Add skills.external_dirs config option — a list of additional directories
to scan for skills alongside ~/.hermes/skills/. External dirs are read-only:
skill creation/editing always writes to the local dir. Local skills take
precedence when names collide.
This lets users share skills across tools/agents without copying them into
Hermes's own directory (e.g. ~/.agents/skills, /shared/team-skills).
Changes:
- agent/skill_utils.py: add get_external_skills_dirs() and get_all_skills_dirs()
- agent/prompt_builder.py: scan external dirs in build_skills_system_prompt()
- tools/skills_tool.py: _find_all_skills() and skill_view() search external dirs;
security check recognizes configured external dirs as trusted
- agent/skill_commands.py: /skill slash commands discover external skills
- hermes_cli/config.py: add skills.external_dirs to DEFAULT_CONFIG
- cli-config.yaml.example: document the option
- tests/agent/test_external_skills.py: 11 tests covering discovery, precedence,
deduplication, and skill_view for external skills
Requested by community member primco.
* fix: banner skill count now respects disabled skills and platform filtering
The banner's get_available_skills() was doing a raw rglob scan of
~/.hermes/skills/ without checking:
- Whether skills are disabled (skills.disabled config)
- Whether skills match the current platform (platforms: frontmatter)
This caused the banner to show inflated skill counts (e.g. '100 skills'
when many are disabled) and list macOS-only skills on Linux.
Fix: delegate to _find_all_skills() from tools/skills_tool which already
handles both platform gating and disabled-skill filtering.
* fix: system prompt and slash commands now respect disabled skills
Two more places where disabled skills were still surfaced:
1. build_skills_system_prompt() in prompt_builder.py — disabled skills
appeared in the <available_skills> system prompt section, causing
the agent to suggest/load them despite being disabled.
2. scan_skill_commands() in skill_commands.py — disabled skills still
registered as /skill-name slash commands in CLI help and could be
invoked.
Both now load _get_disabled_skill_names() and filter accordingly.
* fix: skill_view blocks disabled skills
skill_view() checked platform compatibility but not disabled state,
so the agent could still load and read disabled skills directly.
Now returns a clear error when a disabled skill is requested, telling
the user to enable it via hermes skills or inspect the files manually.
---------
Co-authored-by: Test <test@test.com>
When a skill declares required_environment_variables in its YAML
frontmatter, missing env vars trigger a secure TUI prompt (identical
to the sudo password widget) when the skill is loaded. Secrets flow
directly to ~/.hermes/.env, never entering LLM context.
Key changes:
- New required_environment_variables frontmatter field for skills
- Secure TUI widget (masked input, 120s timeout)
- Gateway safety: messaging platforms show local setup guidance
- Legacy prerequisites.env_vars normalized into new format
- Remote backend handling: conservative setup_needed=True
- Env var name validation, file permissions hardened to 0o600
- Redact patterns extended for secret-related JSON fields
- 12 existing skills updated with prerequisites declarations
- ~48 new tests covering skip, timeout, gateway, remote backends
- Dynamic panel widget sizing (fixes hardcoded width from original PR)
Cherry-picked from PR #723 by kshitijk4poor, rebased onto current main
with conflict resolution.
Fixes#688
Co-authored-by: kshitijk4poor <kshitijk4poor@users.noreply.github.com>
Add a 'platforms' field to SKILL.md frontmatter that restricts skills
to specific operating systems. Skills with platforms: [macos] only
appear in the system prompt, skills_list(), and slash commands on macOS.
Skills without the field load everywhere (backward compatible).
Implementation:
- skill_matches_platform() in tools/skills_tool.py — core filter
- Wired into all 3 discovery paths: prompt_builder.py, skills_tool.py,
skill_commands.py
- 28 new tests across 3 test files
New bundled Apple/macOS skills (all platforms: [macos]):
- imessage — Send/receive iMessages via imsg CLI
- apple-reminders — Manage Reminders via remindctl CLI
- apple-notes — Manage Notes via memo CLI
- findmy — Track devices/AirTags via AppleScript + screen capture
Docs updated: CONTRIBUTING.md, AGENTS.md, creating-skills.md,
skills.md (user guide)
The hidden directory filter used hardcoded forward-slash strings like
'/.git/' and '/.hub/' to exclude internal directories. On Windows,
Path returns backslash-separated strings, so the filter never matched.
This caused quarantined skills in .hub/quarantine/ to appear as
installed skills and available slash commands on Windows.
Replaced string-based checks with Path.parts membership test which
works on both Windows and Unix.
