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hermes-agent/website/docs/user-guide/features/honcho.md
Teknium 43d468cea8 docs: comprehensive documentation audit — fix stale info, expand thin pages, add depth (#5393)
Major changes across 20 documentation pages:

Staleness fixes:
- Fix FAQ: wrong import path (hermes.agent → run_agent)
- Fix FAQ: stale Gemini 2.0 model → Gemini 3 Flash
- Fix integrations/index: missing MiniMax TTS provider
- Fix integrations/index: web_crawl is not a registered tool
- Fix sessions: add all 19 session sources (was only 5)
- Fix cron: add all 18 delivery targets (was only telegram/discord)
- Fix webhooks: add all delivery targets
- Fix overview: add missing MCP, memory providers, credential pools
- Fix all line-number references → use function name searches instead
- Update file size estimates (run_agent ~9200, gateway ~7200, cli ~8500)

Expanded thin pages (< 150 lines → substantial depth):
- honcho.md: 43 → 108 lines — added feature comparison, tools, config, CLI
- overview.md: 49 → 55 lines — added MCP, memory providers, credential pools
- toolsets-reference.md: 57 → 175 lines — added explanations, config examples,
  custom toolsets, wildcards, platform differences table
- optional-skills-catalog.md: 74 → 153 lines — added 25+ missing skills across
  communication, devops, mlops (18!), productivity, research categories
- integrations/index.md: 82 → 115 lines — added messaging, HA, plugins sections
- cron-internals.md: 90 → 195 lines — added job JSON example, lifecycle states,
  tick cycle, delivery targets, script-backed jobs, CLI interface
- gateway-internals.md: 111 → 250 lines — added architecture diagram, message
  flow, two-level guard, platform adapters, token locks, process management
- agent-loop.md: 112 → 235 lines — added entry points, API mode resolution,
  turn lifecycle detail, message alternation rules, tool execution flow,
  callback table, budget tracking, compression details
- architecture.md: 152 → 295 lines — added system overview diagram, data flow
  diagrams, design principles table, dependency chain

Other depth additions:
- context-references.md: added platform availability, compression interaction,
  common patterns sections
- slash-commands.md: added quick commands config example, alias resolution
- image-generation.md: added platform delivery table
- tools-reference.md: added tool counts, MCP tools note
- index.md: updated platform count (5 → 14+), tool count (40+ → 47)
2026-04-05 19:45:50 -07:00

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Markdown

---
sidebar_position: 99
title: "Honcho Memory"
description: "AI-native persistent memory via Honcho — dialectic reasoning, multi-agent user modeling, and deep personalization"
---
# Honcho Memory
[Honcho](https://github.com/plastic-labs/honcho) is an AI-native memory backend that adds dialectic reasoning and deep user modeling on top of Hermes's built-in memory system. Instead of simple key-value storage, Honcho maintains a running model of who the user is — their preferences, communication style, goals, and patterns — by reasoning about conversations after they happen.
:::info Honcho is a Memory Provider Plugin
Honcho is integrated into the [Memory Providers](./memory-providers.md) system. All features below are available through the unified memory provider interface.
:::
## What Honcho Adds
| Capability | Built-in Memory | Honcho |
|-----------|----------------|--------|
| Cross-session persistence | ✔ File-based MEMORY.md/USER.md | ✔ Server-side with API |
| User profile | ✔ Manual agent curation | ✔ Automatic dialectic reasoning |
| Multi-agent isolation | — | ✔ Per-peer profile separation |
| Observation modes | — | ✔ Unified or directional observation |
| Conclusions (derived insights) | — | ✔ Server-side reasoning about patterns |
| Search across history | ✔ FTS5 session search | ✔ Semantic search over conclusions |
**Dialectic reasoning**: After each conversation, Honcho analyzes the exchange and derives "conclusions" — insights about the user's preferences, habits, and goals. These conclusions accumulate over time, giving the agent a deepening understanding that goes beyond what the user explicitly stated.
**Multi-agent profiles**: When multiple Hermes instances talk to the same user (e.g., a coding assistant and a personal assistant), Honcho maintains separate "peer" profiles. Each peer sees only its own observations and conclusions, preventing cross-contamination of context.
## Setup
```bash
hermes memory setup # select "honcho" from the provider list
```
Or configure manually:
```yaml
# ~/.hermes/config.yaml
memory:
provider: honcho
```
```bash
echo "HONCHO_API_KEY=your-key" >> ~/.hermes/.env
```
Get an API key at [honcho.dev](https://honcho.dev).
## Configuration Options
```yaml
# ~/.hermes/config.yaml
honcho:
observation: directional # "unified" (default for new installs) or "directional"
peer_name: "" # auto-detected from platform, or set manually
```
**Observation modes:**
- `unified` — All observations go into a single pool. Simpler, good for single-agent setups.
- `directional` — Observations are tagged with direction (user→agent, agent→user). Enables richer analysis of conversation dynamics.
## Tools
When Honcho is active as the memory provider, four additional tools become available:
| Tool | Purpose |
|------|---------|
| `honcho_conclude` | Trigger server-side dialectic reasoning on recent conversations |
| `honcho_context` | Retrieve relevant context from Honcho's memory for the current conversation |
| `honcho_profile` | View or update the user's Honcho profile |
| `honcho_search` | Semantic search across all stored conclusions and observations |
## CLI Commands
```bash
hermes honcho status # Show connection status and config
hermes honcho peer # Update peer names for multi-agent setups
```
## Migrating from `hermes honcho`
If you previously used the standalone `hermes honcho setup`:
1. Your existing configuration (`honcho.json` or `~/.honcho/config.json`) is preserved
2. Your server-side data (memories, conclusions, user profiles) is intact
3. Set `memory.provider: honcho` in config.yaml to reactivate
No re-login or re-setup needed. Run `hermes memory setup` and select "honcho" — the wizard detects your existing config.
## Full Documentation
See [Memory Providers — Honcho](./memory-providers.md#honcho) for the complete reference.