Profiles & SOUL.md

SOUL.md is the agent’s persona and standing instructions — its identity, tone, and the rules it always follows. Editing SOUL.md changes who the agent is across every conversation.

A profile is a named bundle of configuration — model choice, persona, tools, memory — that you can switch between. Switching profiles isolates one setup from another, so a “maths tutor” profile and a “code reviewer” profile don’t bleed into each other.

Why it matters: role-specific agents need role-specific config. Profiles let one machine run several distinct agents cleanly, instead of one agent with a muddled, conflicting setup.

Try it: in the Hermes dashboard (localhost:9119), open Profiles, then edit ./hermes-home/SOUL.md. Change a line in SOUL.md, start a new chat, and watch the behaviour shift.

Next: Memory — what the agent keeps, and for how long.