Three related rough edges in the journal voice surfaced from real
journal usage 2026-04-27 → 2026-04-29:
1. **Persona overhelps.** When the user logged "today I'm prepping for
an ISP migration at Branch 14 Bedford for work at famous supply",
the assistant came back with "ISP migrations can be tricky. Are you
handling the network configuration yourself, or is there a team
supporting you? Also, are there any specific tasks or checks you
need to complete before the switch?" — pushing IT-helpdesk advice
the user didn't ask for. The user had to push back. JOURNAL_PERSONA
now leads with "CAPTURE first, advise only if asked" and the
RESPONSE STYLE block has an explicit anti-pattern banning
troubleshooting / checklist / process-advice follow-ups unless the
user explicitly invites them.
2. **Moments stored in third-person observer voice.** The dentist
appointment beat got written as "The user mentioned having an
appointment this Friday but hasn't provided details yet." — reads
like an LLM transcript annotation, not a journal jot. The
record_moment tool's `content` description previously said "in the
user's voice or third-person", which was the literal source of the
bug. New phrasing requires first-person/imperative with concrete
GOOD/BAD examples, and the JOURNAL_CALIBRATION block reinforces it.
3. **Inconsistent emoji use.** 4/27 was clinical, 4/29 had 😊 and 🛠️
in the appointment confirmation. RESPONSE STYLE now bans emojis
outright — the journal is a thinking-companion surface and the
emoji warmth reads as out-of-register chat-bot tone.
Bonus while in here:
- New MOMENT ENTITY LINKING section explicitly forbids attaching a
task_titles link unless the user references the task by name (the
4/27 Docker→ADHD auto-link bug; rest of that fix is in #158).
- Same section rejects generic place placeholders ("work" / "home" /
"office") in favor of letting the user name the real place.
22 tests pass (4 journal + 18 calendar tool); ruff clean.
Closes Fable task #157.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
bvandeusen
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