- Remove *** placeholder detection from _sanitize_env_lines (was based on
confusing terminal redaction with literal file content)
- Add migrate_config() logic to clear stale ANTHROPIC_TOKEN when better
credentials exist (ANTHROPIC_API_KEY or Claude Code auto-discovery)
- Old ANTHROPIC_TOKEN values shadow Claude Code credential fallthrough,
breaking auth for users who updated without re-running setup
- Preserves ANTHROPIC_TOKEN when it's the only auth method available
- 3 new migration tests, updated existing tests
Fixes two corruption patterns that break API keys during updates:
1. Concatenated KEY=VALUE pairs on a single line due to missing newlines
(e.g. ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-...OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://...). Uses a
known-keys set to safely detect and split concatenated entries without
false-splitting values that contain uppercase text.
2. Stale KEY=*** placeholder entries left by incomplete setup runs that
never get updated and shadow real credentials.
Changes:
- Add _sanitize_env_lines() that splits concatenated known keys and drops
*** placeholders
- Add sanitize_env_file() public API for explicit repair
- Call sanitization in save_env_value() on every read (self-healing)
- Call sanitize_env_file() at the start of migrate_config() so existing
corrupted files are repaired on update
- 12 new tests covering splits, placeholders, edge cases, and integration
Introduce a cloud browser provider abstraction so users can switch
between Local Browser, Browserbase, and Browser Use (or future providers)
via hermes tools / hermes setup.
Cloud browser providers are behind an ABC (tools/browser_providers/base.py)
so adding a new provider is a single-file addition with no changes to
browser_tool.py internals.
Changes:
- tools/browser_providers/ package with ABC, Browserbase extraction,
and Browser Use provider
- browser_tool.py refactored to use _PROVIDER_REGISTRY + _get_cloud_provider()
(cached) instead of hardcoded _is_local_mode() / _create_browserbase_session()
- tools_config.py: generic _is_provider_active() / _detect_active_provider_index()
replace TTS-only logic; Browser Use added as third browser option
- config.py: BROWSER_USE_API_KEY added to OPTIONAL_ENV_VARS + show_config + allowlist
- subprocess pipe hang fix: agent-browser daemon inherits pipe fds,
communicate() blocks. Replaced with Popen + temp files.
Original PR: #1208
Co-authored-by: ShawnPana <shawnpana@users.noreply.github.com>
* feat: add Vercel AI Gateway as a first-class provider
Adds AI Gateway (ai-gateway.vercel.sh) as a new inference provider
with AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY authentication, live model discovery, and
reasoning support via extra_body.reasoning.
Based on PR #1492 by jerilynzheng.
* feat: add AI Gateway to setup wizard, doctor, and fallback providers
* test: add AI Gateway to api_key_providers test suite
* feat: add AI Gateway to hermes model CLI and model metadata
Wire AI Gateway into the interactive model selection menu and add
context lengths for AI Gateway model IDs in model_metadata.py.
* feat: use claude-haiku-4.5 as AI Gateway auxiliary model
* revert: use gemini-3-flash as AI Gateway auxiliary model
* fix: move AI Gateway below established providers in selection order
---------
Co-authored-by: jerilynzheng <jerilynzheng@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: jerilynzheng <zheng.jerilyn@gmail.com>
* refactor: centralize slash command registry
Replace 7+ scattered command definition sites with a single
CommandDef registry in hermes_cli/commands.py. All downstream
consumers now derive from this registry:
- CLI process_command() resolves aliases via resolve_command()
- Gateway _known_commands uses GATEWAY_KNOWN_COMMANDS frozenset
- Gateway help text generated by gateway_help_lines()
- Telegram BotCommands generated by telegram_bot_commands()
- Slack subcommand map generated by slack_subcommand_map()
Adding a command or alias is now a one-line change to
COMMAND_REGISTRY instead of touching 6+ files.
Bugfixes included:
- Telegram now registers /rollback, /background (were missing)
- Slack now has /voice, /update, /reload-mcp (were missing)
- Gateway duplicate 'reasoning' dispatch (dead code) removed
- Gateway help text can no longer drift from CLI help
Backwards-compatible: COMMANDS and COMMANDS_BY_CATEGORY dicts are
rebuilt from the registry, so existing imports work unchanged.
* docs: update developer docs for centralized command registry
Update AGENTS.md with full 'Slash Command Registry' and 'Adding a
Slash Command' sections covering CommandDef fields, registry helpers,
and the one-line alias workflow.
Also update:
- CONTRIBUTING.md: commands.py description
- website/docs/reference/slash-commands.md: reference central registry
- docs/plans/centralize-command-registry.md: mark COMPLETED
- plans/checkpoint-rollback.md: reference new pattern
- hermes-agent-dev skill: architecture table
* chore: remove stale plan docs
Repair stale launchd/systemd definitions during install and
teach launchd start to reload unloaded jobs before retrying.
Stop masking service restart failures by falling back to a
foreground gateway when a configured service manager is still
broken.
