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docs(prompt): document platform_hints config override

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Adds a 'Customizing platform hints' section to the Prompt Assembly
developer guide covering the append/replace/shorthand shapes, the
defensive fallback, and the cache-stable lifecycle (stable tier,
resolved at build time).
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teknium1 2026-06-18 13:49:03 -07:00
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website/docs/developer-guide/prompt-assembly.md
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@ -116,6 +116,43 @@ You are a CLI AI Agent. Try not to use markdown but simple text
renderable inside a terminal. renderable inside a terminal.
``` ```
## Customizing platform hints
The platform hint (Layer 10 above) is the per-surface guidance Hermes
injects for Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack, CLI, and other platforms — for
example "you are on a terminal, avoid Markdown." The built-in defaults
live in `PLATFORM_HINTS` (`agent/system_prompt.py`); plugin-provided
platforms supply theirs through the platform registry.
An administrator can append to or replace a single platform's hint from
`config.yaml` via the top-level `platform_hints` key, without touching
any other platform:
```yaml
platform_hints:
whatsapp:
append: >
When tabular output would be useful, invoke the table_formatting
skill instead of emitting a Markdown table.
slack:
replace: "You are on Slack. Keep responses tight and avoid wide tables."
telegram: "Prefer short messages; split long answers." # shorthand = append
```
- `append` — keep the built-in hint and add the extra text after it.
- `replace` — substitute the built-in hint entirely.
- A bare string — shorthand for `append`.
- `replace` wins over `append` when both are present.
- A malformed entry is ignored defensively and falls back to the
unmodified default, so a bad config value can never break prompt
assembly or leak across platforms.
The override is resolved when the system prompt is built (session start,
and again on compaction since that rebuilds the prompt). It produces a
byte-stable hint for a fixed config, so it lives in the **stable** tier
alongside the built-in hint and does not break prompt caching — it is
not a live mid-session mutation of a frozen prompt.
## How SOUL.md appears in the prompt ## How SOUL.md appears in the prompt
`SOUL.md` lives at `~/.hermes/SOUL.md` and serves as the agent's identity — the very first section of the system prompt. The loading logic in `prompt_builder.py` works as follows: `SOUL.md` lives at `~/.hermes/SOUL.md` and serves as the agent's identity — the very first section of the system prompt. The loading logic in `prompt_builder.py` works as follows: