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Chapter 3 of the Make Shapes guide. A great personality with no memory and a weak brain falls flat fast. This chapter gives your Shape three things that make it genuinely useful: a memory so it remembers you, the right model to run on, and skills it can reach for.

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A memory that makes it feel real

A Shape that remembers feels like a participant. One that forgets feels like a vending machine. Memory comes in two layers:
  • Short-term memory is the recent messages in the chat you’re in. It’s what the Shape reasons over right now.
  • Long-term memory is the lasting stuff it keeps about people and events, recalled later when it’s relevant.
Long-term memory is what lets your Shape bring up last week’s inside joke or remember that someone has a test coming up. It’s on by default and builds automatically as you talk. Anyone in the chat can also steer it live: /sleep saves the conversation now, /wack clears the short-term slate, and /reset erases long-term memories. The one setting worth tuning is the long-term memory instructions, where you decide what kind of details get saved (relationships, decisions, running jokes) instead of generic summaries. Full detail is in the Memory Guide.

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The right brain: pick a model

Every Shape runs on an AI model. The same character feels different depending on which one. A creative model makes it loose and expressive; a reasoning model makes it sharp and careful. There are 300+ models, and most are free. You set a primary model and a fallback for when the primary is busy. Don’t agonize over it: pick by vibe, test in chat, and swap if it feels off.

Which model should I use?

Fast picks by what your Shape is for, free vs premium, and what the badges mean.

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Skills it can actually use

By default a Shape talks. With skills, it can do things: make images with /imagine, search the web with /web, run code, read files you send it, and reach external tools like Notion and Spotify. You switch on the skills you want in a chat’s settings, and the Shape decides when to use them. Add the ones that fit the character. A coding mentor that runs code is great. A study buddy that searches the web is useful. Pick on purpose instead of turning on everything.

What the AI can do

The full menu of capabilities and how to switch each on.

Skill ideas and recipes

Inspiring ways to combine skills, with step-by-step setups.

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What’s next

Your Shape is smart and capable. The last piece is the hardest and the most important: teaching it how to behave around other people.

Chapter 4 · Make it social

When to talk, when to listen, and how to be good in a crowd.