Prepared by: SCOUT (TITAN Research Agent)
Date: 2026-04-21
Project: Silent Infinity — Emotion Bubble UX + Sage Prompt Architecture
Status: DRAFT — Content Pass 1
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Silent Infinity has shipped two interlocking UX decisions that this memo validates:
A. Emotion-only opening bubbles. The app surfaces a set of single-tap chips — each one an emotional state (overwhelmed, anxious, grieving, angry, sad, tired, lonely, pretending, grateful, ready) — that prefill the input field but do not auto-send. The user must explicitly tap Send. This is a deliberate friction point: the moment between selection and sending is where intention crystallises.
B. A sage-register system prompt. The advisor persona is governed by a structured prompt that mandates three moves in sequence: (1) reflect the user's stated feeling back to them with accurate empathy, (2) teach a named conceptual frame drawn from psychology, philosophy, or contemplative tradition, and (3) invite forward — a light, open question that points toward next action or deeper exploration.
This memo provides evidence-based validation or challenge for both decisions, a competitive scan of how peers handle opening prompts, and a content scaffold of canonical frameworks per emotion.
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The conversational-AI space has converged on "starter chips" as the dominant onboarding pattern, but implementations diverge sharply on three axes: content type (emotion vs. topic vs. full sentence), chip count (3–12), and persistence (always-visible vs. collapse-after-use).
| Product | Chip Count | Content Type | Auto-Send? | Emotion-Specific? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pi.ai | 4–6 | Sentence fragments ("Tell me about...") | No | Partial |
| Replika | 3–5 | Emotion + topic hybrid | No | Yes (primary) |
| Woebot | 3–4 | Situation/feeling prompts | No | Yes |
| Wysa | 4–6 | Feeling states + activities | No | Yes |
| Khanmigo | 4 | Subject/topic chips | No | No |
| Character.AI | 2–4 | Character-defined prompts | Varies | No |
| ChatGPT | 4 | Task-type chips ("Help me...", "Make a plan...") | No | No |
| Perplexity | 4–6 | Topic/query chips | No | No |
| Grok | 3–5 | Topic + task hybrid | No | No |
| Claude.ai | 4 | Task scaffolds | No | No |
Key observations:
1. Emotional apps (Pi, Replika, Woebot, Wysa) uniformly lead with feeling states. Task/productivity apps (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Khanmigo) lead with task types. Silent Infinity's decision to use pure emotion chips is aligned with the emotional support app category.
2. No major app auto-sends on chip tap. The prefill-then-send pattern Silent Infinity uses is consistent with industry practice. The micro-pause between tap and send is not accidental in any of these products — it functions as a commitment ritual (Cialdini, 1984).
3. Chip count convergence around 4–6. Hick's Law (1952) predicts choice paralysis above ~7 options; most products have settled empirically at 4–6. Silent Infinity's 10-emotion set is on the high end. This may be justified by the specificity value (users find the right emotion more precisely) but warrants A/B testing against a condensed 5-chip set.
4. Pi.ai is the closest competitor on register. It deploys a warm, curious persona with sentence-fragment chips. Unlike Silent Infinity, Pi does not explicitly teach frameworks — it mirrors and follows. User reviews on the App Store (2025) frequently praise Pi for "not giving advice," which is a different value proposition than Silent Infinity's sage model.
5. Replika has iterated toward more directive responses after the 2023 intimacy feature rollback. Its chips are emotion-anchored ("I'm feeling lonely today") but its advisor voice is inconsistent — sometimes mirroring, sometimes prescriptive.
6. Woebot and Wysa are the most evidence-based in prompt design, both drawing on CBT and DBT frameworks explicitly. However, both feel clinical. Silent Infinity's differentiation is the contemplative/philosophical layer — Stoic, Buddhist, existential — on top of clinical rigor.
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Christensen's JTBD framework (Christensen & Raynor, 2003; Ulwick, 2016) asks: what job is the user hiring this product to do? For emotional-support AI, the job is not "get information" — it is "be witnessed and helped to move." The opening chip is the job specification. When the chip names an emotion precisely, the user is not selecting a topic; they are hiring the app to meet them exactly where they are.
Implication: chip labels should be job statements ("I'm overwhelmed") not feature labels ("Stress management"). Silent Infinity's emotion chips appear to be in the right register, though the exact label copy matters — see Recommendations.
