The desktop bootstrap (and curl/PowerShell/docker installs) seeded
~/.hermes/SOUL.md with a comment-only scaffold that contained no persona
text. That shadowed the runtime default (_ensure_default_soul_md ->
DEFAULT_SOUL_MD), since seeding is guarded by 'if SOUL.md doesn't exist'.
Result: every fresh installer install got the empty template instead of
the documented Hermes persona; desktop just made it visible in onboarding.
- install.sh / install.ps1 / docker/SOUL.md now write DEFAULT_SOUL_MD.
- _ensure_default_soul_md() upgrades a SOUL.md still matching the known
legacy scaffold in place; customized files (any deviation, incl. a
persona appended below the comment) are never touched.
- Detection normalizes CRLF/BOM so Windows-installer drift still matches.
The default SOUL.md seeded for new users should match
DEFAULT_AGENT_IDENTITY — a short, neutral identity paragraph.
The elaborate voice spec (avoid lists, dialogue examples, symbol
conventions) was never intended as the default for all users.
Users who want a custom persona write their own SOUL.md.
Seed ~/.hermes/SOUL.md when missing, load SOUL only from HERMES_HOME, and inject raw SOUL content without wrapper text. If the file exists but is empty, nothing is added to the system prompt.
