hermes - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Setup]: USER.md seems to be unknown to hermes

What's Going Wrong?

Following Network Chuck's video, problem after problem.

1. I said "you are Forge" and gave it a whole backstory. It seemed happy to forget all that. Checking the ~/.hermes/SOUL.md had basically a default comment saying that this was where you'd put soul stuff.
2. I update SOUL.md manually, and it seems to know who it is now. Then tried "I am Chris, the boss. You can call me Chris. you are in charge of the IT stuff on my computer." It didn't remember that. I told it to, and it put it into memory.md instead of USER.md

Basically I don't understand why none of this is working.

Steps Taken

I told it to update it's SOUL.md file with the following "bunch of text" and it didn't. I told it who I was expecting it to update it USER.md file, and it didn't. I asked why it didn't and it said that it needed a skill. I typed in the skill name, and retried, made no difference.

Installation Method

Install script (curl | bash)

Operating System

Mint 24

Python Version

Python 3.12.3

Hermes Version

hermes --version Hermes Agent v0.14.0 (2026.5.16) Project: /home/chris/hermes-agent Python: 3.11.15 OpenAI SDK: 2.24.0 Up to date

Debug Report

Report       https://paste.rs/Goa62
  agent.log    https://paste.rs/tStcR
  gateway.log  https://paste.rs/dnMy5

Full Error Output

behaviour error.

What I've Already Tried

No response