# witcheer's Wingtips #4: which file is your agent's brain

Written by [witcheer](https://x.com/witcheer) at Nous Research. Republished with credit.

Canonical: https://hermeswatcher.com/wingtips/4  
Published: 2026-06-23  
[Original](https://notwitcheer.github.io/hermes-recipes/wingtips/04-which-file-is-your-agent-s-brain/) · [On X](https://x.com/witcheer/status/2069385776756895880) · [Full collection](https://notwitcheer.github.io/hermes-recipes/) · [Official docs](https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/context-files)

[Source Markdown](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/notwitcheer/hermes-recipes/8653fb699a137a32e81936fa33cabacd3f4f2095/docs/wingtips/04-which-file-is-your-agent-s-brain.md): use this file as the base for relative links in the verbatim text below.

Sources: [Hermes docs: Context Files](https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/context-files)


Hermes Wingtips #4: which file is your agent's brain

~ SOUL.md is who the agent is: slot #1 in the system prompt, it replaces the default identity. 

~ USER.md is who you are. 

~ MEMORY.md is the facts it keeps about your work. 

~ AGENTS.md is your project's rules, found by walking the directory.

~~~
what you need to understand is that project rule files are first-match-wins. 
Hermes loads only one of .hermes.md, AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, .cursorrules, in that order. 

a .hermes.md in the repo shadows your AGENTS.md with no warning, and the rules you wrote never load.

SOUL.md is exempt, it always loads on its own from ~/.hermes/SOUL.md. 

if Hermes is ignoring your project instructions, check for a higher-priority file next to them. and it caps every one of these at 20,000 characters, then truncates the rest.