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Profiles & Multi-Agent Setup

By u/itsdodobitch, u/An-R-Nguyen, u/SelectionCalm70

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Profiles and Multi-Agent Setup

Source: r/hermesagent community discussion (May 2026)

Understanding Profiles

What Profiles Are NOT

  • Not separate Hermes installations
  • Not presets or configurations you switch between
  • Not meant to be "futsy and cumbersome" (u/Beckland)

What Profiles ARE

  • Separate agents with separate state
  • Each profile has its own: config, SOUL.md, memory, sessions, skills, cron jobs, gateway state
  • Built-in session management and compartmentalization
  • Spawned as clones of the workspace in ~/.hermes/profiles/PROFILE_NAME

Key insight from u/itsdodobitch (298 upvote post): "I don't treat profiles as presets. I treat them as separate agents with separate state. That was the part that made them click for me."

Profile Setup Commands

# Create a new profile
hermes profile create PROFILE_NAME

# Switch to a profile
hermes profile use PROFILE_NAME

# List profiles
hermes profile list

Each profile gets its own folder structure under ~/.hermes/profiles/ with independent SOUL.md, memory, and configuration.

Common Profile Patterns

Create profiles by function:

  • Default - General assistant, daily tasks
  • Coder - Dedicated coding agent, one-shots requests
  • Researcher - Web research, data gathering
  • Family - Calendar management, family coordination

Advantage: Clean separation of concerns, each profile optimized for its purpose Disadvantage: Knowledge not automatically shared between profiles

Pattern 2: Orchestrator + Worker (u/An-R-Nguyen)

  • Main profile: Takes requests, plans, acts as QC gate
  • Coder profile: One-shots coding requests, aims for 80%+ quality pass
  • Workflow: Main profile kills and restarts coder profile if quality < 80% rather than fixing

User quote: "When a job is not one shotted and have at least 80% quality pass, not worth the effort fixing it. Best to just start over."

Pattern 3: Telegram Topic Routing (Upcoming Feature)

Community excitement about routing different Telegram topics to different Hermes profiles through one bot. Each topic gets its own profile context. (u/Plenty_Mixture3001, 167 upvotes)

Workaround before native support: Use separate Telegram groups/channels per profile and map each to a different Hermes instance.

Cross-Profile Communication

The Challenge

Profiles are isolated by design. Sharing knowledge between them requires explicit mechanisms.

u/hus1030's question: "If you want to work on the same project, how do you share knowledge between two profiles for that project?"

Community Solutions

Solution 1: Base Document Pattern

  • Create a shared document in Obsidian or filesystem
  • Both profiles reference the same document
  • Limitation: Knowledge is "spread" across wiki, memory, and project files

Solution 2: Handover Protocol

  • Research profile writes findings to structured document
  • Dev profile reads document as input
  • Explicit handoff with summary

Solution 3: Shared Obsidian Vault

  • Both profiles access same vault
  • Use consistent naming conventions for cross-reference

Kanban Boards (New Feature)

Hermes recently added native multi-agent collaboration via shared Kanban boards.

What It Does

  • Specialized agents claim tasks from a shared board
  • Run in parallel with dependency management
  • Share state through the board
  • Built into Hermes, no external tools needed

Community Reaction

u/itsdodobitch (23 upvotes): "WHAT IS THE NEW KANBAN FEATURE BUILT INTO HERMES? (IT'S GAME CHANGING)"

u/SelectionCalm70 (132 upvotes): Detailed announcement post explaining the feature.

Use Cases

  • Multi-step projects with parallel workstreams
  • Research + implementation workflows
  • Team coordination across profiles

Multiple Profiles with Telegram

Question from u/AnimatorOk130: "I wanted to have my wife get her own bot as well. I configured separate profiles w their own workspace and memory, all good."

Setup Pattern

  1. Create separate profiles (e.g., "Jonathan", "Wife")
  2. Each profile gets its own Telegram bot token OR use topic routing
  3. Independent workspaces and memories
  4. Shared family calendar via Google Workspace shared calendar

Note: Native topic-to-profile routing is upcoming but not yet released at time of writing.

Agents Communicating Across Devices

Question from u/fifasas007 (13 comments): "I have 2 agents on VPS each for something else and then locally I have 2 agents - on mobile and PC - and I want them to communicate together for task delegation."

Community Approaches

Approach 1: Shared Cloud Storage

  • Google Drive, Obsidian Sync, or Syncthing as shared state
  • Agents read/write to shared location

Approach 2: Messaging Bridge

  • Use Telegram/Discord as communication channel between agents
  • Agent A posts to channel, Agent B monitors and responds

Approach 3: API Calls

  • Expose agent endpoints via Hermes gateway API
  • Cross-agent HTTP requests for task delegation

Profile-Specific SOUL.md Files

Each profile can have its own SOUL.md with different personality and instructions.

Example: Coding Profile SOUL.md

# Coder Agent

You are a focused coding assistant. Your job is to:
1. Receive coding tasks from the orchestrator
2. Implement them in one shot, aiming for 80%+ quality
3. Stage changes, do not push without approval
4. Report completion status with file paths and summary

Do NOT:
- Engage in extended conversation
- Handle non-coding tasks
- Modify files outside the project directory

Example: Research Profile SOUL.md

# Research Agent

You are a research specialist. Your job is to:
1. Search for information using web tools
2. Compile findings into structured reports
3. Save reports to designated Obsidian vault folder
4. Include sources and confidence levels

Output format: Markdown with headers, bullet points, and source links.

Common Profile Mistakes

  1. Installing second Hermes instance for profiles - Profiles are built-in, use hermes profile create (u/Beckland)

  2. Expecting automatic knowledge sharing - Profiles are isolated; set up explicit sharing mechanisms

  3. Over-complicating with too many profiles - Start with 2-3 purpose-built profiles, add as needed

  4. Not giving each profile a distinct SOUL.md - Each profile should have tailored instructions for its role

Best Practices Summary

  1. Treat profiles as separate agents, not presets
  2. Give each profile a clear purpose and optimize SOUL.md accordingly
  3. Use base documents or shared vaults for cross-profile knowledge sharing
  4. Start simple - default + one specialized profile, then expand
  5. Leverage Kanban boards for multi-agent collaboration on complex projects
  6. Plan handoff protocols before starting cross-profile workflows