8.5 KiB
Setup Guide
Step-by-step installation of the Memory OS stack. Assumes Hermes Agent is already installed and configured.
Prerequisites
- Hermes Agent 0.14.0+ (tested on 0.15.2)
- Python 3.11+
- Docker 24.0+
- OpenRouter API key only if using OpenRouter as embedding backend (Ollama/vLLM/llama.cpp local providers do not require a key — see Layer 5: Qdrant)
- 16 GB RAM recommended (8 GB minimum)
Installation
1. Icarus Plugin (bundled)
# Copy the bundled Icarus fork into the Hermes plugins directory
cp -r icarus/ ~/.hermes/plugins/icarus/
2. Enable Icarus in Hermes Config
Icarus must be registered as an enabled plugin. Edit ~/.hermes/config.yaml:
enabled:
- hermes-achievements # optional
- icarus # required — activates fabric tools + context injection hooks
Then restart the gateway:
hermes gateway restart
Verify the plugin loaded:
hermes status
# → Should show: icarus v0.3.0 (16 tools, 4 hooks)
3. Docker Infrastructure
The compose file lives in the docker/ directory of this repository and must be run in-place — the worker build context (./worker) is relative to the compose file location.
# Navigate to the docker directory inside your clone
cd /path/to/memory-os/docker
# Create .env with required variables
cat > .env << EOF
# Required only for OpenRouter embedding backend; safe to leave empty for local providers
OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-...
REDIS_PASSWORD=$(openssl rand -hex 16)
# Optional overrides (defaults shown)
EMBEDDING_DIMS=4096
COLLECTION_NAME=knowledge_base
LOG_LEVEL=INFO
EOF
# Start the stack
docker compose up -d
Verify all three services are running:
docker compose ps
# → Should show redis, qdrant, and worker all with Status: Up
curl -s http://localhost:6333/healthz # → {"title":"ok","version":"1.17.1"}
redis-cli -a "$REDIS_PASSWORD" ping # → PONG
4. Environment Variables
Add to your Hermes profile .env (e.g. ~/.hermes/.env):
# Required
FABRIC_DIR=/home/your-user/vault/fabric
# Required only when using OpenRouter as embedding backend
OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-...
# Strongly recommended
ICARUS_EXTRACTION_MAX_TOKENS=4096
ICARUS_EXTRACTION_MODEL=deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash
EMBEDDING_DIMS=4096
# Optional — Embedding backend (defaults to OpenRouter)
# EMBEDDING_API_BASE=https://openrouter.ai/api/v1
# EMBEDDING_MODEL=qwen/qwen3-embedding-8b
# Optional
ICARUS_OBSIDIAN=1
ICARUS_RESULT_MAX_CHARS=500
ICARUS_TASK_MAX_CHARS=300
⚠️ Use absolute paths. The Hermes gateway runs as a systemd service — ~ is not expanded. Always use /home/your-user/....
5. Core File Modifications
Apply the additions documented in setup/rulebook.md and modifications/soul-rulebook.md:
~/.hermes/rulebook.md — append the Memory Architecture, Memory OS,
and Mandatory Verifications sections from setup/rulebook.md.
- Each block starts with a
## Memory OS Additions — v1marker. Before appending, check whether this line already exists in your rulebook — if it does, skip that block. - If
~/.hermes/rulebook.mddoesn't exist yet, create it and add the three marked blocks.
SOUL.md — add Ground Truth level 2 (injected memory) and context
injection convention as documented in modifications/soul-rulebook.md.
These modifications ensure the agent treats injected memory as more authoritative than training knowledge, and knows where to find persisted information without re-discovering it.
6. Wiki + Vault Setup
Memory OS stores its knowledge pipeline inside an Obsidian vault. The vault path is user-specific — set it as an environment variable first:
# Set this to your Obsidian vault path
export VAULT_PATH=/home/your-user/path/to/vault
Create the wiki directory structure:
mkdir -p $VAULT_PATH/wiki/{raw,concepts,entities,comparisons,_meta,_archive}
What goes where:
raw/— source documents to be ingested and curatedconcepts/,entities/,comparisons/— auto-generated by vault-curator_meta/— pipeline metadata (SCHEMA.md, indexes)_archive/— aged-out content from decay scanner
The wiki starts empty. Add source documents to raw/ and the wiki-continuous-ingest
cronjob (step 7) will begin extracting structured pages.
