Context
Surfaced 2026-05-14 by the PMF subagent that ran the survey. Belongs in synthpanel repo, filed here for tracking; will mirror to synthpanel-registry / synthpanel repo as the synthpanel team picks up.
The friction
The PMF subagent's first instinct, when told to use ai-eval-buyers / product-research / developer / recruiters-talent persona packs, was to look in ~/synthpanel-registry. None of those packs are there — they're SDK builtins shipped inside the installed pip package. The subagent only discovered this by calling sp.list_personas() and seeing them returned.
An external user following the registry README would conclude the named packs don't exist and bounce.
What to fix
In synthpanel's primary README (and the registry README):
- Top-of-page distinction: Builtin packs (ship with
pip install synthpanel-py) vs Registry packs (live in synthpanel-registry, installed à la carte)
- List the builtins by name with their persona counts (ai-eval-buyers (20), product-research (20), developer (15), recruiters-talent (15), etc.)
- Link from registry README → synthpanel README's builtin section so users land in the right place
Where this belongs
Repo: DataViking-Tech/SynthPanel (and DataViking-Tech/synthpanel-registry README). This issue is in synthbench's tracker because that's where the PMF-research thread originated; close + mirror once a synthpanel-side issue exists.
Context
Surfaced 2026-05-14 by the PMF subagent that ran the survey. Belongs in synthpanel repo, filed here for tracking; will mirror to synthpanel-registry / synthpanel repo as the synthpanel team picks up.
The friction
The PMF subagent's first instinct, when told to use
ai-eval-buyers/product-research/developer/recruiters-talentpersona packs, was to look in~/synthpanel-registry. None of those packs are there — they're SDK builtins shipped inside the installed pip package. The subagent only discovered this by callingsp.list_personas()and seeing them returned.An external user following the registry README would conclude the named packs don't exist and bounce.
What to fix
In synthpanel's primary README (and the registry README):
pip install synthpanel-py) vs Registry packs (live insynthpanel-registry, installed à la carte)Where this belongs
Repo: DataViking-Tech/SynthPanel (and DataViking-Tech/synthpanel-registry README). This issue is in synthbench's tracker because that's where the PMF-research thread originated; close + mirror once a synthpanel-side issue exists.