Refs: #1613
* fix: Anthropic OAuth compatibility — Claude Code identity fingerprinting
Anthropic routes OAuth/subscription requests based on Claude Code's
identity markers. Without them, requests get intermittent 500 errors
(~25% failure rate observed). This matches what pi-ai (clawdbot) and
OpenCode both implement for OAuth compatibility.
Changes (OAuth tokens only — API key users unaffected):
1. Headers: user-agent 'claude-cli/2.1.2 (external, cli)' + x-app 'cli'
2. System prompt: prepend 'You are Claude Code, Anthropic's official CLI'
3. System prompt sanitization: replace Hermes/Nous references
4. Tool names: prefix with 'mcp_' (Claude Code convention for non-native tools)
5. Tool name stripping: remove 'mcp_' prefix from response tool calls
Before: 9/12 OK, 1 hard fail, 4 needed retries (~25% error rate)
After: 16/16 OK, 0 failures, 0 retries (0% error rate)
* fix: auto-detect DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS for systemctl --user on headless servers
On SSH sessions to headless servers, DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS and
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR may not be set even when the user's systemd instance
is running via linger. This causes 'systemctl --user' to fail with
'Failed to connect to bus: No medium found', breaking gateway
restart/start/stop as a service and falling back to foreground mode.
Add _ensure_user_systemd_env() that detects the standard D-Bus socket
at /run/user/<UID>/bus and sets the env vars before any systemctl --user
call. Called from _systemctl_cmd() so all existing call sites benefit
automatically with zero changes.
Fixes: gateway restart falling back to foreground on headless servers
* fix: show linger guidance when gateway restart fails during update and gateway restart
When systemctl --user restart fails during 'hermes update' or
'hermes gateway restart', check linger status and tell the user
exactly what to run (sudo -S -p '' loginctl enable-linger) instead of
silently falling back to foreground mode.
Also applies _ensure_user_systemd_env() to the raw systemctl calls
in cmd_update so they work properly on SSH sessions where D-Bus
env vars are missing.
* feat: add optional smart model routing
Add a conservative cheap-vs-strong routing option that can send very short/simple turns to a cheaper model across providers while keeping the primary model for complex work. Wire it through CLI, gateway, and cron, and document the config.yaml workflow.
* fix(gateway): remove recursive ExecStop from systemd units, extend TimeoutStopSec to 60s
* fix(gateway): avoid recursive ExecStop in user systemd unit
* fix: extend ExecStop removal and TimeoutStopSec=60 to system unit
The cherry-picked PR #1448 fix only covered the user systemd unit.
The system unit had the same TimeoutStopSec=15 and could benefit
from the same 60s timeout for clean shutdown. Also adds a regression
test for the system unit.
---------
Co-authored-by: Ninja <ninja@local>
* feat(skills): add blender-mcp optional skill for 3D modeling
Control a running Blender instance from Hermes via socket connection
to the blender-mcp addon (port 9876). Supports creating 3D objects,
materials, animations, and running arbitrary bpy code.
Placed in optional-skills/ since it requires Blender 4.3+ desktop
with a third-party addon manually started each session.
* feat(acp): support slash commands in ACP adapter (#1532)
Adds /help, /model, /tools, /context, /reset, /compact, /version
to the ACP adapter (VS Code, Zed, JetBrains). Commands are handled
directly in the server without instantiating the TUI — each command
queries agent/session state and returns plain text.
Unrecognized /commands fall through to the LLM as normal messages.
/model uses detect_provider_for_model() for auto-detection when
switching models, matching the CLI and gateway behavior.
Fixes#1402
* fix(logging): improve error logging in session search tool (#1533)
* fix(gateway): restart on retryable startup failures (#1517)
* feat(email): add skip_attachments option via config.yaml
* feat(email): add skip_attachments option via config.yaml
Adds a config.yaml-driven option to skip email attachments in the
gateway email adapter. Useful for malware protection and bandwidth
savings.
Configure in config.yaml:
platforms:
email:
skip_attachments: true
Based on PR #1521 by @an420eth, changed from env var to config.yaml
(via PlatformConfig.extra) to match the project's config-first pattern.
* docs: document skip_attachments option for email adapter
* fix(telegram): retry on transient TLS failures during connect and send
Add exponential-backoff retry (3 attempts) around initialize() to
handle transient TLS resets during gateway startup. Also catches
TimedOut and OSError in addition to NetworkError.
Add exponential-backoff retry (3 attempts) around send_message() for
NetworkError during message delivery, wrapping the existing Markdown
fallback logic.
Both imports are guarded with try/except ImportError for test
environments where telegram is mocked.
Based on PR #1527 by cmd8. Closes#1526.
* feat: permissive block_anchor thresholds and unicode normalization (#1539)
Salvaged from PR #1528 by an420eth. Closes#517.
