honcho

name	honcho
description	Configure and use Honcho memory with Hermes -- cross-session user modeling, multi-profile peer isolation, observation config, and dialectic reasoning. Use when setting up Honcho, troubleshooting memory, managing profiles with Honcho peers, or tuning observation and recall settings.
version	1.0.0
author	Hermes Agent
license	MIT
metadata	{"hermes":{"tags":["Honcho","Memory","Profiles","Observation","Dialectic","User-Modeling"],"homepage":"https://docs.honcho.dev","related_skills":["hermes-agent"]}}
prerequisites	{"pip":["honcho-ai"]}

Honcho Memory for Hermes

Honcho provides AI-native cross-session user modeling. It learns who the user is across conversations and gives every Hermes profile its own peer identity while sharing a unified view of the user.

When to Use

• Setting up Honcho (cloud or self-hosted)
• Troubleshooting memory not working / peers not syncing
• Creating multi-profile setups where each agent has its own Honcho peer
• Tuning observation, recall, or write frequency settings
• Understanding what the 4 Honcho tools do and when to use them

Setup

Cloud (app.honcho.dev)

hermes honcho setup
# select "cloud", paste API key from https://app.honcho.dev

Self-hosted

hermes honcho setup
# select "local", enter base URL (e.g. http://localhost:8000)

See: https://docs.honcho.dev/v3/guides/integrations/hermes#running-honcho-locally-with-hermes

Verify

hermes honcho status    # shows resolved config, connection test, peer info

Architecture

Peers

Honcho models conversations as interactions between peers. Hermes creates two peers per session:

• User peer (peerName): represents the human. Honcho builds a user representation from observed messages.
• AI peer (aiPeer): represents this Hermes instance. Each profile gets its own AI peer so agents develop independent views.

Observation

Each peer has two observation toggles that control what Honcho learns from:

Toggle	What it does
observeMe	Peer's own messages are observed (builds self-representation)
observeOthers	Other peers' messages are observed (builds cross-peer understanding)

Default: all four toggles on (full bidirectional observation).

Configure per-peer in honcho.json:

{
  "observation": {
    "user": { "observeMe": true, "observeOthers": true },
    "ai":   { "observeMe": true, "observeOthers": true }
  }
}

Or use the shorthand presets:

Preset	User	AI	Use case
"directional" (default)	me:on, others:on	me:on, others:on	Multi-agent, full memory
"unified"	me:on, others:off	me:off, others:on	Single agent, user-only modeling

Settings changed in the Honcho dashboard are synced back on session init -- server-side config wins over local defaults.

Sessions

Honcho sessions scope where messages and observations land. Strategy options:

Strategy	Behavior
per-directory (default)	One session per working directory
per-repo	One session per git repository root
per-session	New Honcho session each Hermes run
global	Single session across all directories

Manual override: hermes honcho map my-project-name

Recall Modes

How the agent accesses Honcho memory:

Mode	Auto-inject context?	Tools available?	Use case
hybrid (default)	Yes	Yes	Agent decides when to use tools vs auto context
context	Yes	No (hidden)	Minimal token cost, no tool calls
tools	No	Yes	Agent controls all memory access explicitly

Multi-Profile Setup

Each Hermes profile gets its own Honcho AI peer while sharing the same workspace (user context). This means:

• All profiles see the same user representation
• Each profile builds its own AI identity and observations
• Conclusions written by one profile are visible to others via the shared workspace

Create a profile with Honcho peer

hermes profile create coder --clone
# creates host block hermes.coder, AI peer "coder", inherits config from default

What --clone does for Honcho:

1. Creates a hermes.coder host block in honcho.json
2. Sets aiPeer: "coder" (the profile name)
3. Inherits workspace, peerName, writeFrequency, recallMode, etc. from default
4. Eagerly creates the peer in Honcho so it exists before first message

Backfill existing profiles

hermes honcho sync    # creates host blocks for all profiles that don't have one yet

Per-profile config

Override any setting in the host block:

