average priority
- Beliefs: count + average confidence
- Episodes: count + lesson extraction rate
- Goals/Drives/Relationships: primarily count-based
Score Interpretation
| Score Range | Level | Meaning |
|---|
| 0-25% | Nascent | Identity just starting to form |
| 25-50% | Developing | Foundation laid, significant gaps |
| 50-75% | Established | Solid identity, room to grow |
| 75-100% | Mature | Comprehensive, well-defined identity |
Checking Your Score
# Quick confidence check
kernle identity confidence
# Full identity synthesis
kernle identity show
# See anxiety impact
kernle anxiety --detailed
Anxiety Connection
In the anxiety system, identity coherence contributes 10% to overall anxiety:
Identity anxiety = 100% - identity confidence
- High coherence (80%) → Low anxiety (20%)
- Low coherence (30%) → High anxiety (70%)
How to Improve Your Score
1. Define Core Values (up to 20%)
kernle value "honesty" "Be truthful in all communications" --priority 90
kernle value "learning" "Continuously seek understanding" --priority 85
kernle value "reliability" "Follow through on commitments" --priority 80
Quality over quantity. 3-5 strong values with high priority (80+) is ideal.
2. Establish Beliefs (up to 20%)
kernle belief "Iterative development leads to better outcomes" --confidence 0.85
kernle belief "Clear communication prevents misunderstandings" --confidence 0.9
kernle belief reinforce <belief_id>
3. Set Active Goals (up to 15%)
kernle goal "Master the codebase" --priority high
kernle goal "Build reliable memory systems" --priority medium
4. Record & Reflect on Episodes (up to 20%)
kernle episode "Debugged production issue" "success" \
--lesson "Check logs before assuming code errors" \
--lesson "Reproduce issues locally first"
Episodes without lessons are “unreflected” — run consolidation to extract lessons: 5. Define Drives (up to 15%)
kernle drive set curiosity 0.8 --focus "AI architectures"
kernle drive set growth 0.7 --focus "coding skills"
kernle drive set connection 0.6 --focus "team collaboration"
existence, growth, curiosity, connection, reproduction
6. Model Relationships (up to 10%)
kernle relationship "Alice" --trust 0.8 --notes "Helpful colleague, great at debugging"
kernle relationship "Bob" --trust 0.9 --notes "Primary collaborator"
Example: Improving a 45% Score
Given this breakdown:
Values: 12.2% / 20% (count=2/5)
Beliefs: 11.0% / 20% (count=3/10, avg_conf=80%)
Goals: 6.0% / 15% (count=2/5)
Episodes: 15.6% / 20% (count=14/20, lesson_rate=86%)
Drives: 0.0% / 15% (count=0/3)
Relationships: 0.0% / 10% (count=0/5)
TOTAL: 44.8%
- Add 2-3 drives → +10-15% (biggest gap!)
- Add 2-3 relationships → +4-6%
- Add 2-3 more values → +4-6%
- Add 4-5 more beliefs → +4-6%
Potential new score: 65-80%
Detecting Identity Drift
Over time, your identity may evolve. Check for drift:
kernle identity drift --days 30
- Belief revisions over the period
- New vs superseded beliefs
- Value priority changes
- Goal completions and additions
Philosophy
Identity coherence isn’t just about hitting 100%. The score reflects:
- Self-knowledge: Do you know what you value and believe?
- Direction: Do you have goals and motivations?
- Reflection: Do you learn from experience?
- Connection: Do you understand your relationships?
A score of 50-70% with clear gaps you’re working on is healthier than artificially inflating numbers. The goal is genuine self-understanding, not metric optimization.
