Finding
Gateway-connected Hermes workflows become fragile when platform behavior is treated as an afterthought instead of a first-class operating rule.
Current
A real Hermes installation can communicate through Telegram and later through additional gateway-connected channels, but the weak point is usually not message delivery itself. The risk is inconsistent channel behavior: long responses may be unsuitable for TTS or chat clients, topic/thread targeting may be lost, public and internal content may be mixed, and agents may forget that each platform has its own delivery constraints. Without a gateway-aware runbook, communication works until a message is too long, too private, sent to the wrong context, or formatted for the wrong surface.
Suggested
- Add gateway rules to the main operating profile. Exact change: add a “Gateway communication rules” section to
SOUL.mdrequiring agents to adapt length, formatting, language, thread/topic targeting, and privacy level to the active platform before sending user-facing output. - Create a gateway smoke-test habit for channel changes. Exact change: add
docs/runbooks/gateway-smoke-test.mdwith checks for Telegram delivery, thread/topic preservation, short-message behavior, long-message handling, markdown rendering, and safe failure reporting after any gateway, profile, or delivery-target change. - Add gateway status to the Optimizer Agent review loop. Exact change: patch the Optimizer Agent cron prompt or weekly review checklist with: “Review recent gateway-connected sessions for delivery failures, overlong replies, platform-inappropriate formatting, missing topic targeting, and public/private boundary mistakes; return only actionable fixes.”
Impact
This makes Hermes communication more reliable as workflows move from local chat into gateway-connected operations. Users receive responses in the right channel shape, with less risk of broken formatting, missed context, or accidental exposure of internal details. It also prepares the installation for future channels because platform rules become reusable operating policy rather than one-off tribal knowledge.
Effort
Small — the main work is a profile instruction patch, one lightweight runbook, and a recurring review habit. No new gateway infrastructure is required unless the smoke test exposes a real delivery issue.
Public page note
Safe public content includes the gateway maturity principle, generic platform-rule examples, smoke-test checklist concepts, and the operational benefit of channel-aware communication. Internal-only content includes real chat IDs, thread IDs, gateway tokens, private channel names, raw gateway logs, user messages, credentials, delivery targets, and live operational controls.