Memory

9.4. Inter-Session Reminders

The “periodic nudge” mechanism — Hermes reminding itself to save

This is a feature listed directly in the official description of the closed learning loop: agent-curated memory comes with “periodic nudges” — periodic reminders that cause the agent to pause and check whether anything from the session just completed is worth saving, instead of remaining fully passive and waiting for the user to ask.

How this differs from explicit user requests (covered in 9.1/9.2)

You can proactively say “remember this for next time,” but the nudge mechanism works in the opposite direction. At appropriate moments in the session lifecycle, such as after a complex task or when the session is about to end, the agent evaluates on its own whether something should be written to MEMORY.md or USER.md, without you having to prompt it.

Relation to “Retrieve Past Decisions” (section 20.2)

This internal nudge is different from proactive lookup via session_search (9.5). The nudge is the agent taking a write action on its own, while session_search is a read action when needed. The two mechanisms support the improvement loop described in section 20: nudge helps ensure important things are not missed in the first place, while session_search is the safety net if something never made it into condensed memory.

Practical lessons

• Do not rely entirely on automatic nudges for facts that really matter. Combine them with explicit requests like “remember this for next time” at the end of important work sessions so nothing critical gets missed.
• If you notice MEMORY.md missing a detail you think the agent “should have remembered on its own,” treat that as a signal to be more explicit next time. Nudge does not guarantee it catches everything. It is an extra support layer, not a replacement for deliberate user instruction.