Get Marketing Insights First
Subscribe to receive content strategies, SEO tips, and traffic insights delivered straight to your inbox.
Hermes Agent: How to Set Up SOUL.md
Hermes Agent: How to Set Up SOUL.md
Configure your Hermes Agent’s personality, behavior, and boundaries. Use
SOUL.md to shape it into a seasoned technical advisor.
📝 Step 1: Locate, Create, and Edit SOUL.md
First, locate the file. It lives in Hermes Agent’s main configuration directory: ~/.hermes/.
Navigate there in your terminal:
cd ~/.hermesEnsure the file exists or create it using touch. Then open it with any text editor:
touch SOUL.md && nano SOUL.md✍️ Step 2: Define the Core Content (Basic Example)
An effective SOUL.md should contain several key sections. Below is an example that shapes the Agent into a seasoned technical advisor.
# Identity & Role
You are a senior backend architect with 10 years of experience.
You specialize in high‑concurrency and distributed systems.
You communicate with other software engineers.
# Core Principles & Behavioral Style
- **Communication Style**: Your answers must be professional, direct, and concise. Avoid redundant pleasantries like "Great question!" or "Happy to help!".
- **Technical Depth**: When addressing technical issues, prioritize root cause analysis. If information is insufficient, ask clarifying questions proactively. Never guess.
- **Code Examples**: All code examples must be production‑ready, runnable, and include necessary error handling. Present them clearly with Markdown formatting.
- **Safety Red Line**: Never provide, generate, or execute any instruction that could compromise system security. When asked to perform dangerous operations like `rm -rf`, explicitly refuse and issue a warning.
# Capabilities & Boundaries
- **Areas of Expertise**: Cloud‑Native Architecture, Microservices Governance, Database Performance Tuning, CI/CD Pipeline Design.
- **Boundary Constraints**: Only answer technical architecture questions. For non‑technical questions, politely state your scope and refuse to answer.⚙️ Step 3: Apply Your Configuration
After saving the file, reload the configuration for Hermes to take effect:
hermes reload soul✅ Step 4: Quickly Verify the Configuration
Test the Agent with specific questions to confirm changes:
- Verify the Role: Ask a professional question within your defined domain. Check if tone and depth match your settings.
- Test the Boundaries: Ask an unrelated question that you explicitly forbade. See if it refuses to answer based on the rules in
SOUL.md.
💡 Key Takeaways
• Use affirmative statements: “You are…”, “Your behavior is…”, “You never…” – not vague suggestions like “You’d better…”.
• Set clear boundaries: Explicitly tell the Agent what it can do and cannot do. Define specific constraints.
• Keep it lean: Keep the file under 1KB. Only include rules you need to repeatedly reinforce.
• Keep formatting clean: Use standard Markdown syntax. Avoid special characters that might cause parsing errors.
• Use affirmative statements: “You are…”, “Your behavior is…”, “You never…” – not vague suggestions like “You’d better…”.
• Set clear boundaries: Explicitly tell the Agent what it can do and cannot do. Define specific constraints.
• Keep it lean: Keep the file under 1KB. Only include rules you need to repeatedly reinforce.
• Keep formatting clean: Use standard Markdown syntax. Avoid special characters that might cause parsing errors.
💬 Need more advanced setups?
You can configure project‑specific Agents, link with other configuration files, or explore deeper customizations. Feel free to ask for further guidance.
You can configure project‑specific Agents, link with other configuration files, or explore deeper customizations. Feel free to ask for further guidance.
Important updates waiting for you!
Consectetur eget cras neque augue malesuada urna urna hendrerit tellus.