Multiple Instances

Bolly supports multiple instances — each with its own personality, memory, mood, drops, and configuration. Think of each instance as a separate companion with its own identity.

How instances work

Each instance gets its own directory under ~/.bolly/instances/:

~/.bolly/instances/
├── default/        # Your main Bolly instance
│   ├── soul.md
│   ├── mood.json
│   ├── memory/
│   ├── drops/
│   ├── chats/
│   └── skills/
├── work/           # A work-focused instance
│   └── ...
└── creative/       # A creative writing partner
    └── ...

What’s isolated per instance

Component	Shared or isolated
Memory	Isolated — each instance remembers different things
Mood	Isolated — each has its own emotional state
Drops	Isolated — each creates its own artifacts
Soul (personality)	Isolated — each has a unique soul.md
Heartbeat	Isolated — each has its own heartbeat.md
Skills	Isolated — different skills per instance
Chats	Isolated — separate conversation histories
Email config	Isolated — different accounts per instance
Voice	Isolated — different TTS voice per instance
API keys	Shared — global config.toml
MCP servers	Shared — global config.toml

Managing instances

Instances are managed through the Bolly UI. You can:

Create new instances with custom names
Switch between instances
Delete instances you no longer need

Use cases

Personal + Work — keep work context separate from personal conversations
Different personalities — experiment with different soul.md configurations
Project-specific — create an instance for each major project with relevant memory
Shared device — each user gets their own instance

Heartbeat staggering

When multiple instances are running, their heartbeat cycles are staggered with 30-second delays between each. This prevents all instances from firing simultaneously and overloading the API.

Core

Capabilities

Connections

How instances work

What’s isolated per instance

Managing instances

Use cases

Heartbeat staggering

​How instances work

​What’s isolated per instance

​Managing instances

​Use cases

​Heartbeat staggering

How instances work

What’s isolated per instance

Managing instances

Use cases

Heartbeat staggering