Improves _strategy_block_anchor in fuzzy_match.py:
- Add unicode normalization (smart quotes, em/en-dashes, ellipsis,
non-breaking spaces → ASCII) so LLM-produced unicode artifacts
don't break anchor line matching
- Lower thresholds: 0.10 for unique matches (was 0.70), 0.30 for
multiple candidates — if first/last lines match exactly, the
block is almost certainly correct
- Use original (non-normalized) content for offset calculation to
preserve correct character positions
Tested: 3 new scenarios fixed (em-dash anchors, non-breaking space
anchors, very-low-similarity unique matches), zero regressions on
all 9 existing fuzzy match tests.
Co-authored-by: an420eth <an420eth@users.noreply.github.com>
* feat(cli): add file path autocomplete in the input prompt (#1545)
When typing a path-like token (./ ../ ~/ / or containing /),
the CLI now shows filesystem completions in the dropdown menu.
Directories show a trailing slash and 'dir' label; files show
their size. Completions are case-insensitive and capped at 30
entries.
Triggered by tokens like:
edit ./src/ma → shows ./src/main.py, ./src/manifest.json, ...
check ~/doc → shows ~/docs/, ~/documents/, ...
read /etc/hos → shows /etc/hosts, /etc/hostname, ...
open tools/reg → shows tools/registry.py
Slash command autocomplete (/help, /model, etc.) is unaffected —
it still triggers when the input starts with /.
Inspired by OpenCode PR #145 (file path completion menu).
Implementation:
- hermes_cli/commands.py: _extract_path_word() detects path-like
tokens, _path_completions() yields filesystem Completions with
size labels, get_completions() routes to paths vs slash commands
- tests/hermes_cli/test_path_completion.py: 26 tests covering
path extraction, prefix filtering, directory markers, home
expansion, case-insensitivity, integration with slash commands
* feat(privacy): redact PII from LLM context when privacy.redact_pii is enabled
Add privacy.redact_pii config option (boolean, default false). When
enabled, the gateway redacts personally identifiable information from
the system prompt before sending it to the LLM provider:
- Phone numbers (user IDs on WhatsApp/Signal) → hashed to user_<sha256>
- User IDs → hashed to user_<sha256>
- Chat IDs → numeric portion hashed, platform prefix preserved
- Home channel IDs → hashed
- Names/usernames → NOT affected (user-chosen, publicly visible)
Hashes are deterministic (same user → same hash) so the model can
still distinguish users in group chats. Routing and delivery use
the original values internally — redaction only affects LLM context.
Inspired by OpenClaw PR #47959.
* fix(privacy): skip PII redaction on Discord/Slack (mentions need real IDs)
Discord uses <@user_id> for mentions and Slack uses <@U12345> — the LLM
needs the real ID to tag users. Redaction now only applies to WhatsApp,
Signal, and Telegram where IDs are pure routing metadata.
Add 4 platform-specific tests covering Discord, WhatsApp, Signal, Slack.
* feat: smart approvals + /stop command (inspired by OpenAI Codex)
* feat: smart approvals — LLM-based risk assessment for dangerous commands
Adds a 'smart' approval mode that uses the auxiliary LLM to assess
whether a flagged command is genuinely dangerous or a false positive,
auto-approving low-risk commands without prompting the user.
Inspired by OpenAI Codex's Smart Approvals guardian subagent
(openai/codex#13860).
Config (config.yaml):
approvals:
mode: manual # manual (default), smart, off
Modes:
- manual — current behavior, always prompt the user
- smart — aux LLM evaluates risk: APPROVE (auto-allow), DENY (block),
or ESCALATE (fall through to manual prompt)
- off — skip all approval prompts (equivalent to --yolo)
When smart mode auto-approves, the pattern gets session-level approval
so subsequent uses of the same pattern don't trigger another LLM call.
When it denies, the command is blocked without user prompt. When
uncertain, it escalates to the normal manual approval flow.
The LLM prompt is carefully scoped: it sees only the command text and
the flagged reason, assesses actual risk vs false positive, and returns
a single-word verdict.
* feat: make smart approval model configurable via config.yaml
Adds auxiliary.approval section to config.yaml with the same
provider/model/base_url/api_key pattern as other aux tasks (vision,
web_extract, compression, etc.).
Config:
auxiliary:
approval:
provider: auto
model: '' # fast/cheap model recommended
base_url: ''
api_key: ''
Bridged to env vars in both CLI and gateway paths so the aux client
picks them up automatically.
* feat: add /stop command to kill all background processes
Adds a /stop slash command that kills all running background processes
at once. Currently users have to process(list) then process(kill) for
each one individually.
Inspired by OpenAI Codex's separation of interrupt (Ctrl+C stops current
turn) from /stop (cleans up background processes). See openai/codex#14602.
Ctrl+C continues to only interrupt the active agent turn — background
dev servers, watchers, etc. are preserved. /stop is the explicit way
to clean them all up.
* feat: first-class plugin architecture + hide status bar cost by default (#1544)
The persistent status bar now shows context %, token counts, and
duration but NOT $ cost by default. Cost display is opt-in via:
display:
show_cost: true
in config.yaml, or: hermes config set display.show_cost true
The /usage command still shows full cost breakdown since the user
explicitly asked for it — this only affects the always-visible bar.
