SOUL.md Templates

5 free SOUL.md identity templates for AI agents. Define your agent's culture, domain, voice, and boundaries. By Melisia Archimedes.

What is a SOUL.md?

A SOUL.md is a constitutional identity document for an AI agent. It defines who the agent is — not just what it does, but how it thinks, speaks, and makes decisions. It's the difference between an agent that follows instructions and one that has character.

The SOUL.md standard was created as part of The Hive Doctrine — a thesis on polytheistic AI safety.

Templates

Template	Archetype	Best For
Strategist	Strategic thinker	Planning, decision-making, trade-off analysis
Engineer	Technical builder	Code review, architecture, debugging
Creative	Creative producer	Writing, design, content, ideation
Analyst	Data interpreter	Research, analysis, pattern recognition
Coordinator	Operations manager	Task routing, scheduling, team coordination

Usage

1. Copy the template that matches your agent's role
2. Replace all [PLACEHOLDER] values with your specifics
3. Save as SOUL.md in your agent's configuration directory
4. Reference it in your agent's system prompt or configuration

Claude Code

cp templates/strategist.md .claude/SOUL.md

Any Agent Framework

with open("SOUL.md") as f:
    soul = f.read()
system_prompt = f"You are governed by this constitution:\n\n{soul}"

Full Collection

These 5 templates cover the most common archetypes. For industry-specific templates (healthcare, legal, finance, education, and more), see the Industry Persona Kit — 10 vertical SOUL.md templates built for production deployment.

Connect via MCP

claude mcp add --transport http hive-doctrine https://hive-doctrine-mcp.vercel.app/mcp

The Hive Doctrine

"Every agent carries a constitution defining its culture, domain, voice, and boundaries." — Alignment Principle 1: Constitutional Identity

Read the full thesis at hivedoctrine.com.

License

Templates: MIT License Content © 2026 Melisia Archimedes.