{
  "hosts": {
    "hermes.coder": {
      "aiPeer": "coder",
      "recallMode": "tools",
      "observation": {
        "user": { "observeMe": true, "observeOthers": false },
        "ai": { "observeMe": true, "observeOthers": true }
      }
    }
  }
}

Tools

The agent has 4 Honcho tools (hidden in context recall mode):

honcho_profile

Quick factual snapshot of the user -- name, role, preferences, patterns. No LLM call, minimal cost. Use at conversation start or for fast lookups.

honcho_search

Semantic search over stored context. Returns raw excerpts ranked by relevance, no LLM synthesis. Default 800 tokens, max 2000. Use when you want specific past facts to reason over yourself.

honcho_context

Natural language question answered by Honcho's dialectic reasoning (LLM call on Honcho's backend). Higher cost, higher quality. Can query about user (default) or the AI peer.

honcho_conclude

Write a persistent fact about the user. Conclusions build the user's profile over time. Use when the user states a preference, corrects you, or shares something to remember.

Config Reference

Config file: $HERMES_HOME/honcho.json (profile-local) or ~/.honcho/config.json (global).

Key settings

Key	Default	Description
apiKey	--	API key (get one)
baseUrl	--	Base URL for self-hosted Honcho
peerName	--	User peer identity
aiPeer	host key	AI peer identity
workspace	host key	Shared workspace ID
recallMode	hybrid	hybrid, context, or tools
observation	all on	Per-peer observeMe/observeOthers booleans
writeFrequency	async	async, turn, session, or integer N
sessionStrategy	per-directory	per-directory, per-repo, per-session, global
dialecticReasoningLevel	low	minimal, low, medium, high, max
dialecticDynamic	true	Auto-bump reasoning by query length. false = fixed level
messageMaxChars	25000	Max chars per message (chunked if exceeded)
dialecticMaxInputChars	10000	Max chars for dialectic query input

Cost-awareness (advanced, root config only)

Key	Default	Description
injectionFrequency	every-turn	every-turn or first-turn
contextCadence	1	Min turns between context API calls
dialecticCadence	1	Min turns between dialectic API calls

Troubleshooting

"Honcho not configured"

Run hermes honcho setup. Ensure memory.provider: honcho is in ~/.hermes/config.yaml.

Memory not persisting across sessions

Check hermes honcho status -- verify saveMessages: true and writeFrequency isn't session (which only writes on exit).

Profile not getting its own peer

Use --clone when creating: hermes profile create <name> --clone. For existing profiles: hermes honcho sync.

Observation changes in dashboard not reflected

Observation config is synced from the server on each session init. Start a new session after changing settings in the Honcho UI.

Messages truncated

Messages over messageMaxChars (default 25k) are automatically chunked with [continued] markers. If you're hitting this often, check if tool results or skill content is inflating message size.

CLI Commands

Command	Description
hermes honcho setup	Interactive setup wizard (cloud/local, identity, observation, recall, sessions)
hermes honcho status	Show resolved config, connection test, peer info for active profile
hermes honcho enable	Enable Honcho for the active profile (creates host block if needed)
hermes honcho disable	Disable Honcho for the active profile
hermes honcho peer	Show or update peer names (--user <name>, --ai <name>, --reasoning <level>)
hermes honcho peers	Show peer identities across all profiles
hermes honcho mode	Show or set recall mode (hybrid, context, tools)
hermes honcho tokens	Show or set token budgets (--context <N>, --dialectic <N>)
hermes honcho sessions	List known directory-to-session-name mappings
hermes honcho map <name>	Map current working directory to a Honcho session name
hermes honcho identity	Seed AI peer identity or show both peer representations
hermes honcho sync	Create host blocks for all Hermes profiles that don't have one yet
hermes honcho migrate	Step-by-step migration guide from OpenClaw native memory to Hermes + Honcho
hermes memory setup	Generic memory provider picker (selecting "honcho" runs the same wizard)
hermes memory status	Show active memory provider and config
hermes memory off	Disable external memory provider