Observed

The layers exist as described. Under-documented semantics: MEMORY.md is a frozen snapshot loaded at session start — in-session writes are invisible to the running agent until the next session, and short sessions may retain nothing. Of 8 documented external providers, only 2 (Hindsight, Holographic) have meaningful public evidence of real-world use; the benchmark-leading memory systems (Mastra OM, Letta, OMEGA, Zep) have no Hermes integration path at all.