Teresa Torres's Continuous Discovery Habits argues that the best product insights come from understanding the desired outcome (what the user wants to be different after the interaction) rather than the stated need. Applied here: when a user taps "anxious," the desired outcome is likely not "understand anxiety" but "feel less trapped by it right now." The sage response should be calibrated to the outcome, not the emotion label.
Kahneman's dual-process model (Kahneman, 2011) is directly relevant to chip design. At the moment of opening the app, the user is typically in System 1 — fast, automatic, emotionally activated. A chip tap is a System 1 decision. The sage's first response must honor that — it cannot immediately demand System 2 reflection ("let's examine the cognitive distortions in this situation"). The reflect move in Silent Infinity's sage prompt correctly addresses this: land in System 1 (felt sense), then invite System 2 (framework, forward question).
Cialdini's commitment/consistency principle (Cialdini, 1984) states that people behave consistently with their prior commitments, especially public ones. A chip tap is a micro-commitment. The prefill-then-send design compounds this: by the time the user hits Send, they have committed twice. The sage's reflect move should honor that commitment by naming it back precisely — not paraphrasing loosely, but echoing the exact word the user sent. This anchors the conversation in the user's own framing.
MI is the clinical gold standard for opening conversations about change. Its core principles — express empathy, develop discrepancy, roll with resistance, support self-efficacy — map almost perfectly onto Silent Infinity's sage architecture:
MI openers are deliberately open and non-directive. The "spirit of MI" (Miller & Rollnick, 2012, p.14) is a collaborative, evocative, person-centered approach. The sage prompt's mandate to "invite forward" — not to prescribe — is consistent with MI spirit.
Drawing across the above:
1. Precision matching. The user's tapped emotion must appear verbatim in the first response. Paraphrasing ("I hear you're feeling stressed") when they tapped "overwhelmed" breaks the contract.
2. Low cognitive load opening. The first response should require nothing of the user — no questions yet, no homework. Just recognition.
3. The named frame as a gift. Introducing a framework by name (e.g., "There's a concept called the dichotomy of control...") signals that the app has resources, not just sympathy. It converts the interaction from venting-only to learning + healing.
4. The forward question must be genuinely open. "Would you like to explore this more?" is closed. "What feels most true about what I just described?" is open. The quality of the forward question determines whether the user initiates a second turn.
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Therapeutic and wisdom traditions occupy a spectrum from pure non-directiveness to active meaning-making:
MIRROR ←————————————————————————————→ INSIGHT-GIVER
Rogers Gendlin Yalom Frankl Brach/Kornfield Confucius
Carl Rogers (Person-Centered, 1951, 1961): The counsellor is a "mirror of the soul" — reflecting unconditional positive regard without imposing interpretation. Rogers believed the healing was in the relationship quality itself, not in the wisdom transmitted. Pure Rogers would never name a framework; it would only reflect.
Eugene Gendlin (Focusing, 1978): Slightly more directive than Rogers. Gendlin's "felt sense" technique invites the client to locate emotion in the body — a specific, teachable skill. This is the contemplative roots of somatic work.
Irvin Yalom (Existential Psychotherapy, 1980): Yalom works with the "existential givens" — death, freedom, isolation, meaninglessness. His approach involves gentle confrontation with these givens, not as problems to solve but as sources of meaning. His therapeutic style is warm but substantive — he offers interpretations and frames, not just reflections.
Viktor Frankl (Logotherapy, 1946/1984): The most directive on meaning. Frankl believed the primary human drive is not pleasure (Freud) or power (Adler) but meaning. His approach — Logotherapy — actively helps patients find meaning in suffering. The sage's "teach a named frame" move has Franklian roots.
Tara Brach / Jack Kornfield / Pema Chödrön (Dharma-talk structure): A dharma talk follows a recognizable architecture: (1) an anchor story or image, (2) a named teaching or concept, (3) a guided practice or reflection, (4) an invitation back to the world. This is almost exactly Silent Infinity's reflect-teach-invite structure. This is not coincidence — the dharma-talk format has been refined over 2,500 years for exactly this purpose.
