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feat: use SOUL.md as primary agent identity instead of hardcoded default (#1922)

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SOUL.md now loads in slot #1 of the system prompt, replacing the
hardcoded DEFAULT_AGENT_IDENTITY. This lets users fully customize
the agent's identity and personality by editing ~/.hermes/SOUL.md
without it conflicting with the built-in identity text.

When SOUL.md is loaded as identity, it's excluded from the context
files section to avoid appearing twice. When SOUL.md is missing,
empty, unreadable, or skip_context_files is set, the hardcoded
DEFAULT_AGENT_IDENTITY is used as a fallback.

The default SOUL.md (seeded on first run) already contains the full
Hermes personality, so existing installs are unaffected.

Co-authored-by: Test <test@test.com>
This commit is contained in:
Teknium
2026-03-18 04:11:20 -07:00
committed by GitHub
parent 1fa3737134
commit e4a3ffa9c1
2 changed files with 65 additions and 36 deletions
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55
agent/prompt_builder.py
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@@ -429,11 +429,42 @@ def _truncate_content(content: str, filename: str, max_chars: int = CONTEXT_FILE
return head + marker + tail
def build_context_files_prompt(cwd: Optional[str] = None) -> str:
def load_soul_md() -> Optional[str]:
"""Load SOUL.md from HERMES_HOME and return its content, or None.
Used as the agent identity (slot #1 in the system prompt). When this
returns content, ``build_context_files_prompt`` should be called with
``skip_soul=True`` so SOUL.md isn't injected twice.
"""
try:
from hermes_cli.config import ensure_hermes_home
ensure_hermes_home()
except Exception as e:
logger.debug("Could not ensure HERMES_HOME before loading SOUL.md: %s", e)
soul_path = Path(os.getenv("HERMES_HOME", Path.home() / ".hermes")) / "SOUL.md"
if not soul_path.exists():
return None
try:
content = soul_path.read_text(encoding="utf-8").strip()
if not content:
return None
content = _scan_context_content(content, "SOUL.md")
content = _truncate_content(content, "SOUL.md")
return content
except Exception as e:
logger.debug("Could not read SOUL.md from %s: %s", soul_path, e)
return None
def build_context_files_prompt(cwd: Optional[str] = None, skip_soul: bool = False) -> str:
"""Discover and load context files for the system prompt.
Discovery: AGENTS.md (recursive), .cursorrules / .cursor/rules/*.mdc,
and SOUL.md from HERMES_HOME only. Each capped at 20,000 chars.
When *skip_soul* is True, SOUL.md is not included here (it was already
loaded via ``load_soul_md()`` for the identity slot).
"""
if cwd is None:
cwd = os.getcwd()
@@ -523,23 +554,11 @@ def build_context_files_prompt(cwd: Optional[str] = None) -> str:
hermes_md_content = _truncate_content(hermes_md_content, ".hermes.md")
sections.append(hermes_md_content)
# SOUL.md from HERMES_HOME only
try:
from hermes_cli.config import ensure_hermes_home
ensure_hermes_home()
except Exception as e:
logger.debug("Could not ensure HERMES_HOME before loading SOUL.md: %s", e)
soul_path = Path(os.getenv("HERMES_HOME", Path.home() / ".hermes")) / "SOUL.md"
if soul_path.exists():
try:
content = soul_path.read_text(encoding="utf-8").strip()
if content:
content = _scan_context_content(content, "SOUL.md")
content = _truncate_content(content, "SOUL.md")
sections.append(content)
except Exception as e:
logger.debug("Could not read SOUL.md from %s: %s", soul_path, e)
# SOUL.md from HERMES_HOME only — skip when already loaded as identity
if not skip_soul:
soul_content = load_soul_md()
if soul_content:
sections.append(soul_content)
if not sections:
return ""