Optional — Vault Curator: For automatic enrichment, semantic linking, and MOC generation, install vault-curator as a separate tool. It runs independently and is not required for Memory OS core functionality.
7. Maintenance Scripts
The scripts/ directory in this repository contains the maintenance tools
that keep the memory stack healthy. Copy them to a location of your choice
(e.g. ~/memory-os-scripts/) and schedule them.
| Script | Schedule | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
wiki_continuous_ingest.py |
Hourly | Detects new/modified .md files and enqueues them to the ARQ worker |
decay_scanner.py |
Weekly (Sun 3am) | Archives low-importance chunks based on age and importance_score |
dlq_manager.py |
Every 6 hours | Reads, classifies, and reports dead letter queue failures |
semantic_dedup.py |
Monthly (1st Sun) | Scans for near-duplicate vectors (cosine > 0.92) |
backfill_decay_metadata.py |
One-shot / on-demand | Populates missing metadata (created_at, importance_score) for decay scanner |
pre_validator.py |
On-demand | Semantic linter — queries knowledge_base before I/O actions |
reflection_trigger.py |
Every 5 min | Triggers micro_reflection when ARQ worker is idle |
bulk_wiki_ingest.py |
One-shot | Initial bulk ingestion of existing wiki content |
Using Hermes cron (recommended):
hermes cron create \
--name "wiki-continuous-ingest" \
--schedule "0 * * * *" \
--script /path/to/scripts/wiki_continuous_ingest.py \
--no-agent \
--deliver local
hermes cron create \
--name "decay-scanner" \
--schedule "0 3 * * 0" \
--script /path/to/scripts/decay_scanner.py \
--no-agent \
--deliver local
hermes cron create \
--name "dlq-manager" \
--schedule "0 */6 * * *" \
--script /path/to/scripts/dlq_manager.py \
--no-agent \
--deliver local
hermes cron create \
--name "semantic-dedup" \
--schedule "0 3 1 * *" \
--script /path/to/scripts/semantic_dedup.py \
--no-agent \
--deliver local
Before enabling decay scanner: run backfill_decay_metadata.py once to
populate created_at, last_accessed_at, importance_score, and
confidence_score on existing Qdrant points. Without backfill, the decay
scanner will find zero eligible points.
Exempting collections: Set DECAY_EXEMPT_PREFIXES and
DEDUP_EXEMPT_PREFIXES env vars (comma-separated prefixes) to exclude
specific Qdrant collections from automated maintenance.
8. Gateway Restart
hermes gateway restart
Changes to .env, SOUL.md, rulebook.md, and Icarus plugin code only take effect after restart.
9. Verify
Inside Hermes chat:
/plugins
# → Should show: icarus v0.3.0 (16 tools, 4 hooks)
fabric_brief()
# → Should show recent fabric entries (initially empty)
qdrant_search("test query")
# → Should return results from knowledge_base (if wiki has content)
fact_store(action='probe', entity='test')
# → Should return empty (no facts stored yet)
What to expect
Day 1: Infrastructure running. Fabric entries begin accumulating at session end. Qdrant indexing starts as wiki files are added.
Week 1: Context injection active. Agent references past decisions automatically. Wiki pipeline producing curated pages from raw documents.
Month 1: Decay scanner has aged content to evaluate. Structured facts accumulating with trust scores.
Troubleshooting
Qdrant collection shows 0 points
Check: EMBEDDING_DIMS=4096 matches collection schema. Mismatch → vectors rejected silently.
Fabric entries are truncated
Check: ICARUS_EXTRACTION_MAX_TOKENS=4096 in .env AND gateway was restarted after setting it.
Memory tool reports "Icarus write conflict"
Icarus is writing to MEMORY.md instead of CREATIVE.md. Verify Icarus fork is installed (not upstream esaradev version).
Context injection not working
Check: OpenRouter API key is set, context_enhancer.py can import, gateway restarted after hooks.py edits.
Decay scanner produces "0 archived" every week
Most likely: point payloads missing last_accessed_at or importance_score metadata. Run backfill before enabling decay.