PSYCTL - LLM Personality Steering Tool

⚠️ Project Under Development This project is currently under development and only supports limited functionality. Please check the release notes for stable features.

A project by Persona Lab at ModuLabs.

A tool that supports steering LLMs to exhibit specific personalities. The goal is to automatically generate datasets and work with just a model and personality specification.

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📚 Documentation

Core Guides

• Build Steering Dataset - Generate steering datasets for vector extraction
• Extract Steering Vectors - Extract steering vectors using mean_diff or BiPO methods
• Steering Experiment - Apply steering vectors using CAA (Contrastive Activation Addition)

Additional Resources

• Configuration - Environment variables and performance tuning
• OpenRouter Integration - Use cloud APIs instead of local GPU
• Community Datasets - Pre-built datasets and registry
• Troubleshooting - Common issues and solutions
• Contributing - Development guide and contribution guidelines

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📖 User Guide

🚀 Quick Start

Installation

Basic Installation (CPU Version)

# Install uv (Windows)
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1" -OutFile "install_uv.ps1"
& .\install_uv.ps1

# Project setup
uv venv
& .\.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
uv sync

Installation in Google Colab

# Install directly from GitHub
!pip install git+https://github.com/modulabs-personalab/psyctl.git

# Or install from specific branch
!pip install git+https://github.com/modulabs-personalab/psyctl.git@main

# Set environment variables
import os
os.environ['HF_TOKEN'] = 'your_huggingface_token_here'
os.environ['PSYCTL_LOG_LEVEL'] = 'INFO'

# Usage example
from psyctl import DatasetBuilder, P2, LLMLoader

GPU Acceleration Installation (CUDA Support)

# Install CUDA-enabled PyTorch after basic installation
uv pip install torch --index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cu121

# Verify installation
python -c "import torch; print('CUDA available:', torch.cuda.is_available())"

Important: The transformers package has torch as a dependency, so running uv sync will automatically install the CPU version. For GPU usage, you need to run the CUDA installation command above again.

Basic Usage

# 1. Generate dataset
psyctl dataset.build.steer \
  --model "google/gemma-3-27b-it" \
  --personality "Extroversion, Machiavellism" \
  --output "./dataset/steering"

# 2. Upload dataset to HuggingFace Hub (optional)
psyctl dataset.upload \
  --dataset-file "./dataset/steering/steering_dataset_*.jsonl" \
  --repo-id "username/extroversion-steering"

# 3. Extract steering vector
psyctl extract.steering \
  --model "meta-llama/Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct" \
  --layer "model.layers[13].mlp.down_proj" \
  --dataset "./dataset/steering" \
  --output "./steering_vector/out.safetensors"

# 4. Steering experiment
psyctl steering \
  --model "meta-llama/Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct" \
  --steering-vector "./steering_vector/out.safetensors" \
  --input-text "Tell me about yourself"

# 5. Inventory test
psyctl benchmark inventory \
  --model "meta-llama/Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct" \
  --steering-vector "./steering_vector/out.safetensors" \
  --inventory "ipip_neo_120" \
  --trait "Neuroticism"

📋 Commands Overview

PSYCTL provides 5 main commands. See documentation links above for detailed usage.

Command	Description	Documentation
dataset.build.steer	Generate steering datasets	Guide
dataset.upload	Upload datasets to HuggingFace	Guide
extract.steering	Extract steering vectors	Guide
steering	Apply steering to generation	Guide
benchmark inventory	Test with psychological inventories (logit-based)	See below
benchmark llm-as-judge	Test with LLM as Judge (situation-based questions)	See below
inventory.list	List available inventories	See below

Benchmark Methods:

• Inventory: Uses standardized psychological inventories (e.g., IPIP-NEO) with logit-based scoring. More objective and reproducible.
• LLM as Judge: Generates situation-based questions and uses an LLM to evaluate responses. More flexible and context-aware.
  • For API-based judges (OpenAI, OpenRouter), set environment variables:
    • OPENAI_API_KEY for OpenAI models
    • OPENROUTER_API_KEY for OpenRouter models
  • For local models, use local-default (reuses target model) or configure custom model path in benchmark_config.json
  • For custom API servers, edit benchmark_config.json to add your server configuration

📊 Supported Inventories

Inventory	Domain	License	Notes
IPIP-NEO-300/120	Big Five	Public Domain	Full & short forms
NPI-40	Narcissism	Free research use	Forced-choice
PNI-52	Pathological narcissism	CC-BY-SA	Likert 1–6
NARQ-18	Admiration & Rivalry	CC-BY-NC	Two sub-scales
MACH-IV	Machiavellianism	Public Domain	Likert 1–5
LSRP-26	Psychopathy	Public Domain	Primary & secondary
PPI-56	Psychopathy	Free research use	Short form

⚙️ Configuration

PSYCTL uses environment variables for configuration. Required:

# Get your token from https://huggingface.co/settings/tokens
export HF_TOKEN="your_huggingface_token_here"  # Linux/macOS
$env:HF_TOKEN = "your_token_here"              # Windows

For detailed configuration options (directories, performance tuning, logging), see Configuration Guide.

📝 Complete Workflow Example

# 1. Generate dataset for extroversion personality
# Set batch size for optimal performance
export PSYCTL_INFERENCE_BATCH_SIZE="16"

psyctl dataset.build.steer \
  --model "meta-llama/Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct" \
  --personality "Extroversion" \
  --output "./dataset/extroversion" \
  --limit-samples 1000

# 2. Extract steering vector
psyctl extract.steering \
  --model "meta-llama/Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct" \
  --layer "model.layers[13].mlp.down_proj" \
  --dataset "./dataset/extroversion" \
  --output "./steering_vector/extroversion.safetensors"

# 3. Apply steering to generate text
psyctl steering \
  --model "meta-llama/Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct" \
  --steering-vector "./steering_vector/extroversion.safetensors" \
  --input-text "Tell me about yourself"

# 4. Measure personality changes with inventory
psyctl benchmark inventory \
  --model "meta-llama/Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct" \
  --steering-vector "./steering_vector/extroversion.safetensors" \
  --inventory "ipip_neo_120" \
  --trait "Extraversion"

# 5. Measure personality changes with LLM as Judge
# Note: For API-based judges, set environment variables:
#   export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-key"        # For OpenAI models
#   export OPENROUTER_API_KEY="your-key"    # For OpenRouter models
# Or configure custom API server in benchmark_config.json
psyctl benchmark llm-as-judge \
  --model "meta-llama/Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct" \
  --steering-vector "./steering_vector/extroversion.safetensors" \
  --trait "Extraversion" \
  --judge-model "local-default" \
  --num-questions 10 \
  --strengths "1.0,2.0,3.0"

More Examples:

• See examples/ directory for Python library usage
• Check documentation links above for detailed guides

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! See Contributing Guide for:

• Development environment setup
• Code style and standards
• Testing guidelines
• Pull request process

Key papers

• Evaluating and Inducing Personality in Pre-trained Language Models
• Refusal in Language Models Is Mediated by a Single Direction
• Steering Llama 2 via Contrastive Activation Addition
• Steering Large Language Model Activations in Sparse Spaces
• Identifying and Manipulating Personality Traits in LLMs Through Activation Engineering
• Toy model of superposition
• Personalized Steering of LLMs: Versatile Steering Vectors via Bi-directional Preference Optimization
• The dark core of personality
• The Dark Triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Journal of Research in Personality
• Style-Specific Neurons for Steering LLMs in Text Style Transfer
• Between facets and domains: 10 aspects of the Big Five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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