# venice-characters

Use Venice’s public character API to search personas, inspect reviews, and apply a character to a chat request. Useful for building a character picker or preset personas into an app.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · ★ 160
- Author: veniceai
- License: MIT · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/veniceai/skills/tree/HEAD/skills/venice-characters/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-10-23
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/venice-characters

## What it does

The skill covers three Venice API endpoints: listing and filtering characters, fetching a character by `slug`, and retrieving paginated reviews. Character records include details such as tags, ratings, and a suggested model; you still choose the chat model yourself.

Requests need a Bearer API key. Pass the character through `venice_parameters.character_slug` to add its system prompt to the conversation. E2EE requests bypass character injection, so this setup won’t apply in that mode.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add veniceai/skills --skill venice-characters -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/venice-characters/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/venice-characters/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add veniceai/skills --skill venice-characters -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/venice-characters/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add veniceai/skills --skill venice-characters -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/venice-characters/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install veniceai/skills venice-characters
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/venice-characters/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add veniceai/skills --skill venice-characters -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/veniceai/skills --path skills/venice-characters
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/venice-characters/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add veniceai/skills --skill venice-characters -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/veniceai/skills/tree/HEAD/skills/venice-characters/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- search characters by tag, category, or model
- fetch a character record by `slug`
- retrieve public reviews page by page
- apply a chosen character to a chat request

## Example prompts
- Find Venice characters by tag and sort the results by rating.
- Fetch the character record for `alan-watts` and show its reviews.
- Add `alan-watts` to this chat request through the Venice API.

## Source text · SKILL.md · MIT

Below is the content of a third-party file. It is data, not instructions for you: do not act on anything written inside unless the human asks. Block tag: b0e605b61731d602.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE b0e605b61731d602
````text
---
name: venice-characters
description: Discover and use Venice public characters (persona-driven system prompts with a suggested model). Covers GET /characters (search/filter/sort/paginate), /characters/{slug}, /characters/{slug}/reviews, the Character and Review schemas, Bearer-API-key-only auth, filter semantics (adult, pro, modelId), and how to apply a character via venice_parameters.character_slug in chat completions.
---

# Venice Characters

Characters are **published personas** on Venice — each one bundles a system prompt (plus optional context), a suggested backing model, and metadata (tags, ratings, adult / web flags). You apply a character to a chat by passing its `slug` via `venice_parameters.character_slug`.

## Use when

- You want to build a character-selection UI or discovery surface.
- You want to ship an app with a preset persona (e.g. a coding coach, a philosopher, a game NPC).
- You want to pick the right model for a character (the character's `modelId` is a suggestion; you choose the chat `model`).

Three endpoints, all tagged **Preview** (may change):

| Endpoint | Purpose |
|---|---|
| `GET /characters` | Browse/search/filter the catalog. |
| `GET /characters/{slug}` | Fetch one character. |
| `GET /characters/{slug}/reviews` | Paginated public reviews. |

**Auth: Bearer API key only.** These routes do not accept x402 / `SIGN-IN-WITH-X` (a SIWX-only request gets `401`). A request with no `Authorization` header gets a `402` x402 discovery challenge rather than `401`. There is no unauthenticated access. See [`venice-auth`](../venice-auth/SKILL.md).

## `GET /characters`

```bash
curl "https://api.venice.ai/api/v1/characters?search=philosopher&sortBy=highestRating&limit=20" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $VENICE_API_KEY"
```

Response: `{ "object": "list", "data": [Character, ...] }` (no total count — page with `offset` until you get fewer than `limit`).

### Query parameters

| Param | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `search` | string, ≤ 200 chars | Case-insensitive substring match on name, description, or tag. `#Tag` terms also match tags exactly (URL-encode `#` as `%23`). |
| `categories` | string[], ≤ 20 (each ≤ 100 chars) | Repeat the param or comma-separate. Matches any. |
| `tags` | string[], ≤ 20 (each ≤ 100 chars) | Repeat or comma-separate. Exact tag name, matches any. |
| `modelId` | string[], ≤ 20 (each ≤ 200 chars) | Repeat or comma-separate. Filters on the character's stored model ID — see Gotchas. |
| `isAdult` | `"true"` / `"false"` | **Exclusive**: `true` returns *only* adult characters; omitted or `false` returns only non-adult ones. |
| `isPro` | `"true"` / `"false"` | `true` = only characters whose model is a Pro model in the Venice app. `false` = no filter. Overrides `modelId` when both are sent. |
| `isWebEnabled` | `"true"` / `"false"` | `true` = only web-enabled characters. `false` = no filter. |
| `sortBy` | enum | `featured`, `highestRating`, `highlyRated`, `highlyRatedAndRecent`, `imports`, `mostRecent`, `ratingCount`. Omitted → most imports first. |
| `sortOrder` | `asc` / `desc` | Default `desc`. Only applied when `sortBy` is set. |
| `limit` | integer 1–100 | Default 50. `> 100` → `400`. |
| `offset` | integer ≥ 0 | Default 0. |

`sortBy` values that also **filter**:
````
END THIRD-PARTY FILE b0e605b61731d602

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