Summary

This PR fixes Honcho memory/profile routing and built-in memory guidance.

• Align Honcho peer-card writes with the same observer/target route used by profile reads, so honcho_profile(peer="user", card=[...]) updates the card that honcho_profile(peer="user") returns.
• Align Honcho prefetch/session context routing with manual profile routing when assistant-observes-user mode is enabled, so auto-injected context and explicit tools see the same peer perspective/target.
• Clarify honcho_profile card replacement semantics: passing card overwrites the whole peer card, so callers MUST include facts they want preserved.
• Remove the advertised honcho_context.query parameter for now because the handler did not implement query filtering; this avoids a misleading schema until filtering is added deliberately.
• Improve built-in memory-full guidance so agents use memory.replace / memory.remove, skills, or canonical workspace artifacts instead of claiming to save exact state “mentally” or relying on semantic memory as the only canonical store.
• Keep memory limit defaults aligned across config/runtime/migration surfaces and add broader drift coverage.

Tests

• python -m pytest tests/honcho_plugin/test_session.py tests/tools/test_memory_tool.py tests/tools/test_memory_tool_import_fallback.py -q -o 'addopts=' → 162 passed
• Targeted regressions added/covered:
  • peer-card write/read observer-target alignment
  • prefetch auto-injected context routing for assistant-observes-user mode
  • session-context peer perspective/target routing
  • honcho_profile handler empty-card overwrite behavior
  • honcho_profile schema warning that card overwrites the entire card
  • honcho_context schema no longer advertising an unimplemented query filter
  • memory-full overflow guidance naming memory.replace, memory.remove, skills, and canonical artifacts
  • memory limit defaults checked across DEFAULT_CONFIG, MemoryStore, and the OpenClaw migration helper
• python -m py_compile plugins/memory/honcho/__init__.py plugins/memory/honcho/session.py tools/memory_tool.py hermes_cli/config.py run_agent.py hermes_cli/tips.py optional-skills/migration/openclaw-migration/scripts/openclaw_to_hermes.py
• git diff --check
• Static added-line scan for obvious secret/shell/eval/pickle/SQL-risk patterns → clean
• Independent local review pass performed on the patch set before push.

Security / platform notes

• No credentials, tokens, network endpoints, or provider secrets are added.
• No shell execution, subprocess behavior, SQL generation, filesystem deletion, or migration side effects are added.
• The Honcho behavior change is limited to client-side peer routing/schema/guidance; it does not change Honcho server storage semantics.
• The memory-limit drift test imports the migration helper for constants only; it does not execute a migration.
• This PR intentionally does NOT implement honcho_context(query=...) filtering; the misleading schema field is removed instead. Query filtering can be a focused follow-up.

Review feedback remediation (2026-04-30)

• Added regression coverage for honcho_profile(peer="ai", card=[...]) round-tripping through the same observer/target route used by reads.
• Confirmed existing regression coverage for card=[] clearing peer cards instead of being treated as a read.
• Confirmed honcho_context no longer advertises the unimplemented query schema parameter.
• Updated the PR title/scope language to make Honcho routing and memory guidance/default alignment explicit.

Relationship to context-safety work

Related but independent from the gateway context-safety PRs. This PR fixes Honcho memory/profile routing consistency so long-term context is read and written through the correct observer/target path.

Adjacent PRs:

• fix(matrix): preserve named room identity #17702 fixes Matrix named-room identity.
• feat(gateway): expose normalized channel identity #17711 exposes normalized channel identity.
• feat(gateway): guard repo side effects with workspace binding #17938 uses workspace bindings to guard repo side effects.