The owner placed hermes-bot's API token at OpenBao apps/hermes/gitea (api-token). ExternalSecret hermes-gitea mounts it as a file at /var/run/secrets/gitea/api-token. git is configured through GIT_CONFIG_* env on the container, so nothing lives on the PVC: a credential helper for https://gitea.renner.uno that answers with hermes-bot and the token read from the file, plus the commit identity hermes-bot <hermes-bot@konstantin-renner.de>. Hermes' subprocess env scrub only strips its own provider/messaging secrets, so GIT_* reaches the terminal tool. SOUL.md drops "no write access" and tells the agent how to use git and the REST API (no tea in the image) without printing the token; the existing feature-branch/PR/no-self-merge rules apply. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>