Status bar without cost:
⚕ claude-sonnet-4 │ 12K/200K │ 6% │ 15m
Status bar with show_cost: true:
⚕ claude-sonnet-4 │ 12K/200K │ 6% │ $0.06 │ 15m
* feat: improve memory prioritization + aggressive skill updates (inspired by OpenAI Codex)
* feat: improve memory prioritization — user preferences over procedural knowledge
Inspired by OpenAI Codex's memory prompt improvements (openai/codex#14493)
which focus memory writes on user preferences and recurring patterns
rather than procedural task details.
Key insight: 'Optimize for reducing future user steering — the most
valuable memory prevents the user from having to repeat themselves.'
Changes:
- MEMORY_GUIDANCE (prompt_builder.py): added prioritization hierarchy
and the core principle about reducing user steering
- MEMORY_SCHEMA (memory_tool.py): reordered WHEN TO SAVE list to put
corrections first, added explicit PRIORITY guidance
- Memory nudge (run_agent.py): now asks specifically about preferences,
corrections, and workflow patterns instead of generic 'anything'
- Memory flush (run_agent.py): now instructs to prioritize user
preferences and corrections over task-specific details
* feat: more aggressive skill creation and update prompting
Press harder on skill updates — the agent should proactively patch
skills when it encounters issues during use, not wait to be asked.
Changes:
- SKILLS_GUIDANCE: 'consider saving' → 'save'; added explicit instruction
to patch skills immediately when found outdated/wrong
- Skills header: added instruction to update loaded skills before finishing
if they had missing steps or wrong commands
- Skill nudge: more assertive ('save the approach' not 'consider saving'),
now also prompts for updating existing skills used in the task
- Skill nudge interval: lowered default from 15 to 10 iterations
- skill_manage schema: added 'patch it immediately' to update triggers
* feat: first-class plugin architecture (#1555)
Plugin system for extending Hermes with custom tools, hooks, and
integrations — no source code changes required.
Core system (hermes_cli/plugins.py):
- Plugin discovery from ~/.hermes/plugins/, .hermes/plugins/, and
pip entry_points (hermes_agent.plugins group)
- PluginContext with register_tool() and register_hook()
- 6 lifecycle hooks: pre/post tool_call, pre/post llm_call,
on_session_start/end
- Namespace package handling for relative imports in plugins
- Graceful error isolation — broken plugins never crash the agent
Integration (model_tools.py):
- Plugin discovery runs after built-in + MCP tools
- Plugin tools bypass toolset filter via get_plugin_tool_names()
- Pre/post tool call hooks fire in handle_function_call()
CLI:
- /plugins command shows loaded plugins, tool counts, status
- Added to COMMANDS dict for autocomplete
Docs:
- Getting started guide (build-a-hermes-plugin.md) — full tutorial
building a calculator plugin step by step
- Reference page (features/plugins.md) — quick overview + tables
- Covers: file structure, schemas, handlers, hooks, data files,
bundled skills, env var gating, pip distribution, common mistakes
Tests: 16 tests covering discovery, loading, hooks, tool visibility.
* feat: add /bg as alias for /background slash command
Adds /bg alias across CLI, gateway, and Slack platform adapter.
Updates help text, autocomplete, known_commands set, and dispatch
logic. Includes tests for the new alias.
* docs: add plan for centralized slash command registry
Scopes a refactor to replace 7+ scattered command definition sites
with a single CommandDef registry in hermes_cli/commands.py. Includes
derived helper functions for gateway help text, Telegram BotCommands,
Slack subcommand maps, and alias resolution.
Documents current drift (Telegram missing /rollback + /background,
Slack missing /voice + /update, gateway dead code) that the refactor
fixes for free.
---------
Co-authored-by: Ninja <ninja@local>
Co-authored-by: alireza78a <alireza78a@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Oktay Aydin <113846926+aydnOktay@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: JP Lew <polydegen@protonmail.com>
Co-authored-by: an420eth <an420eth@users.noreply.github.com>
* feat: add optional smart model routing
Add a conservative cheap-vs-strong routing option that can send very short/simple turns to a cheaper model across providers while keeping the primary model for complex work. Wire it through CLI, gateway, and cron, and document the config.yaml workflow.
* fix(gateway): remove recursive ExecStop from systemd units, extend TimeoutStopSec to 60s
* fix(gateway): avoid recursive ExecStop in user systemd unit
* fix: extend ExecStop removal and TimeoutStopSec=60 to system unit
The cherry-picked PR #1448 fix only covered the user systemd unit.
The system unit had the same TimeoutStopSec=15 and could benefit
from the same 60s timeout for clean shutdown. Also adds a regression
test for the system unit.
---------
Co-authored-by: Ninja <ninja@local>
* feat(skills): add blender-mcp optional skill for 3D modeling
Control a running Blender instance from Hermes via socket connection
to the blender-mcp addon (port 9876). Supports creating 3D objects,
materials, animations, and running arbitrary bpy code.
Placed in optional-skills/ since it requires Blender 4.3+ desktop
with a third-party addon manually started each session.