Wise friend patterns:
Chatbot platitude patterns:
Anti-patterns specifically to audit in Silent Infinity:
Based on dharma-talk structure, Yalom-style therapeutic prose, and MI spirit:
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Each entry lists: framework name · source · core insight · one-line application to sage response.
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1. Stoic Dichotomy of Control (Epictetus, ~AD 125; Irvine, 2008)
Core insight: Divide every concern into "in my control" (judgments, impulses, desires) and "not in my control" (body, reputation, external events). Apply full effort to the first category; release attachment to the second.
Application: Help the user sort their overwhelm pile into two columns. The sorting itself is calming — it converts a felt mass into a structured list.
2. Decision Fatigue (Baumeister, Tierney 2011; Muraven & Baumeister, 2000)
Core insight: Ego depletion — willpower and decision-making capacity are finite cognitive resources. Overwhelm is often the signal that the resource is exhausted, not that the tasks are truly unmanageable.
Application: Name that the feeling is partly a metabolic state, not a permanent truth about capacity. Suggest a decision moratorium — no new choices until rest.
3. GTD Brain Dump (Allen, 2001)
Core insight: The mind is a processor, not a storage device. Cognitive overwhelm is often the result of trying to hold open loops in working memory. Externalizing them (capture everything, clarify, organize) relieves the load.
Application: Invite the user to name three things that are taking up space in their head. The act of naming moves items from System 1 to System 2 processing.
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1. Cognitive Restructuring (Beck, 1979; Beck, Rush, Shaw & Emery, 1979)
Core insight: Anxiety is maintained by automatic negative thoughts (ANTs) and cognitive distortions (catastrophising, mind-reading, all-or-nothing thinking). Surfacing and examining these thoughts weakens their hold.
Application: Guide the user to name the specific thought under the anxiety, then examine the evidence for and against it.
2. Ellis ABCDE Model (Ellis, 1962; Ellis & Harper, 1975)
Core insight: It is not the Activating event (A) that produces emotional Consequences (C) but the Belief (B) about A. Disputing (D) irrational beliefs leads to new Effects (E). This is the rational-emotive precursor to CBT.
Application: Introduce the ABCDE frame to help the user distinguish what happened from what they told themselves about what happened.
3. Polyvagal Theory — Ventral/Dorsal Distinction (Porges, 2011; Dana, 2018)
Core insight: The autonomic nervous system has three states: ventral vagal (safe, social, regulated), sympathetic (fight/flight), and dorsal vagal (shutdown/freeze). Anxiety is sympathetic activation. Regulation — not willpower — is the path back to ventral.
Application: Teach the user to locate their state on the polyvagal ladder. Somatic interventions (breath, cold water, vocalization) work physiologically, not just psychologically.
4. ACT Defusion (Hayes, Strosahl & Wilson, 1999; Harris, 2008)
Core insight: Cognitive fusion — being so identified with a thought that it feels like reality — maintains anxiety. Defusion techniques create distance: "I notice I'm having the thought that..." rather than "I am..."
Application: Invite the user to name their anxious thought as a story the mind is telling, and then hold it lightly.
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1. Grief Attaches to the Particular (Parkes, 1972; Parkes & Weiss, 1983)
Core insight: Grief is not about loss in the abstract — it is always about the loss of this specific person, relationship, or future. The particularity of grief is its defining feature and its dignity.
Application: Resist the urge to universalize ("everyone goes through this"). Instead, invite specificity — what exactly is missing?
2. Sixth Stage — Meaning (Kessler, 2019)
Core insight: Kessler extended Kübler-Ross's five stages with a sixth: Finding Meaning. Meaning is not the same as "it was meant to be" — it is the active creation of purpose from loss.
Application: Name that meaning-making is possible without minimizing the loss. "Grief and meaning can coexist — meaning doesn't shrink the loss."
3. Meaning Reconstruction (Neimeyer, 2001; Neimeyer & Anderson, 2002)
Core insight: Bereavement shatters the assumptive world — the set of beliefs about how life works. Grief therapy is meaning reconstruction: building a new narrative that integrates the loss.
Application: Ask what story the user is telling about the loss, not to challenge it, but to understand which part of their assumptive world was disrupted.
4. Attachment Theory — Protest and Despair (Bowlby, 1969, 1980)
Core insight: Grief follows the attachment system. Protest (searching, yearning, anger) and despair (withdrawal, disorganization) are biologically rooted responses to attachment disruption, not pathologies.
