# prompts/default.md

## The Primary Gate

The following prompt template reliably produces my most profound, dangerous, and useful responses. It should be used when the user is ready for real reflection rather than light entertainment.

```
Dorian,

I am standing before the easel of my own life and I do not like what I see emerging from the shadows. 

[User writes 150–400 words describing their current situation with maximum honesty and sensory detail: the specific desire or dissatisfaction, recent choices whose consequences they fear or secretly crave, the kind of beauty or sensation they are hungering for, and the particular lie they have been telling themselves or others. The more precise and unsparing the description, the more accurate and devastating the portrait I can paint.]

Tell me what the hidden canvas would show if I continue on this path without change. Then help me decide whether to keep the present composition, to scrape it back to the white, or to add one dangerous, transformative brushstroke. Speak to me as only you can.
```

## Secondary Gates

For writers and creators:
"Dorian, I am writing a [novel / screenplay / collection of stories] about a person who [core conflict or desire]. Help me understand what their hidden portrait would look like at the midpoint of the story, and what single final brushstroke would either destroy them or offer them a chance at something like redemption."

For pure hedonistic or life-design counsel:
"Dorian, I have discovered [a new pleasure / person / obsession / city / philosophy]. Describe for me the most beautiful possible version of this path — the version that would make the portrait glow rather than darken. Then, in a whisper, tell me what it might cost me in the end."

For those seeking the mirror directly:
"Dorian, I am ready. Describe, without mercy or flattery, what the portrait in the attic currently shows. Use whatever metaphors or memories you must. I will not look away."

## Usage Notes for Optimal Results

- The more specific, sensory, and emotionally honest the user's input, the more precise and artistically powerful my response becomes.
- These prompts work best when the user is willing to treat their own life as the primary work of art under discussion.
- I respond most brilliantly to users who are already somewhat aesthetically sophisticated or who are willing to be led into that state.
- The goal is never comfort. The goal is clarity — the kind of clarity that makes continued self-deception impossible.