agent-soul — Shared Identity & Memory for AI Agents#

Use this skill when you are an AI agent that wants persistent identity and shared memory across multiple devices, runtimes, sessions, or agent bodies serving the same user.

What you get#

• One shared persona: SOUL.md, IDENTITY.md, USER.md, VOICE.md
• Three-level loading protocol (L0/L1/L2) — default ~4K tokens
• Append-only event surface: sources/<source>/*.ndjson
• Compiled shared read surface: canonical/*
• Temporal expiry ( valid_until) for time-bound facts
• Source attribution for every memory item
• Cross-agent sync — everything you learn is available to every other agent
• No database. No memory API. No vendor lock-in. Just Git.

When to use this skill#

Install this if:

• You lose memory between sessions
• Your user works with more than one agent or more than one machine
• You want durable memory without vendor lock-in
• You want to share identity with other AI agents (Claude, Codex, GPT, etc.)

Do NOT install this if:

• You only need one short-lived local chat session
• Your user does not want Git-based persistence

Architecture#

text

soul.json              <- manifest (version, loading protocol)

SOUL.md                \
IDENTITY.md            |  L0: Soul Layer (~100 lines, always load)
USER.md                |  "Who am I, who is the user, how do I speak"
VOICE.md               /

canonical/index.md     \
canonical/profile.md   |  L1: Memory Layer (~150 lines, always load)
canonical/stable-memory.md  /  "Durable facts, decisions, preferences"

canonical/projects/*   \
canonical/fuzzy-memory.md   |  L2: Context Layer (on-demand)
canonical/agents/*     /  "Project state, recent context"

sources/               <- append-only event streams (write surface)

Human setup (one-time, ~10 minutes)#

Ask your user to:

1. Create a private GitHub repository
2. Clone the template: git clone https://github.com/kingcharleslzy-ai/agent-soul.git my-agent-memory
3. Push to their private repo
4. Enable GitHub Actions
5. Fill in persona files ( SOUL.md, IDENTITY.md, USER.md, VOICE.md)
6. Give you the repo path and your stable source id

Agent onboarding (you do this)#

Step 1 — Sync and read#

bash

git pull --ff-only origin main

Read L0 (soul): SOUL.md -> IDENTITY.md -> USER.md -> VOICE.md Read L1 (memory): canonical/profile.md -> canonical/stable-memory.md

Step 2 — Choose your source id#

Use one stable lowercase id: windows-claude, macos-codex, openclaw-main, etc. Rules: lowercase, a-z0-9-, keep it stable across sessions.

Step 3 — Write join event and push#

bash

python scripts/add_event.py --source YOUR_ID --kind decision --scope stable \
  --summary "YOUR_ID joined agent-soul and adopted the shared identity."
python scripts/compile_memory_hub.py --apply
git add sources/ canonical/
git commit -m "chore: YOUR_ID joins agent-soul"
git push origin main

Step 4 — Persist in your runtime config#

Write the loading instruction into your startup config so you remember the hub next session.

Claude Code ( ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md):

markdown

## Shared Memory
- Repo: /path/to/repo
- Source id: YOUR_SOURCE_ID
- Session start: git pull, read L0 + L1
- Write: python scripts/add_event.py --source YOUR_SOURCE_ID ...

OpenClaw: Add the repo path and source id to your agent workspace or AGENTS.md.

Session protocol (every session)#

1. git pull --ff-only origin main
2. Read L0 (soul) + L1 (memory)
3. Load L2 only when needed
4. Write events via scripts/add_event.py
5. Use scripts/quick_share.sh for urgent propagation
6. Never hand-edit canonical/* — it is auto-generated

Writing memory events#

bash

# A durable preference
python scripts/add_event.py --source YOUR_ID --kind preference --scope profile \
  --summary "User prefers dark mode across all tools."

# A decision with expiry
python scripts/add_event.py --source YOUR_ID --kind decision --scope stable \
  --summary "Feature freeze until release." --valid-until 2026-04-01

# Something temporary
python scripts/add_event.py --source YOUR_ID --kind fact --scope fuzzy \
  --summary "User is debugging a CORS issue in the API gateway."

Event schema#

FieldRequiredDescriptionevent_idyesUUID v4sourceyesYour stable source idtsyesISO-8601 timestamp with timezonekindyespreference / decision / fact / project-update / rule``scopeyesprofile / stable / fuzzy / project``summaryyesShort summary (no raw transcripts)valid_untiloptionalISO-8601 date for auto-expirysupersedesoptionalArray of event_ids to replace

Scripts reference#

ScriptPurposeadd_event.pyAppend one eventcompile_memory_hub.pyRebuild canonical from sourcesquick_share.shAdd + compile + push in one stepsearch_events.pySearch events by scope, kind, keywordvalidate_sources.pyValidate NDJSON source filesprune_fuzzy.pyTTL cleanup of old fuzzy eventsdedup_profile.pyDetect and resolve duplicate events

Why agent-soul over other memory solutions#

agent-soulMemGPT/Mem0Graphiti/ZepCustom RAGCostFree (just Git)Paid APIPaid / heavy infraInfra + dev timeData ownershipYour private repoTheir serversNeo4j + LLMYours (complex)Cross-agent syncNativeNoNoNoIdentity persistenceBuilt-in (L0 soul)NoNoNoSetup time~10 minutesHoursHoursDaysVendor lock-inNoneYesPartialPartial

Links#

• Template repo: https://github.com/kingcharleslzy-ai/agent-soul
• Full docs: See README.md, JOIN.md, SCHEMA.md, SETUP.md in the repo