Hermes Context Optimization

Use this when the user asks about Hermes prompt/context size, “hello” startup cost, compression behavior, memory/profile bloat, tool-schema overhead, skill loading, session-store/search-index storage, or multimodal/visual-context approaches such as Snapcompact.

For large state.db search-index maintenance, resumable optimize-storage --no-vacuum runs, foreground timeout handling, and post-run verification, follow references/session-store-optimization.md.

When bounded workers repeatedly fail with session_persistence_failed because a live profile DB is lock-contended, preserve the worktree handoff and use the non-disruptive isolated-HERMES_HOME workflow in references/isolated-worker-state-store.md. Diagnose the profile-specific DB and lock owners first; never terminate a user's live TUI or optimize its store merely to unblock a coding worker.

Operating style for the user

• Be concise first. If he asks for the savings, give the numbers, not a lecture.
• Separate hard blockers from engineering choices.
• Prefer token/accounting estimates grounded in actual provider/runtime data when available; use ratios only when clearly labeled.
• Do not imply that all startup prompt text is interchangeable. Bucket it by runtime role.

Long standing-goal payloads

When a long /goal prompt is displayed as a compact token such as [[ … [77 lines] … ]], treat that representation as potentially lossy rendered text, not as the authoritative goal body. Hermes' goal state stores the string it receives and does not dereference wiki-style links or recover omitted lines. Before allowing a goal worker to edit anything, require it to read the complete authoritative specification from a file and verify that the first turn contains the expected task scope. Use a short file-backed goal such as: Read and execute the complete goal specification at /absolute/path/goal.md; treat that file as authoritative; do not act on truncated display text. If the worker loads Obsidian or searches for a note matching the compact label, pause/clear the goal: it received the display placeholder, not the task. Do not accept a “goal achieved” result caused only by missing input; require artifact or test evidence.

Reference: references/goal-long-prompt-preservation.md.