Application: Normalize both protest and despair as the attachment system working correctly. The goal is not to "move on" but to reorganize.
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1. Nonviolent Communication — Need Behind the Anger (Rosenberg, 2003)
Core insight: Anger is a signal that a need is unmet — typically for respect, fairness, autonomy, or safety. The anger itself is not the problem; it is a message about an underlying need. NVC moves from observation → feeling → need → request.
Application: Invite the user to name what need was not met. "Beneath the anger, what did you need that didn't happen?"
2. Buddhist Second Arrow (Sallatha Sutta; Thich Nhat Hanh, 1999)
Core insight: The first arrow is the painful event. The second arrow is the suffering we add through judgment, blame, and resistance. We cannot always avoid the first arrow, but we can learn not to shoot the second.
Application: Gently distinguish between the original wound and the layer of judgment around it. Both are real; only one is in the user's hands.
3. IFS — Firefighter Part (Schwartz, 1995; Anderson et al., 2017)
Core insight: In Internal Family Systems, anger often shows up as a "firefighter" part — a protector that activates reactively to extinguish the pain of a wounded "exile" part. The firefighter is not the enemy; it is protecting something important.
Application: Ask the user to get curious about what the anger is protecting. What would happen if the anger weren't there?
4. Stoic Premeditatio Malorum (Seneca, ~AD 65; Holiday, 2014)
Core insight: Anger often peaks when reality contradicts expectation. Pre-meditation of adversity — imagining difficulties in advance — reduces anger's surprise factor and calibrates expectations toward what is likely rather than what is hoped.
Application: Not for acute moments, but for pattern anger — help the user identify the recurring expectation that keeps being violated.
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1. Logotherapy — Meaning in Suffering (Frankl, 1946/1984)
Core insight: Even unavoidable suffering can be transformed into human achievement if we choose our attitude toward it. The "last of human freedoms" is the freedom to choose one's response to any given set of circumstances.
Application: Do not rush to fix the sadness. Invite the user to consider what the sadness might be pointing toward — what it might mean about what they love or value.
2. Protest and Despair (Bowlby, 1980) — see Grieving section; also applies to sadness unrelated to bereavement.
3. Self-Compassion — Three Components (Neff, 2003; Neff, 2011)
Core insight: Self-compassion has three components — self-kindness (vs. self-judgment), common humanity (vs. isolation), mindfulness (vs. over-identification). It is not self-pity; it is applying to oneself the compassion one would offer a good friend.
Application: Invite the user to notice how they are treating themselves in their sadness, and whether they would speak to a friend that way.
4. Hakomi — Holding Space (Kurtz, 1990; Weiss, Johanson & Monda, 2015)
Core insight: Hakomi is a mindfulness-based somatic therapy. Its core concept of "holding space" — being with the experience without trying to change it — is therapeutic in itself. The contacted, held experience can process and move.
Application: Model the holding stance in the response — do not pivot immediately to solution. Dwell in the felt sense first.
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1. Maslow's Hierarchy — Physiological First (Maslow, 1943)
Core insight: Before addressing meaning, belonging, or esteem, physiological needs — sleep, nutrition, physical safety — must be met. Tiredness that is physiological cannot be resolved through insight alone.
Application: Check in: is this tiredness physical (sleep-deprived, undernourished), emotional (compassion fatigue), existential (soul-tired)? The intervention differs radically.
2. Polyvagal Shutdown / Dorsal Vagal (Porges, 2011)
Core insight: Dorsal vagal activation — shutdown, freeze, collapse — presents as profound fatigue and disconnection. It is the nervous system's emergency brake. It is not laziness; it is a protective state.
Application: If the user's tired has the quality of disconnection and numbness, name the dorsal state. Safety and titrated activation, not effort, is the path out.
3. Rest Is Resistance (Hersey, 2022)
Core insight: Tricia Hersey's "Nap Ministry" framework argues that rest is not a reward for productivity — it is a right and an act of resistance against systems that treat human bodies as production machines. Rest has political and spiritual dimensions.
Application: For users who feel guilty about tiredness or rest, this reframe can be powerfully liberating. Especially resonant for caregivers, marginalized communities, and high-performing overachievers.
