Understanding Character Cards: Structure and the SillyTavern Import
A character card is more than a name and a profile picture. It's a small, portable data package — and Personarium deliberately speaks the same standard as the rest of the community instead of inventing its own closed format.
A PNG file with embedded text
Character Card V2/V3 is the community standard: a PNG image carrying a complete JSON as an invisible text chunk — persona, background/scenario, speech style, example dialogue, greeting plus alternate greetings, system prompt, creator notes, and world-info entries. On export, Personarium writes both formats into the file at once (current V3 plus a V2 downgrade), so the card also opens without a hitch in older tools.
Import and export with no lock-in
Because the card is yours, not ours, reading, importing, and exporting are all completely free — regardless of your membership. Fields Personarium itself doesn't understand aren't lost on import: they're preserved losslessly and written back out on export. A card can move back and forth between Personarium and other tools without anything disappearing along the way.
The SillyTavern import: more than just cards
Since mid-August, the import no longer just takes over individual cards but an entire SillyTavern installation: chat histories with their scenario notes, background images, persona avatars, quick replies, world-info bindings, and the data bank. Packed CHARX cards and direct URL import both work too. One deliberate exception: "secrets.json" is never opened, only its mere existence is noted — your API keys from SillyTavern are none of our business.
Safe rather than automatic
Not everything gets carried over silently. Regex scripts from SillyTavern, for instance, land in Personarium deliberately disabled, so you can review them before they take effect. Sampler presets arrive only as a suggestion in the final report, never as an automatic change. The wizard shows you, category by category, exactly what was imported at the end — better one extra confirmation click than a card that behaves differently than you expected.
Your cards are yours — import and export are, and stay, free, regardless of your membership.