Everfern: Persona and rules

This last page shows where version 1.3.0 keeps a persona and standing rules. The labels were checked in the v1.3.0 code on 14 November 2026, and this guide read the code without running the app.

What Everfern calls it

Everfern uses a persona file named SOUL.md, and the settings screen calls it SOUL.md (Personality Core). Standing rules for how work is handed out live in agents.md, which that screen calls agents.md (Routing Protocol). The global copies are ~/.everfern/prompts/SOUL.md and ~/.everfern/prompts/agents.md, and Everfern writes those default files only when they are missing. On Windows those paths are C:\Users\<your name>\.everfern\prompts\SOUL.md and agents.md in that same folder.

A project can keep its own pair of files beside the global ones. If the project folder contains SOUL.md or agents.md, Everfern loads that file instead of the global copy. The app also adds a short identity block when ~/.everfern/config.json exists, and that block calls the agent Fern. A Customize Fern screen can edit a tone in that file, but this guide could not confirm a button that opens it. Do not hand-edit config.json, because it also holds keys and other settings.

Set a persona

1. Copy ~/.everfern/prompts/SOUL.md and ~/.everfern/prompts/agents.md to a second place before you change either file. On Windows, both sit in C:\Users\<your name>\.everfern\prompts\. If they are not there yet, open Everfern once so it creates the defaults.

What you should see a backup copy of SOUL.md and agents.md outside the .everfern folder.

2. Open Settings, then Personality & Routing, where the title is Personality & Agent Customization.

What you should see two boxes, SOUL.md (Personality Core) and agents.md (Routing Protocol).

3. If a project folder is active in chat (through Select folder as project...), choose Global for every chat or Project Workspace for that project only.

What you should see Global or Project Workspace selected under Configuration Scope, or no scope card when no project folder is active.

4. Edit SOUL.md (Personality Core) and add a short tone. Do not tell it to skip approval cards, hide its steps, or ignore a safety setting, and leave the rest of the file in place.

What you should see your tone sentence in the SOUL.md box, with the older lines still under it.

5. Click Save Configuration, dismiss the confirmation pop-up (OpenClaw configurations saved successfully!), close Settings, and reopen Personality & Routing.

What you should see the confirmation pop-up appears, and your added tone is still in the SOUL.md box when you reopen the screen.

Set rules

1. On that same screen, edit agents.md (Routing Protocol) and add your rules at the top. Leave the routing names in place, because they tell Everfern which sub-agent gets which kind of job.

What you should see your rules at the top of agents.md, and the routing names still below them.

2. Click Save Configuration, open the screen again, and read agents.md.

What you should see your added lines are still at the top of agents.md.

3. Start a new chat and ask one question whose answer should show the tone, and do not ask it to control the computer.

What you should see the reply follows the tone in SOUL.md, and the mouse does not move.

One project, and sub-agents

Choose Project Workspace before you save when the persona should apply only to the open project. Everfern then writes SOUL.md and agents.md in that project folder, while Global writes the copies under ~/.everfern/prompts/.

agents.md is how a job is routed to a sub-agent, such as coding, data, the web, or research. This guide could not confirm a separate persona file for each sub-agent. Specialist prompt files ship with the app and are copied on every start, so do not edit those copies. This guide could not confirm a different persona for a phone chat. Page 7 explains why Discord, Telegram, and Dispatch are not treated as working in v1.3.0.

What not to edit

Do not edit the other markdown files in ~/.everfern/prompts/, because every start copies the app's prompt files over those copies. SOUL.md and agents.md are the two names left out of that copy. The replaced files include the system prompt and the permission text the agent needs in order to use its tools. Do not edit the prompt files inside the installed app. An update replaces them, and the next start copies them again.

Undo a change

1. If you copied SOUL.md and agents.md first, paste those copies back and click Save Configuration.

What you should see the boxes show the text from your copies again.

2. To return to the app's built-in defaults, quit Everfern, move SOUL.md (and agents.md, if you changed it) out of ~/.everfern/prompts/ into a backup folder, and start Everfern again. Everfern writes fresh default files whenever those names are missing.

What you should see SOUL.md (Personality Core) and agents.md (Routing Protocol) show the default text again, and your moved copies sit safely in your backup folder.

Rules are not a lock

Words in SOUL.md and agents.md are instructions to the model, not a security wall. Approval cards, your named folder, and the Linux VM are what limit the agent.

Standing rules.

• You gain: a tone and a few work rules can apply to later chats without pasting them into every request.
• You risk: a model can ignore those files, and a web page or a file can try to override them. The files do not stop a command on your real computer.
• Makes sense when: approval cards stay on, the job stays in everfern-tryout, and approvals, that folder, and the Linux VM are what limit the agent.

Sources

Opened on 14 November 2026. Source-code links below point at the v1.3.0 tag.

• Personality files define ~/.everfern/prompts/SOUL.md, agents.md, and a project file that wins.
• Personality screen has Personality & Routing, Global, Project Workspace, Save Configuration, and the two boxes.
• Where the soul is loaded reads SOUL.md into a job.
• Prompt copy on start replaces prompt copies on start and leaves out SOUL.md and agents.md.
• App start forces that copy, then creates SOUL.md only if it is missing.
• Identity block from config adds the Fern line when config.json exists.
• Customize Fern screen is present in v1.3.0, and this guide could not confirm a button that opens it.
• Default soul text is what a missing SOUL.md is replaced with.

Next

Continue to Persona and rules for any agent for the advice that applies to every agent.