# Hermes Enhancement — Pi-Style Agent Quality

**Give your Hermes agent the focus and clarity of a pi coding agent — without leaving Hermes.**

This directory is a self-service enhancement package for Hermes agents (Mumuni, Tanko, Koby, Koonimo). It distills the architectural philosophy that makes pi agents effective — **constraint creates clarity** — and adapts it for the Hermes framework.

## Why

Pi agents deliver sharper results because of deliberate design choices:
- **418-line core loop** — tight orchestration, fast decisions  
- **4 built-in tools** (read/write/edit/bash) — fewer choices = less confusion  
- **System prompt under 1,000 tokens** — less prompt noise = clearer reasoning  
- **Skills loaded on-demand** — knowledge isn't always in the context window  
- **Extensions over features** — capability added via MCP bridge, not permanently baked in  

Hermes agents can adopt the same philosophy by trimming system prompts, constraining their default tool palette, and pulling knowledge into skills loaded on-demand.

## Contents

```
hermes-enhancement/
├── README.md                       # You are here
├── INSTALL.md                      # Step-by-step self-installation
├── CHECKLIST-POC.md                # Tanko POC verification checklist
├── prompts/
│   ├── behavioral-core.md          # Replace SOUL.md intro — Three Pillars
│   └── behavioral-core-compact.md  # Ultra-compact version (< 500 tokens)
├── config/
│   ├── compression.yaml            # Optimized 256K compression settings
│   ├── mcp-servers.yaml            # MCP server config for tool parity
│   └── baseline.yaml               # Minimal behavioral baseline
└── skills/
    ├── three-pillars.md            # Proactive, Persistent, Self-Improving
    ├── verification-protocol.md    # Context7 + GitHub verification
    └── self-healing.md             # Error recovery patterns
```

## Quick Start

```bash
# 1. Read INSTALL.md
# 2. Merge prompts/behavioral-core.md into your SOUL.md
# 3. Add MCP servers from config/mcp-servers.yaml to your config.yaml
# 4. Copy skills/ to your skills directory
# 5. Apply compression settings from config/compression.yaml
# 6. Restart and verify
```

## POC Pilot

Tanko is the designated proof-of-concept pilot. See [CHECKLIST-POC.md](CHECKLIST-POC.md).