* feat(acp): support slash commands in ACP adapter (#1532)
Adds /help, /model, /tools, /context, /reset, /compact, /version
to the ACP adapter (VS Code, Zed, JetBrains). Commands are handled
directly in the server without instantiating the TUI — each command
queries agent/session state and returns plain text.
Unrecognized /commands fall through to the LLM as normal messages.
/model uses detect_provider_for_model() for auto-detection when
switching models, matching the CLI and gateway behavior.
Fixes#1402
* fix(logging): improve error logging in session search tool (#1533)
* fix(gateway): restart on retryable startup failures (#1517)
* feat(email): add skip_attachments option via config.yaml
* feat(email): add skip_attachments option via config.yaml
Adds a config.yaml-driven option to skip email attachments in the
gateway email adapter. Useful for malware protection and bandwidth
savings.
Configure in config.yaml:
platforms:
email:
skip_attachments: true
Based on PR #1521 by @an420eth, changed from env var to config.yaml
(via PlatformConfig.extra) to match the project's config-first pattern.
* docs: document skip_attachments option for email adapter
* fix(telegram): retry on transient TLS failures during connect and send
Add exponential-backoff retry (3 attempts) around initialize() to
handle transient TLS resets during gateway startup. Also catches
TimedOut and OSError in addition to NetworkError.
Add exponential-backoff retry (3 attempts) around send_message() for
NetworkError during message delivery, wrapping the existing Markdown
fallback logic.
Both imports are guarded with try/except ImportError for test
environments where telegram is mocked.
Based on PR #1527 by cmd8. Closes#1526.
* feat: permissive block_anchor thresholds and unicode normalization (#1539)
Salvaged from PR #1528 by an420eth. Closes#517.
Improves _strategy_block_anchor in fuzzy_match.py:
- Add unicode normalization (smart quotes, em/en-dashes, ellipsis,
non-breaking spaces → ASCII) so LLM-produced unicode artifacts
don't break anchor line matching
- Lower thresholds: 0.10 for unique matches (was 0.70), 0.30 for
multiple candidates — if first/last lines match exactly, the
block is almost certainly correct
- Use original (non-normalized) content for offset calculation to
preserve correct character positions
Tested: 3 new scenarios fixed (em-dash anchors, non-breaking space
anchors, very-low-similarity unique matches), zero regressions on
all 9 existing fuzzy match tests.
Co-authored-by: an420eth <an420eth@users.noreply.github.com>
* feat(cli): add file path autocomplete in the input prompt (#1545)
When typing a path-like token (./ ../ ~/ / or containing /),
the CLI now shows filesystem completions in the dropdown menu.
Directories show a trailing slash and 'dir' label; files show
their size. Completions are case-insensitive and capped at 30
entries.
Triggered by tokens like:
edit ./src/ma → shows ./src/main.py, ./src/manifest.json, ...
check ~/doc → shows ~/docs/, ~/documents/, ...
read /etc/hos → shows /etc/hosts, /etc/hostname, ...
open tools/reg → shows tools/registry.py
Slash command autocomplete (/help, /model, etc.) is unaffected —
it still triggers when the input starts with /.
Inspired by OpenCode PR #145 (file path completion menu).
Implementation:
- hermes_cli/commands.py: _extract_path_word() detects path-like
tokens, _path_completions() yields filesystem Completions with
size labels, get_completions() routes to paths vs slash commands
- tests/hermes_cli/test_path_completion.py: 26 tests covering
path extraction, prefix filtering, directory markers, home
expansion, case-insensitivity, integration with slash commands
* feat(privacy): redact PII from LLM context when privacy.redact_pii is enabled
Add privacy.redact_pii config option (boolean, default false). When
enabled, the gateway redacts personally identifiable information from
the system prompt before sending it to the LLM provider:
- Phone numbers (user IDs on WhatsApp/Signal) → hashed to user_<sha256>
- User IDs → hashed to user_<sha256>
- Chat IDs → numeric portion hashed, platform prefix preserved
- Home channel IDs → hashed
- Names/usernames → NOT affected (user-chosen, publicly visible)
Hashes are deterministic (same user → same hash) so the model can
still distinguish users in group chats. Routing and delivery use
the original values internally — redaction only affects LLM context.
Inspired by OpenClaw PR #47959.
* fix(privacy): skip PII redaction on Discord/Slack (mentions need real IDs)
Discord uses <@user_id> for mentions and Slack uses <@U12345> — the LLM
needs the real ID to tag users. Redaction now only applies to WhatsApp,
Signal, and Telegram where IDs are pure routing metadata.
Add 4 platform-specific tests covering Discord, WhatsApp, Signal, Slack.
* feat: smart approvals + /stop command (inspired by OpenAI Codex)
* feat: smart approvals — LLM-based risk assessment for dangerous commands
Adds a 'smart' approval mode that uses the auxiliary LLM to assess
whether a flagged command is genuinely dangerous or a false positive,
auto-approving low-risk commands without prompting the user.
Inspired by OpenAI Codex's Smart Approvals guardian subagent
(openai/codex#13860).
