Ok, it seems as though I had some bash configuration issues. My 
"$(inline commands)" made things unhappy for some reason.

I resolved them, and shepherd started working...except that herd 
was totally bound up and not responsive. I had to kill it to 
reconfigure.

I assumed this is because the services were holding stuff up...so 
I tried a forked config:

#+BEGIN_SRC scheme
(service home-shepherd-service-type
                 (home-shepherd-configuration
                  (services (list
                             (shepherd-service
                              (provision '(syncthing))
                              (start #~(make-forkexec-constructor
                                        "syncthing" #:user #:t))
                              (stop #~(make-kill-destructor))
                              (documentation
                               "Synchronize folders to other 
                               device"))
                             (shepherd-service
                              (provision '(pantalaimon))
                              (start #~(make-forkexec-constructor
                                        "pantalaimon" #:user #:t))
                              (stop #~(make-kill-destructor))
                              (documentation
                               "Crypto back-end server for 
                               ement.el"))))))
#+END_SRC

The forked service does not seem to work :/

#+BEGIN_QUOTE
λ herd start pantalaimon
herd: exception caught while executing 'start' on service 
'pantalaimon':
Throw to key `match-error' with args `("match" "no matching 
pattern" "pantalaimon")'.
#+END_QUOTE

Tangonov <tn@eml.cc> writes:

> Oh! I almost forgot, the error messages from guix home 
> container. It's worth mentioning that these are user packages.
> They're not installed on the root level. 
>
>  Starting services… Comparing 
>  /gnu/store/non-existing-generation/profile/share/fonts and
>  /gnu/store/c04qxlqgawnbb0k08acwdd6sk2kjc1i2-home/profile/share/fonts… 
>  done (same) Evaluating on-change
>  gexps. 
>
>  On-change gexps evaluation finished. 
>
>  sh: line 1: syncthing: command not found Service syncthing 
>  could not be started. sh: line 1: pantalaimon: command
>  not found Service pantalaimon could not be started. 
>
> Tangonov <tn@eml.cc> writes: 
>
>  Hello Guix! 
>
>  I don't seem to be able to start Shepherd services from my guix 
>  home config. The services fail to start, despite being
>  startable from the command line from both reconfigure & 
>  container. 
>
>  Here's what my services look like: 
>
>  (home-environment (packages (specifications->packages (append 
>  %base-packages %emacs %multimedia %browsers
>  %chat-clients %devel))) (services (list ; … bash services 
>  (service home-shepherd-service-type
>  (home-shepherd-configuration (services (list (shepherd-service 
>  (provision '(syncthing)) (start
>  #~(make-system-constructor "syncthing")) (stop 
>  #~(make-kill-destructor)) (documentation "Synchronize folders 
>  to
>  other device")) (shepherd-service (provision '(pantalaimon)) 
>  (start #~(make-system-constructor "pantalaimon"))
>  (stop #~(make-kill-destructor)) (documentation "Crypto back-end 
>  server for ement.el"))))))))) 
>
>  Thanks again for the help & software 
>