> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.octavehq.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How do Personas work in Octave?

> Personas store pain points, goals, and messaging guidance for your target buyers. Agents use them to personalize every interaction.

## What is a Persona?

A Persona is a structured profile of a buyer or user type that your product targets. It goes beyond a job title — it captures pain points, goals, responsibilities, messaging guidance, and qualifying questions that agents use to personalize outreach, qualify prospects, and prep for calls. When an agent evaluates a prospect, it matches them to a Persona to determine what they care about, what language resonates, and which proof points to lead with. Without Personas, every agent output is generic. With them, agents tailor messaging to the specific priorities, vocabulary, and objections of each audience — automatically, at scale.

## Buyer vs User Personas

Octave distinguishes two types:

1. **Buyer Personas** — decision makers who approve the purchase. Example: "VP of Sales", "CRO", "CFO".
2. **User Personas** — people who use the product day-to-day. Example: "SDR Manager", "GTM Engineer", "Revenue Analyst".

[Motions](/concepts/motions) reference both types — Motion Playbooks scope to one or more Personas, and each Motion ICP is a persona×segment cell with its own narrative. Agents tailor messaging differently depending on the audience: a buyer cares about ROI and strategic impact, a user cares about workflow improvement and time savings. The same offering, positioned for different audiences.

## What a Persona contains

| Field                | Purpose                                     |
| -------------------- | ------------------------------------------- |
| Name                 | Job title or role archetype                 |
| Description          | Overview of this persona's role and context |
| Pain points          | What frustrates them about the status quo   |
| Goals                | What outcomes they're trying to achieve     |
| Responsibilities     | What they own and are measured on           |
| Messaging guidance   | How to frame your value for this persona    |
| Qualifying questions | Questions to ask to confirm persona fit     |

## How agents use Personas

When the Qualify Person agent evaluates a prospect, it compares the prospect's title, responsibilities, and signals against your defined Personas to determine which one matches — and how strong the fit is. The result includes a confidence score and the specific pain points to emphasize.

When the Sequence Agent generates outbound emails, it reads the matched Persona's messaging guidance to ensure every message speaks to what that persona actually cares about — not generic product features. This means a CFO receives messaging about cost reduction and ROI timelines, while an SDR Manager sees messaging about ramp time and rep productivity — all from the same agent, drawing from different [Motion ICPs](/concepts/motions#motion-icps) inside the same [Motion](/concepts/motions).

## Managing Personas via API

* `GET /api/v2/persona/list` — list all personas in your workspace
* `GET /api/v2/persona/{id}` — get a specific persona with all fields
* `POST /api/v2/persona/create` — create a new persona
* `POST /api/v2/persona/generate` — AI-generate personas based on your product and market
* `PUT /api/v2/persona/update` — update an existing persona
* `DELETE /api/v2/persona/delete` — remove a persona