folder_openConcepts schedule2 min read update3 Nov 2026

Hermes Brain turns raw chat sessions into durable, human-reviewed agent memory through four stages.

Hermes Brain memory pipelineA Hermes session is archived, staged as candidate facts, reviewed by a human who promotes or dismisses each one, and promoted facts are synced into Hermes memory.Hermes session01ArchiveMarkdown + secret scrub04-Archives/Daily/02StageCandidate facts04-Archives/Memory-Review/03ReviewYou decidepromote_memory.py --review04RememberInjected every turnMEMORY.md / USER.mdhuman in the loop×dismissed, never becomes memoryevery action is recorded in Consolidation-Log.md
The four stages. Only stage 3 needs you, and nothing skips it.

Stage 1 — Archiving

Raw agent sessions are exported to 04-Archives/Daily/YYYY/MM/DD/ as plain Markdown. A manifest.jsonl tracks every exported session for deduplication.

Two triggers:

  • Real-time — on_session_start / on_session_end hooks write notes instantly
  • Hourly cron — hourly_archive.py catches up on anything missed

Stage 2 — Scrubbing & candidate extraction

consolidate_memory.py runs a mechanical, LLM-free pass:

  • Scrubs secrets (API keys, tokens) before anything hits disk
  • Extracts candidate facts into 04-Archives/Memory-Review/
  • Keeps an audit log of every action

Stage 3 — Human review

promote_memory.py --review walks you through pending candidates one by one. For each you can:

  • Promote to MEMORY.md or your User Profile
  • Dismiss it
  • Skip it for later

Every action lands in the consolidation audit log. Nothing auto-promotes.

Stage 4 — Permanent injection

Promoted facts sync to Hermes native MEMORY.md and USER.md via sync_to_hermes.py. These files are injected into every Hermes turn, so your agent remembers across sessions — but only what you approved.

Local git safety net

Since v1.24, session_git_snapshot.py can be wired as a Hermes on_session_end hook. It commits a local snapshot of the vault after every session (local-only, never pushes/fetches) and refuses to commit if it spots something that looks like a secret. A bad edit is one git revert away.

Folder map 

  04-Archives/Daily/          → raw session archives
04-Archives/Memory-Review/  → staged candidates awaiting your review
MEMORY.md / USER.md         → Hermes native memory (injected every turn)
_System/Scripts/            → archive, consolidate, promote, sync scripts