Config (config.yaml):
approvals:
mode: manual # manual (default), smart, off
Modes:
- manual — current behavior, always prompt the user
- smart — aux LLM evaluates risk: APPROVE (auto-allow), DENY (block),
or ESCALATE (fall through to manual prompt)
- off — skip all approval prompts (equivalent to --yolo)
When smart mode auto-approves, the pattern gets session-level approval
so subsequent uses of the same pattern don't trigger another LLM call.
When it denies, the command is blocked without user prompt. When
uncertain, it escalates to the normal manual approval flow.
The LLM prompt is carefully scoped: it sees only the command text and
the flagged reason, assesses actual risk vs false positive, and returns
a single-word verdict.
* feat: make smart approval model configurable via config.yaml
Adds auxiliary.approval section to config.yaml with the same
provider/model/base_url/api_key pattern as other aux tasks (vision,
web_extract, compression, etc.).
Config:
auxiliary:
approval:
provider: auto
model: '' # fast/cheap model recommended
base_url: ''
api_key: ''
Bridged to env vars in both CLI and gateway paths so the aux client
picks them up automatically.
* feat: add /stop command to kill all background processes
Adds a /stop slash command that kills all running background processes
at once. Currently users have to process(list) then process(kill) for
each one individually.
Inspired by OpenAI Codex's separation of interrupt (Ctrl+C stops current
turn) from /stop (cleans up background processes). See openai/codex#14602.
Ctrl+C continues to only interrupt the active agent turn — background
dev servers, watchers, etc. are preserved. /stop is the explicit way
to clean them all up.
* feat: first-class plugin architecture + hide status bar cost by default (#1544)
The persistent status bar now shows context %, token counts, and
duration but NOT $ cost by default. Cost display is opt-in via:
display:
show_cost: true
in config.yaml, or: hermes config set display.show_cost true
The /usage command still shows full cost breakdown since the user
explicitly asked for it — this only affects the always-visible bar.
Status bar without cost:
⚕ claude-sonnet-4 │ 12K/200K │ 6% │ 15m
Status bar with show_cost: true:
⚕ claude-sonnet-4 │ 12K/200K │ 6% │ $0.06 │ 15m
* feat: improve memory prioritization + aggressive skill updates (inspired by OpenAI Codex)
* feat: improve memory prioritization — user preferences over procedural knowledge
Inspired by OpenAI Codex's memory prompt improvements (openai/codex#14493)
which focus memory writes on user preferences and recurring patterns
rather than procedural task details.
Key insight: 'Optimize for reducing future user steering — the most
valuable memory prevents the user from having to repeat themselves.'
Changes:
- MEMORY_GUIDANCE (prompt_builder.py): added prioritization hierarchy
and the core principle about reducing user steering
- MEMORY_SCHEMA (memory_tool.py): reordered WHEN TO SAVE list to put
corrections first, added explicit PRIORITY guidance
- Memory nudge (run_agent.py): now asks specifically about preferences,
corrections, and workflow patterns instead of generic 'anything'
- Memory flush (run_agent.py): now instructs to prioritize user
preferences and corrections over task-specific details
* feat: more aggressive skill creation and update prompting
Press harder on skill updates — the agent should proactively patch
skills when it encounters issues during use, not wait to be asked.
Changes:
- SKILLS_GUIDANCE: 'consider saving' → 'save'; added explicit instruction
to patch skills immediately when found outdated/wrong
- Skills header: added instruction to update loaded skills before finishing
if they had missing steps or wrong commands
- Skill nudge: more assertive ('save the approach' not 'consider saving'),
now also prompts for updating existing skills used in the task
- Skill nudge interval: lowered default from 15 to 10 iterations
- skill_manage schema: added 'patch it immediately' to update triggers
* feat: first-class plugin architecture (#1555)
Plugin system for extending Hermes with custom tools, hooks, and
integrations — no source code changes required.
Core system (hermes_cli/plugins.py):
- Plugin discovery from ~/.hermes/plugins/, .hermes/plugins/, and
pip entry_points (hermes_agent.plugins group)
- PluginContext with register_tool() and register_hook()
- 6 lifecycle hooks: pre/post tool_call, pre/post llm_call,
on_session_start/end
- Namespace package handling for relative imports in plugins
- Graceful error isolation — broken plugins never crash the agent
Integration (model_tools.py):
- Plugin discovery runs after built-in + MCP tools
- Plugin tools bypass toolset filter via get_plugin_tool_names()
- Pre/post tool call hooks fire in handle_function_call()
CLI:
- /plugins command shows loaded plugins, tool counts, status
- Added to COMMANDS dict for autocomplete
Docs:
- Getting started guide (build-a-hermes-plugin.md) — full tutorial
building a calculator plugin step by step
- Reference page (features/plugins.md) — quick overview + tables
- Covers: file structure, schemas, handlers, hooks, data files,
bundled skills, env var gating, pip distribution, common mistakes
Tests: 16 tests covering discovery, loading, hooks, tool visibility.
