AskHamiz: named easter-egg modes (Herbert, Hamiz)

[shreekardittakavi]

Spec: Doc — "Herbert Mode: Mentioning the name Herbert causes an epileptic mood swing flash while the LLM recites the Torah in Hebrew. Hamiz Mode: Mentioning the name Hamiz makes the LLM ask for OracleDB funding and COBOL IBM funding."

Scope

Trigger-word easter eggs in the chat, detected on the sent message and driving a temporary UI + persona change.

Two things to settle before building

1. The flashing effect is a real accessibility hazard, not a nitpick. A rapid full-screen flash can induce seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy. If it ships as literally described, it needs to be built to WCAG 2.3.1 (General Flash and Red Flash Thresholds):

• No more than 3 flashes per second
• Honour prefers-reduced-motion with a non-flashing fallback
• Off by default behind an opt-in, or gated behind a dismissible warning the first time it triggers

A slow colour wash or a shake reads as funny and carries none of the risk. Recommend that instead — the joke survives intact.

2. "Recites the Torah in Hebrew" needs a decision. Religious text as a punchline is the kind of thing that lands differently outside the group that wrote it, and this is a student-facing product. Worth a deliberate team call on whether it ships, rather than arriving by default. Hamiz Mode (Oracle/COBOL funding requests) is an in-joke about technology choices and carries none of that concern.

Scope once settled

• Trigger detection on message send, with a cooldown so it cannot be spammed.
• Per-mode persona overlay on the system prompt, time- or turn-limited, then reverting.
• A global kill switch in settings to disable all easter eggs.

Acceptance criteria

• Modes trigger on their names and revert automatically
• Any visual effect stays within WCAG 2.3.1 flash thresholds and respects prefers-reduced-motion
• Easter eggs can be turned off entirely
• The Herbert Mode content question has an explicit team decision recorded on this issue