hermes-memory-bridge

name	hermes-memory-bridge
description	Architecture and scripts for syncing Hermes memory into git-tracked .claude/memory/ so all machines get context via git pull. Covers quality gate, drift detection, topic mirroring, and cron automation.
tags	["memory","hermes","cross-machine","context-parity","bridge"]
created	"2026-04-05T00:00:00.000Z"

Hermes Memory Bridge

Problem

Hermes writes memory to ~/.hermes/memories/ (Linux only). Claude Code writes to ~/.claude/projects/*/memory/ (per-machine, not portable). Non-Hermes machines (Windows licensed-win-1) have zero context. Without a bridge, every machine operates with different knowledge.

Architecture: Memory Lives In The Repo

Instead of sync tools or tarballs, memory files are committed to .claude/memory/ inside the workspace-hub repo. Git IS the sync mechanism.

Hermes memory (~/.hermes/memories/)
  → pre-bridge-quality.sh (quality gate)
    → bridge-hermes-claude.sh (injects into repo memory files)
      → .claude/memory/ (git-tracked)
        → git push
          → any machine: git pull → gets same context

Key Scripts

Script	Purpose
scripts/memory/bridge-hermes-claude.sh	Main bridge: reads Hermes memory, injects into agents.md via template, mirrors Claude topic files
scripts/memory/pre-bridge-quality.sh	Quality gate: checks char limits, stale entries, duplicates, content richness. Scored 0-100. ≤50 blocks bridge, 50-70 warns+bridges, 70+ passes
scripts/memory/check-memory-drift.sh	Drift detection: compares Hermes memory against repo agents.md. Exits 0/1. --fix runs bridge
scripts/memory/bootstrap-machine.sh	One-time setup for new machines: creates ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md

Repo Memory Files

File	Content
.claude/memory/agents.md	User profile, AI subscriptions, workflow rules, Hermes-injected facts
.claude/memory/context.md	Machine conventions, paths, Python rules, workspace layout, legal compliance
.claude/memory/claude-auto-memory.md	Snapshot of Claude auto-memory MEMORY.md index
.claude/memory/topics/	19 mirrored Claude topic files (feedback_*, working-style, etc.)
.claude/memory/templates/agents-template.md	Template for agents.md with BRIDGE injection markers

BRIDGE Marker Pattern

agents.md uses <!-- BRIDGE:START --> / <!-- BRIDGE:END --> markers in a template:

# Agent Workflow Facts
> Git-tracked template file

<!-- BRIDGE:START -->
## Synced from Hermes Memory (date)
- bullet 1
- bullet 2
<!-- BRIDGE:END -->

---
## User
... hardcoded baseline that doesn't change ...

The bridge script reads the template, injects Hermes content between markers, and writes the result. This prevents duplication — baseline lives in template, dynamic content lives in bridge injection.

Quality Gate Scoring

Score starts at 100, deductions:

• Memory file missing: -30
• Memory file empty: -25
• Exceeds char limit (2200 MEMORY.md / 1375 USER.md): -20 per file
• Approaching limit (>90%): -5 per file
• Stale entries (>90 days old): -3 per entry
• Duplicates between MEMORY.md and USER.md (>2): -5
• Nearly empty (<200 chars): -15

Score ≤50: BLOCK bridge (critical failure) Score 50-70: WARN and bridge (or --fix mode auto-compacts first) Score ≥70: PASS, bridge runs normally

Cron Job

Hermes cron 8c797470d7d3 (memory-bridge-daily, 0 4 * * *):

1. Runs check-memory-drift.sh — skips bridge if in sync
2. Runs pre-bridge-quality.sh --fix — gates quality
3. Bridge commits + pushes (with stash/rebase for dirty working dir)

Pitfalls

• Repo topology changes are high-priority bridge facts. If a session confirms that tier-1 repos moved between nested and sibling layouts, run check-memory-drift.sh and bridge the fact into .claude/memory/agents.md; otherwise Hermes may know the topology while repo-local agents still follow stale path assumptions.
• Existing quality scripts (compact-memory.py, curate-memory.py, eval-memory-quality.py) are BUGGY — wrong default paths, metrics calibrated for work-queue format not §-delimited memory. Use pre-bridge-quality.sh instead.
• The bridge must handle dirty working dir: stash before git pull --rebase, restore after push.
• Scheduled bridge jobs can collide with scripts/repository_sync or another Git process holding .git/index.lock; if check-memory-drift.sh, git status, or bridge preflight times out while a git add/sync process is active, inspect the owning process, wait briefly for the lock to clear, then rerun drift detection before deciding whether to bridge. Do not remove .git/index.lock unless the owning Git process is gone.
• If pre-bridge-quality.sh --fix generates bridge changes, stashes them, then exits nonzero because the internal commit sees nothing to commit, working tree clean or nothing added to commit but untracked files present, recover by checking out only .claude/memory from the generated pre-bridge-stash, staging .claude/memory, committing only .claude/memory, pushing, and then rerunning check-memory-drift.sh to verify sync. Do not add unrelated untracked files just to make the bridge commit succeed. If git push says Everything up-to-date, verify HEAD equals origin/main / @{u} because hooks may already have pushed. If the generated stash also contains non-memory paths, preserve the stash after the memory commit instead of dropping it. See references/pre-bridge-stash-recovery.md for the exact recovery/verification command sequence.
• Memory topic snapshots can legitimately document merge-conflict marker strings inside fenced code blocks. If the commit hook blocks .claude/memory/topics/* with unresolved-marker findings, first verify the markers are forensic/example content, then add the per-line hook exemption suffix # CONFLICT_MARKER_FORENSIC_OK to the literal marker lines only; do not disable hooks or rewrite unrelated memory content.

Ecosystem Health Monitoring

scripts/upkeep/health-check.sh provides 16 automated checks:

1. Gateway status (critical if down — cron jobs won't fire)
2. Cron job count and state
3. Cron output freshness
4. Memory bridge freshness (last commit to .claude/memory/)
5. Memory drift (Hermes vs repo) 6-7. Hermes memory char limits (MEMORY.md / USER.md) 8-10. Disk space, ~/.hermes/ size, ~/.claude/ size
6. Repo unpushed commits 12-14. Sub-repo sync (digitalmodel, aceengineer-strategy, worldenergydata) 15-16. Claude topics count and auto-memory snapshot freshness

Exit codes: 0 = all pass, 1 = warnings, 2 = critical failures Usage: bash scripts/upkeep/health-check.sh or /today --health

Operational Findings

• Gateway can go DOWN without warning (found inactive for 7+ hours, cron jobs never fired)
• Memory approaches limits quickly (MEMORY.md hit 98% at 2170/2200 chars, USER.md hit 94% at 1291/1375)
• Quality gate thresholds are well-calibrated: memory at 90%+ triggers warning, forces attention
• Health check revealed gateway status as the most critical single point of failure — if Gateway is down, memory-bridge cron never runs, drift accumulates silently