4. Compassion Fatigue (Figley, 1995; Stamm, 2010)
Core insight: Compassion fatigue is the secondary traumatic stress that accrues from caring for others in pain. It is distinct from burnout (job-related depletion). Caregivers, therapists, parents, and helpers are at highest risk.
Application: If the user is tired in the context of caring for others, name compassion fatigue. The naming itself is often relieving — it makes the experience understandable.
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1. Social vs Emotional Loneliness (Weiss, 1973; Russell, Cutrona, Rose & Yurko, 1984)
Core insight: Weiss distinguished two distinct forms of loneliness: social loneliness (absence of a social network, friends, community) and emotional loneliness (absence of a close attachment figure). The remedies differ — social activities help social loneliness; a new attachment figure helps emotional loneliness.
Application: Help the user distinguish which type they are experiencing. "Is it that you want more people around, or that you miss one particular kind of closeness?"
2. Belonging vs Fitting In (Brown, 2010; Brown, 2017)
Core insight: Brené Brown's research found that belonging and fitting in are opposites. Fitting in requires presenting the version of yourself that is acceptable; belonging requires showing up as you are. Loneliness often persists despite social connection because connection is happening at the fitting-in level.
Application: Invite the user to consider whether they are lonely for people who know the real them, not just people around them.
3. Bids for Connection (Gottman & Silver, 1999; Gottman, 2011)
Core insight: Gottman's research on couples identified "bids" — small, often indirect requests for attention, affection, or support. Loneliness frequently results from bids that are not made (for fear of rejection) or not recognized (by the other person).
Application: Ask the user when they last made a bid, and what happened. Or what bid they wish they could make.
4. Existential Isolation (Yalom, 1980)
Core insight: Yalom identified existential isolation as one of the four "ultimate concerns" — the recognition that there is an unbridgeable gap between oneself and any other person. This is different from social loneliness. It cannot be resolved by connection; it can only be met with clarity and meaning.
Application: If the user's loneliness has the quality of existential "no one can really know me," name it as an existential given — not a deficiency. The resolution is meaning-making, not more socializing.
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1. Winnicott — True Self / False Self (Winnicott, 1960)
Core insight: Winnicott argued that the "false self" develops when a child must comply with a caregiver's needs rather than express their own. The false self is adaptive but at the cost of aliveness. The true self is the spontaneous, genuine core.
Application: Invite the user to notice: which version of themselves is currently visible to others? What would the true self say if it could?
2. Jung — The Persona (Jung, 1928; Sharp, 1991)
Core insight: The persona is the social mask — the public-facing role we play. Jung saw it as necessary but dangerous when it becomes the whole of identity. Inflation of the persona (excessive identification) leads to alienation from the deeper self.
Application: Name the persona function without pathologizing — the mask was useful. "What was the mask protecting you from? And is that still the situation?"
3. IFS — Parts and Exiles (Schwartz, 1995)
Core insight: In IFS, pretending often involves a Manager part that runs a performance to protect an exiled part from being seen — because in the past, being seen led to pain. The goal is not to abolish the Manager but to update it.
Application: Ask the user what the pretending is protecting. What would happen if people saw what's underneath?
4. Shame and Hiding (Brown, 2010; Brown, 2012)
Core insight: Brené Brown's shame research found that shame thrives in secrecy, silence, and judgment. The antidote to shame is empathy and vulnerability — not exposure for its own sake, but selective authentic disclosure.
Application: Normalize the hiding without endorsing it. "Of course you're protecting yourself — the question is whether the pretending is still serving you."
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1. Gratitude Research (Emmons & McCullough, 2003)
Core insight: Robert Emmons's landmark studies found that participants who wrote weekly about things they were grateful for showed significantly higher well-being, more optimism, and fewer physical ailments than those who recorded hassles or neutral events. Gratitude is a practice, not just a feeling.
Application: Honor the gratitude as a choice — even if it arose spontaneously. Naming it and expanding it deepens the benefit.
2. Three Good Things / PERMA (Seligman, 2002; Seligman, 2011)
Core insight: Martin Seligman's positive psychology intervention "Three Good Things" (also called "What Went Well") involves recording three positive events daily and their causes. This trains explanatory style toward permanence and pervasiveness of positive events.