* fix: hermes update causes dual gateways on macOS (launchd)
Three bugs worked together to create the dual-gateway problem:
1. cmd_update only checked systemd for gateway restart, completely
ignoring launchd on macOS. After killing the PID it would print
'Restart it with: hermes gateway run' even when launchd was about
to auto-respawn the process.
2. launchd's KeepAlive.SuccessfulExit=false respawns the gateway
after SIGTERM (non-zero exit), so the user's manual restart
created a second instance.
3. The launchd plist lacked --replace (systemd had it), so the
respawned gateway didn't kill stale instances on startup.
Fixes:
- Add --replace to launchd ProgramArguments (matches systemd)
- Add launchd detection to cmd_update's auto-restart logic
- Print 'auto-restart via launchd' instead of manual restart hint
* fix: add launchd plist auto-refresh + explicit restart in cmd_update
Two integration issues with the initial fix:
1. Existing macOS users with old plist (no --replace) would never
get the fix until manual uninstall/reinstall. Added
refresh_launchd_plist_if_needed() — mirrors the existing
refresh_systemd_unit_if_needed(). Called from launchd_start(),
launchd_restart(), and cmd_update.
2. cmd_update relied on KeepAlive respawn after SIGTERM rather than
explicit launchctl stop/start. This caused races: launchd would
respawn the old process before the PID file was cleaned up.
Now does explicit stop+start (matching how systemd gets an
explicit systemctl restart), with plist refresh first so the
new --replace flag is picked up.
---------
Co-authored-by: Ninja <ninja@local>
Co-authored-by: alireza78a <alireza78a@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Oktay Aydin <113846926+aydnOktay@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: JP Lew <polydegen@protonmail.com>
Co-authored-by: an420eth <an420eth@users.noreply.github.com>
Streaming is now off by default for both CLI and gateway. Users opt in:
CLI (config.yaml):
display:
streaming: true
Gateway (config.yaml):
streaming:
enabled: true
This lets early adopters test streaming while existing users see zero
change. Once we have enough field validation, we flip the default to
true in a subsequent release.
The persistent status bar now shows context %, token counts, and
duration but NOT $ cost by default. Cost display is opt-in via:
display:
show_cost: true
in config.yaml, or: hermes config set display.show_cost true
The /usage command still shows full cost breakdown since the user
explicitly asked for it — this only affects the always-visible bar.
Status bar without cost:
⚕ claude-sonnet-4 │ 12K/200K │ 6% │ 15m
Status bar with show_cost: true:
⚕ claude-sonnet-4 │ 12K/200K │ 6% │ $0.06 │ 15m
Add /browser slash command for connecting browser tools to the user's
live Chrome instance via Chrome DevTools Protocol:
/browser connect — connect to Chrome on localhost:9222
/browser connect ws://host:port — custom CDP endpoint
/browser disconnect — revert to default (headless/Browserbase)
/browser status — show current browser mode + connectivity
When connected:
- All browser tools (navigate, snapshot, click, etc.) control the
user's real Chrome — logged-in sessions, cookies, open tabs
- Platform-specific Chrome launch instructions are shown
- Port connectivity is tested immediately
- A context message is injected so the model knows it's controlling
a live browser and should be mindful of user's open tabs
Implementation:
- BROWSER_CDP_URL env var drives the backend selection in browser_tool.py
- New _create_cdp_session() creates sessions using the CDP override
- _get_cdp_override() checked before local/Browserbase selection
- Existing agent-browser --cdp flag handles the actual CDP connection
Inspired by OpenClaw's browser profile system.
* feat: smart approvals — LLM-based risk assessment for dangerous commands
Adds a 'smart' approval mode that uses the auxiliary LLM to assess
whether a flagged command is genuinely dangerous or a false positive,
auto-approving low-risk commands without prompting the user.
Inspired by OpenAI Codex's Smart Approvals guardian subagent
(openai/codex#13860).
Config (config.yaml):
approvals:
mode: manual # manual (default), smart, off
Modes:
- manual — current behavior, always prompt the user
- smart — aux LLM evaluates risk: APPROVE (auto-allow), DENY (block),
or ESCALATE (fall through to manual prompt)
- off — skip all approval prompts (equivalent to --yolo)
When smart mode auto-approves, the pattern gets session-level approval
so subsequent uses of the same pattern don't trigger another LLM call.
When it denies, the command is blocked without user prompt. When
uncertain, it escalates to the normal manual approval flow.
The LLM prompt is carefully scoped: it sees only the command text and
the flagged reason, assesses actual risk vs false positive, and returns
a single-word verdict.
* feat: make smart approval model configurable via config.yaml
Adds auxiliary.approval section to config.yaml with the same
provider/model/base_url/api_key pattern as other aux tasks (vision,
web_extract, compression, etc.).
Config:
auxiliary:
approval:
provider: auto
model: '' # fast/cheap model recommended
base_url: ''
api_key: ''
Bridged to env vars in both CLI and gateway paths so the aux client
picks them up automatically.
