Part I · Sovereign agent · 04

Soul pack

Write identity into Hermes home. Keep project rules in project context files.

25 min

What SOUL.md is

SOUL.md (home)

HERMES_HOME only

Not project CWD

Identity · tone · limits

Follows you everywhere

Primary identity

AGENTS.md (project)

Repo / design-lab

Conventions · paths

One type per session

.hermes / AGENTS / …

Project context

SOUL.md is primary identity: name, role, tone, hard limits. Official docs place it first in the system prompt. Prefer a short brief (~12–20 lines) over a one-line slogan.

Location: Hermes loads SOUL.md from the instance home only, typically ~/.hermes/SOUL.md or $HERMES_HOME/SOUL.md for a profile. It does not load SOUL from the project working directory. Personality stays stable across folders.

One profile = one home (own HERMES_HOME). Profiles do not share soul or memory by accident.

SOUL vs project context

If it should follow every session → SOUL.md. If it belongs to a repository or campaign → project context (AGENTS.md, .hermes.md / HERMES.md, or CLAUDE.md / .cursorrules when present). One project-context type loads per session (first match). SOUL still loads as identity.

SOUL.md: identity, tone, limits (Hermes home only)
AGENTS.md or .hermes.md: architecture, conventions, ports, project "never do X"
/personality: temporary session overlay, not a SOUL replacement
Context files are scanned for injection; review files from untrusted repos

Personality & SOUL.md ↗ Context files ↗ Sample AGENTS.md ↘