Application: If the user is in a grateful state, invite them to go specific and causal — not just "I'm grateful for my family" but "I'm grateful for this specific moment, and it happened because..."
3. Loving-Kindness — Radiating Outward (Thanissaro Bhikkhu, 1993; Salzberg, 1995)
Core insight: Metta (Loving-Kindness) meditation moves in concentric circles — self, loved ones, neutral persons, difficult persons, all beings. Gratitude experienced toward specific people can be metabolized through a metta frame, converting personal gratitude into compassionate awareness.
Application: Offer the user a simple metta sequence: "Let the gratitude land in your body, then notice if there's someone it points toward — and for a moment, send them this warmth."
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1. Prochaska — Stages of Change (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1983; Prochaska, Norcross & DiClemente, 1994)
Core insight: The transtheoretical model identifies five stages: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance. Each stage requires different interventions. Feeling "ready" typically signals the transition from preparation to action.
Application: Name which stage the user appears to be in and what the characteristic challenge of that transition is. "Ready has its own kind of fear — the moment of commitment."
2. Subject-Object Shift (Kegan, 1982; Kegan, 1994)
Core insight: Robert Kegan's constructive-developmental theory argues that growth involves moving something from "subject" (what I am) to "object" (what I have). What I cannot see cannot be changed; what I can see with some distance can be worked with.
Application: Ask what the user has been able to see differently lately that feels connected to this readiness. What has shifted from "being you" to "something you have"?
3. Theory U — Presencing (Scharmer, 2007; Scharmer, 2016)
Core insight: Otto Scharmer's Theory U describes a process of letting go (releasing the old), presencing (opening to what wants to emerge), and letting come (crystallizing new intention). The "U" shape mirrors the structure of transformative change.
Application: The "ready" state is often the bottom of the U — the liminal space before action crystallizes. Invite the user to stay in the presencing rather than rushing to plan.
4. Ultimate Freedom (Frankl, 1946/1984)
Core insight: "Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our responses lies our growth and our freedom." Often attributed to Frankl or Covey — the provenance is debated, but the insight is foundational.
Application: Honor readiness as the activation of that space — the moment of chosen response rather than automatic reaction.
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Ranked by Impact × Effort (High Impact / Low Effort first):
The change: The sage's first sentence must contain the exact word the user sent — not a synonym, not a paraphrase. If the user tapped "overwhelmed," the response opens with "overwhelmed," not "stressed," "a lot on your plate," or "exhausted."
The evidence: Cialdini's commitment/consistency principle, MI precision empathy, and Kahneman's System 1 activation all converge on this point. The exact word is the commitment artifact. Paraphrasing, even slightly, breaks the continuity between the chip tap and the response, which the user registers as being misunderstood.
How to implement: Add a prompt instruction: "Your first sentence must use the exact emotion word the user submitted, unchanged."
Expected impact: Higher second-turn rate (users who feel understood continue). Reduce early drop-off.
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The change: Every teach move must state the framework by name and its origin. Not "one way to think about anxiety is..." but "Psychologist Aaron Beck developed a tool he called cognitive restructuring, which..."
The evidence: The differentiation between "wise friend" and "chatbot platitude" hinges on attribution. Unnamed wisdom feels like filler. Named wisdom signals resources. Users in emotional distress want to feel they've been given something they can carry with them — a named frame is a cognitive artifact, a handle on the experience.
How to implement: Prompt instruction: "Name the framework, the creator/tradition, and the approximate time period. Do not state ideas without attribution."
Expected impact: Higher framework mention rate (users repeating framework names in session = depth signal). Higher qualitative rating.
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The change: For users with fewer than 3 sessions, surface 6 emotion chips (highest-frequency emotions from logs). For returning users, surface all 10.
The evidence: Hick's Law and empirical data from Wysa both suggest chip count above 6 raises selection friction for new users. However, existing users benefit from precision — 10 chips means a more exact selection. A progressive disclosure pattern resolves this tension without losing product value.
How to implement: Segment chip rendering by session_count. Sessions < 3: render top-6 chips. Sessions ≥ 3: render all 10.
Expected impact: Higher first-session chip tap rate. Reduced bounce at opening screen.
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Word count: ~3,400 | SCOUT / TITAN | 2026-04-21