Give Hermes a past it can actually use.
Long-term memory for Hermes Agent, with Hindsight recall and verified Mnemosyne checkpoints.
Hermes already keeps important facts close. Chronalyn handles the deeper history behind them: what happened, what failed, what worked, and which states were verified.
- Hindsight handles long-term semantic memory and recall.
- Mnemosyne keeps verified checkpoints and provides bounded fallback.
Chronalyn is a Hermes memory plugin. Install it from inside Hermes and pick it as your memory provider:
hermes plugins install l1lchucky/chronalyn
hermes memory setupChronalyn does not replace Hermes' own memory. They sit side by side:
Hermes Agent
├── Native memory important facts kept close (MEMORY.md / USER.md)
├── Chronalyn
│ ├── Hindsight deeper history and semantic recall
│ └── Mnemosyne verified checkpoints / bounded fallback
└── Skills reusable procedures
- Hermes native memory keeps the facts you want close: preferences, stable facts about the user and the project.
- Chronalyn remembers what happened: the deeper history behind those facts.
- Skills remember how to do it again: reusable procedures.
Hermes sees one external memory provider — Chronalyn. Hindsight and Mnemosyne are internal Chronalyn backends; Hermes' memory manager allows the built-in provider plus at most one external provider.
Chronalyn uses Hermes' public memory-provider contract. It does not patch Hermes core, invent entry-point groups, or rely on private APIs. Details are in Hermes integration.
Requirements: Python 3.11–3.13, a supported Hermes Agent installation, a
reachable Hindsight API, and mnemosyne-memory only when you select dual mode.
hermes plugins install l1lchucky/chronalyn
hermes memory setupChoose Chronalyn in the memory provider picker. The wizard detects your
Hermes installation and any existing Hindsight configuration, previews every
change, backs up configuration, activates Chronalyn as the single external
memory provider, then validates discovery and backend health. When it finishes,
memory.provider is set to chronalyn.
Two modes are available:
- Hindsight only — Hindsight handles every memory operation.
- Dual memory — Mnemosyne also keeps verified checkpoints, with bounded fallback when Hindsight has no answer.
Verify with hermes memory status.
python -m pip install chronalyn
chronalyn setupThis gives you the chronalyn CLI and the importable package. Installing the
package alone does not configure Hermes; chronalyn setup runs the same guided
wizard as the Hermes flow when you are ready. Hermes users should prefer the
recommended Hermes installation above, which installs the provider entry and
drives the wizard from hermes memory setup.
Full walkthrough: Installation and Guided setup.
Chronalyn gives Hindsight and Mnemosyne separate jobs instead of letting them compete for every turn:
NORMAL TURN -> Hindsight
EXPLICIT RETAIN -> Hindsight
REFLECTION -> Hindsight
CHECKPOINT (dual) -> Hindsight + Mnemosyne
RECALL -> Hindsight first
FALLBACK -> bounded Mnemosyne checkpoints
MERGED RECALL -> never
The policy is intentionally narrow: normal conversations are not copied into both systems, installing Mnemosyne does not activate it, existing Hindsight memories are never rewritten, and merged recall is never produced. Exact rules are in Routing policies.
The everyday commands:
chronalyn status
chronalyn validate
chronalyn doctor
chronalyn db check
chronalyn db backup --output /secure/path/router.sqlitechronalyn setup runs the same guided wizard as the Hermes flow. Most commands
support --json (chronalyn --json status). The full CLI, including the
legacy hermes-memory-router alias, is documented in
Operations.
- Model-requested deletion is off by default; when enabled it uses a
two-step plan/apply flow with a short-lived confirmation token
(
memory_router_forget_plan/memory_router_forget_apply). - Every configuration change is backed up first and can be rolled back.
- Removing the package never deletes memory: router config, the state database, backups, Hindsight data, and Mnemosyne data are all retained.
- Cron, flush, and subagent output are not automatically retained; raw tool messages are never retained.
See Uninstall and data retention and Rollback.
Chronalyn remembers what happened. Hermes Skills remember how to do it again.
A checkpoint may record:
Problem X occurred.
Attempt A failed.
Repair Y worked.
Verification passed.
A Hermes Skill may encode the reusable procedure:
Recover from Problem X
1. Check prerequisite A.
2. Confirm symptom B.
3. Apply Y.
4. Verify C.
5. Stop if verification fails.
Chronalyn does not automatically create or rewrite Skills. Hermes' own skill review and its Curator (an auxiliary-model task that reviews, pins, archives, and consolidates agent-created skills) maintain the Skills library independently.
Future ideas, not current features: automatic promotion of memories into Skills, a deterministic self-healing verifier, unrestricted system repair, automatic knowledge sharing between installations, Chronalyn Console, and Chronalyn Intelligence. See ROADMAP.md.
- Installation · Guided setup
- Architecture · Configuration
- Routing policies · Operations
- Hermes integration · Compatibility
- Live validation · Limitations
- Migration · Failure recovery
- Privacy · Threat model
- Database operations · Deployment models
- Rollback · Upgrading
- Uninstall and data retention
- Rename migration matrix · Roadmap
An independent community project, not maintained or endorsed by Nous Research, Vectorize, Hindsight, or the Mnemosyne maintainers. MIT licensed — see LICENSE.