Hermes History Ingest — Conversation & Memory Mining

You are extracting knowledge from the user's Hermes agent history and distilling it into the Obsidian wiki. Hermes stores both free-form memories and structured session transcripts — focus on durable knowledge, not operational telemetry.

This skill can be invoked directly or via the

wiki-history-ingest

router (

/wiki-history-ingest hermes

).

Before You Start

1. Read

   .env

   to get

   OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH

   and

   HERMES_HISTORY_PATH

   (default to

   ~/.hermes

   if unset)
2. Read

   .manifest.json

   at the vault root to check what has already been ingested
3. Read

   index.md

   at the vault root to understand what the wiki already contains

Ingest Modes

Append Mode (default)

Check

.manifest.json

for each source file. Only process:

• Files not in the manifest (new memory files, new session logs)
• Files whose modification time is newer than

  ingested_at

  in the manifest

Use this mode for regular syncs.

Full Mode

Process everything regardless of manifest. Use after

wiki-rebuild

or if the user explicitly asks for a full re-ingest.

Hermes Data Layout

Hermes stores all local artifacts under

~/.hermes/

(or

$HERMES_HOME

for non-default profiles).

~/.hermes/
├── memories/                          # Persistent agent memories (markdown or JSON)
│   └── *.md / *.json
├── skills/                            # Installed skills (read-only for ingest purposes)
│   └── <skill-name>/SKILL.md
├── sessions/                          # Session transcripts (if session logging is enabled)
│   └── YYYY-MM-DD/
│       └── <session-id>.jsonl
├── config.yaml                        # User config (model, theme, paths)
└── .hub/                              # Skills Hub state (lock.json, audit.log, quarantine/)

Key data sources ranked by value

1. memories/*.md

   /

   memories/*.json

   — highest signal; curated persistent knowledge the agent accumulated

2. sessions/**/*.jsonl

   — structured turn-by-turn transcripts; rich but noisy

3. config.yaml

   — metadata only (model preferences, paths); rarely worth ingesting

Skip

.hub/

internals (audit/quarantine state) and the

skills/

directory (source material, not user knowledge).

Step 1: Survey and Compute Delta

Scan

HERMES_HISTORY_PATH

and compare against

.manifest.json

:

• ~/.hermes/memories/

• ~/.hermes/sessions/**/

  (if present)

Classify each file:

• New — not in manifest
• Modified — in manifest but file is newer than

  ingested_at

• Unchanged — already ingested and unchanged

Report a concise delta summary before deep parsing.

Step 2: Parse Memories First

Memories are the highest-value source. Hermes writes them as either:

• Markdown — structured prose with optional frontmatter; ingest directly
• JSON —

  {"content": "...", "created_at": "...", "tags": [...]}

  records

For each memory:

• Extract the core knowledge claim
• Note any tags Hermes attached (they often map to wiki categories)
• Merge into the appropriate wiki page rather than creating one memory = one page

Step 3: Parse Session JSONL Safely

Each session JSONL line is an event envelope. Common shapes:

{"role": "user", "content": "..."}
{"role": "assistant", "content": "..."}
{"type": "tool_use", "name": "...", "input": {...}}
{"type": "tool_result", "content": "..."}

Extraction rules

• Prioritize assistant responses that state conclusions, patterns, or decisions
• Extract user intent from high-signal turns; skip low-information follow-ups
• Treat

  tool_use

  /

  tool_result

  pairs as context, not primary content
• Skip token accounting, internal plumbing, and repeated plan echoes

Critical privacy filter

Session logs can include injected instructions, tool payloads, and sensitive text. Do not ingest verbatim.

• Remove API keys, tokens, passwords, credentials
• Redact private identifiers unless relevant and user-approved
• Summarize; do not quote raw transcripts verbatim

Step 4: Cluster by Topic

Do not create one wiki page per memory or session.

• Group memories by stable topic (concept, tool, project, technique)
• Split mixed sessions into separate themes
• Merge recurring patterns across dates and projects
• Use file paths or session

  cwd

  metadata to infer project scope when available

Step 5: Distill into Wiki Pages

Route extracted knowledge using existing wiki conventions:

• Project-specific architecture/process →

  projects/<name>/...

• General concepts →

  concepts/

• Recurring techniques/debug playbooks →

  skills/

• Tools/services/frameworks →

  entities/

• Cross-session patterns →

  synthesis/

For each impacted project, create/update

projects/<name>/<name>.md

.

Writing rules

• Distill knowledge, not chronology
• Avoid "on date X we discussed..." unless date context is essential
• Add

  summary:

  frontmatter on each new/updated page (1–2 sentences, ≤ 200 chars)
• Add provenance markers:

  • ^[extracted]

    when directly grounded in explicit memory/session content

  • ^[inferred]

    when synthesizing patterns across multiple memories

  • ^[ambiguous]

    when memories conflict
• Add/update

  provenance:

  frontmatter mix for each changed page

Step 6: Update Manifest, Log, and Index

Update

.manifest.json

For each processed source file:

• ingested_at

  ,

  size_bytes

  ,

  modified_at

• source_type

  :

  hermes_memory

  |

  hermes_session

• project

  : inferred project name (when applicable)

• pages_created

  ,

  pages_updated

Add/update a top-level summary block:

{
  "hermes": {
    "source_path": "~/.hermes/",
    "last_ingested": "TIMESTAMP",
    "memories_ingested": 42,
    "sessions_ingested": 7,
    "pages_created": 5,
    "pages_updated": 12
  }
}

Update special files

Update

index.md

and

log.md

:

- [TIMESTAMP] HERMES_HISTORY_INGEST memories=N sessions=M pages_updated=X pages_created=Y mode=append|full

hot.md

— Read

$OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH/hot.md

(create from the template in

wiki-ingest

if missing). Update Recent Activity with a one-line summary — e.g. "Ingested 42 Hermes memories and 7 sessions; dominant themes: reasoning strategies, tool use patterns." Keep the last 3 operations. Update

updated

timestamp.

Privacy and Compliance

• Distill and synthesize; avoid raw memory or transcript dumps
• Default to redaction for anything that looks sensitive
• Ask the user before storing personal or sensitive details
• Keep references to other people minimal and purpose-bound

Reference

See

references/hermes-data-format.md

for field-level notes and extraction guidance.