Choose what Hermes should remember
Hermes has bounded, curated memory that persists across sessions. It can retain preferences, projects, environment facts, and lessons, according to the Hermes memory documentation.
Teach Hermes your preferences
Use USER.md for identity, preferences, communication style, and workflow habits. Hermes stores this profile in ~/.hermes/memories/ and loads it into the system prompt at the start of a session, as explained in the Hermes memory documentation.
Teach Hermes your rules and project context
Use MEMORY.md for environment facts, project conventions, tool workarounds, and lessons learned. The documented examples also include corrections and completed work. Both files load as a frozen snapshot at session start, so changes made during a session appear in the prompt only after the next session starts, according to the Hermes memory documentation.
Manage and review what Hermes learns
Hermes can add, replace, or remove memory entries through its memory tool. The /journey view lets users inspect, edit, or delete memory chunks and saved skills. You can also enable memory.write_approval: true, then review pending writes with /memory pending, /memory approve <id>, and /memory reject <id>, as shown in the Hermes memory documentation.
Keep important memory concise
Hermes limits MEMORY.md to 2,200 characters and USER.md to 1,375 characters. Memory does not auto-compact, so an over-limit write returns an error. The guide recommends consolidating entries when usage passes 80 percent. See the Hermes memory documentation for the limits.
Search earlier conversations
Hermes can search past conversations with session_search. It retrieves actual messages from SQLite without LLM summarization or truncation, according to the Hermes memory documentation. This search covers stored conversations rather than a separate saved-reference library.
Keep saved references in KnowMan
KnowMan saves articles and links, reads and tags them, answers questions with citations, and keeps claims, decisions, and playbooks. It also provides a local stdio MCP server with tools for searching saved items, reading an item, asking questions, and saving URLs. See the KnowMan MCP guide.
Questions people ask
Where should I put my personal preferences?
Put identity, preferences, communication style, and workflow habits in USER.md. Hermes loads this file into the system prompt at session start. See the Hermes memory documentation.
Where should I put my project rules?
Put environment facts, project conventions, tool workarounds, and lessons in MEMORY.md. Changes are persisted during a session but enter the system prompt only at the next session start. See the Hermes memory documentation.
Can I search my earlier Hermes conversations?
Yes. Hermes provides session_search for retrieving actual messages from stored conversations without LLM summarization or truncation. See the Hermes memory documentation.
Does Hermes change memory during a chat?
Yes. Its memory tool can add, replace, or remove entries, but changes enter the system prompt only in the next session. The Hermes memory documentation also explains how to require approval for writes.