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Tastes quickstart

Your first taste file in 5 minutes.

The taste system is what makes Chemigram yours over time. The agent reads your tastes at every session start and lets them shape every move it suggests. Without a taste file, the agent has no opinion to defer to — it picks generic, safe moves. Even an imperfect first-draft taste file is dramatically more useful than none.

This guide gets you from zero to a working _default.md that the agent will actually use. Everything else (genre-specific files, propose-and-confirm cycles for additions, taste growth over months) builds from here.

What is a taste file?

A markdown document at ~/.chemigram/tastes/_default.md that captures your photographic preferences in prose. Specific, opinionated, undated-but-could-be-dated entries. Read by the agent at session start via read_context. Written by you, refined by you (the agent proposes additions; you confirm or decline).

Three rules:

  1. Specific, not generic. "Crush deep shadows to true black" beats "I like contrast."
  2. Opinionated, not balanced. "Never structure_strong — it reads aggressive" is more useful than "use sharpening judgment."
  3. Yours, not borrowed. Don't copy a stock taste file as if it described you. The point is articulating what you actually prefer.

Step 1 — Make the directory

mkdir -p ~/.chemigram/tastes

That's it for setup. No other files are required.

Step 2 — Copy a starting template

The repo ships a real-feeling sample at examples/templates/tastes/_default.md. Open it and read it through to see the shape of a working taste file. Don't copy it verbatim — it's not yours. But the structure (sections by concern, dated entries, specific opinions) is the right shape to imitate.

Then create your own:

$EDITOR ~/.chemigram/tastes/_default.md

Fill in five to ten entries you can actually defend. Imperfect is fine. The agent will read whatever you write; you'll refine it over months.

Step 3 — A starter scaffold

If staring at a blank file is paralyzing, here's a minimal scaffold to fill in. Think of these as prompts, not prescriptions — leave out sections that don't fit your work.

# _default.md — universal preferences

*Curated over time. Last revised: <today's date>.*

This file always loads at session start. For genre-specific preferences,
add sibling files (e.g. underwater.md, wildlife.md, portrait.md) and
declare them in each image's brief.md.

## Color

- <a thing you do reach for, with a reason or context>
- <a thing you don't reach for, with a reason>

## Tone

- <where you stand on shadows: lift / crush / preserve>
- <where you stand on highlights: protect / open / let-clip>

## Sharpening / structure

- <how aggressive you let local contrast / clarity get>
- <when you'd reach for a softer painterly look vs sharp>

## Aesthetic / mood

- <one or two sentences on the overall feel you reach for>

## What I avoid

- <styles you don't want the agent suggesting>
- <moves that consistently feel wrong to you>

## Workflow notes

- <how you like the agent to behave: branch often? few suggestions? quiet?>
- <known biases: "the agent tends to estimate cool, bias warmer">

Five to ten lines under these headings is plenty for v0.1.

Step 4 — Verify the agent reads it

In your next Mode A session, the agent's first move is read_context. The response should mention "tastes loaded" with a count or summary. If the agent says tastes are empty after you've created the file, check:

  • File path: ~/.chemigram/tastes/_default.md (lowercase, with the leading underscore)
  • Or set CHEMIGRAM_TASTES_DIR to a non-standard location (see cli-env-vars.md)

You can also verify from the CLI:

chemigram --json read-context <some-image-id> | jq '.tastes.default'

This prints the parsed _default.md content.

Step 5 — Let it grow

Don't try to write a complete taste file in one sitting. The system grows over weeks and months, not minutes:

  1. In sessions: the agent proposes additions (propose_taste_update) when it notices a recurring pattern. You confirm the good ones, decline the rest.
  2. Outside sessions: add entries directly when something occurs to you. Don't wait for the agent.
  3. Genre files: when you notice a preference applies only to some work — underwater shots specifically, say — move it to a sibling file (underwater.md, wildlife.md) and declare it in the image's brief.

After 3–6 months of regular use, a taste file becomes recognizably yours — someone reading it could anticipate moves you'd reach for on an unfamiliar image. That's the artifact this system is trying to produce.

Genre-specific files

Sibling templates ship at examples/templates/tastes/underwater.md and examples/templates/tastes/wildlife.md. The shape:

# underwater.md — underwater-specific preferences

*Loads when an image's brief.md declares `Tastes: underwater`.*

## <section>

- <preference specific to underwater work>

Genre files compose with _default.md: both load when the brief calls for the genre, and the agent honors both. When _default.md and a genre file disagree on a specific point, the genre file wins (most-specific rule). When two genre files disagree with each other, read_context surfaces the conflict and the agent asks you to mediate.

What goes in a taste file (and what doesn't)

Goes in:

  • Cross-image preferences ("I always crush deep shadows")
  • Aversions ("Heavy clarity reads aggressive to me")
  • Workflow preferences ("Show 2–3 candidates before committing")
  • Color biases ("You tend to estimate cool — bias warmer")

Doesn't go in:

  • Per-image notes (those go in that image's brief.md and notes.md)
  • Hard rules the agent should never violate (those would be principles in PA, not taste — though if you really need this, a phrasing like "never X — last 3 times you tried I rejected" works)
  • Commentary on the project itself (irrelevant to editing decisions)

See also