* feat: add /stop command to kill all background processes
Adds a /stop slash command that kills all running background processes
at once. Currently users have to process(list) then process(kill) for
each one individually.
Inspired by OpenAI Codex's separation of interrupt (Ctrl+C stops current
turn) from /stop (cleans up background processes). See openai/codex#14602.
Ctrl+C continues to only interrupt the active agent turn — background
dev servers, watchers, etc. are preserved. /stop is the explicit way
to clean them all up.
When typing a path-like token (./ ../ ~/ / or containing /),
the CLI now shows filesystem completions in the dropdown menu.
Directories show a trailing slash and 'dir' label; files show
their size. Completions are case-insensitive and capped at 30
entries.
Triggered by tokens like:
edit ./src/ma → shows ./src/main.py, ./src/manifest.json, ...
check ~/doc → shows ~/docs/, ~/documents/, ...
read /etc/hos → shows /etc/hosts, /etc/hostname, ...
open tools/reg → shows tools/registry.py
Slash command autocomplete (/help, /model, etc.) is unaffected —
it still triggers when the input starts with /.
Inspired by OpenCode PR #145 (file path completion menu).
Implementation:
- hermes_cli/commands.py: _extract_path_word() detects path-like
tokens, _path_completions() yields filesystem Completions with
size labels, get_completions() routes to paths vs slash commands
- tests/hermes_cli/test_path_completion.py: 26 tests covering
path extraction, prefix filtering, directory markers, home
expansion, case-insensitivity, integration with slash commands
Add privacy.redact_pii config option (boolean, default false). When
enabled, the gateway redacts personally identifiable information from
the system prompt before sending it to the LLM provider:
- Phone numbers (user IDs on WhatsApp/Signal) → hashed to user_<sha256>
- User IDs → hashed to user_<sha256>
- Chat IDs → numeric portion hashed, platform prefix preserved
- Home channel IDs → hashed
- Names/usernames → NOT affected (user-chosen, publicly visible)
Hashes are deterministic (same user → same hash) so the model can
still distinguish users in group chats. Routing and delivery use
the original values internally — redaction only affects LLM context.
Inspired by OpenClaw PR #47959.
Keep Docker sandboxes isolated by default. Add an explicit terminal.docker_mount_cwd_to_workspace opt-in, thread it through terminal/file environment creation, and document the security tradeoff and config.yaml workflow clearly.
* fix(gateway): avoid recursive ExecStop in user systemd unit
* fix: extend ExecStop removal and TimeoutStopSec=60 to system unit
The cherry-picked PR #1448 fix only covered the user systemd unit.
The system unit had the same TimeoutStopSec=15 and could benefit
from the same 60s timeout for clean shutdown. Also adds a regression
test for the system unit.
---------
Co-authored-by: Ninja <ninja@local>
Checkpoint & rollback upgrades:
1. Enabled by default — checkpoints are now on for all new sessions.
Zero cost when no file-mutating tools fire. Disable with
checkpoints.enabled: false in config.yaml.
2. Diff preview — /rollback diff <N> shows a git diff between the
checkpoint and current working tree before committing to a restore.
3. File-level restore — /rollback <N> <file> restores a single file
from a checkpoint instead of the entire directory.
4. Conversation undo on rollback — when restoring files, the last
chat turn is automatically undone so the agent's context matches
the restored filesystem state.
5. Terminal command checkpoints — destructive terminal commands (rm,
mv, sed -i, truncate, git reset/clean, output redirects) now
trigger automatic checkpoints before execution. Previously only
write_file and patch were covered.
6. Change summary in listing — /rollback now shows file count and
+insertions/-deletions for each checkpoint.
7. Fixed dead code — removed duplicate _run_git call in
list_checkpoints with nonsensical --all if False condition.
8. Updated help text — /rollback with no args now shows available
subcommands (diff, file-level restore).
Multiple Hermes installations on the same machine now get unique
systemd service names:
- Default ~/.hermes → hermes-gateway (backward compatible)
- Custom HERMES_HOME → hermes-gateway-<8-char-hash>
Changes:
- Add get_service_name() in hermes_cli/gateway.py that derives a
deterministic service name from HERMES_HOME via SHA256
- Replace all hardcoded 'hermes-gateway' systemd references with
get_service_name() across gateway.py, main.py, status.py, uninstall.py
- Add HERMES_HOME env var to both user and system systemd unit templates
so the gateway process uses the correct installation
- Update tests to use get_service_name() in assertions
cmd_update only ran 'systemctl --user restart hermes-gateway', which
left manually-started gateway processes alive, causing duplicates.
Now uses get_running_pid() from gateway/status.py (scoped to
HERMES_HOME) to find and SIGTERM this installation's gateway before
restarting. Safe with multiple Hermes installations since each
HERMES_HOME has its own PID file.
If no systemd service exists, informs the user to restart manually.
Based on PR #1131 by teknium1. Dropped the cli.py Rich from_ansi
changes (already on main).
When typing /model deepseek-chat while on a different provider, the
model name now auto-resolves to the correct provider instead of
silently staying on the wrong one and causing API errors.
Detection priority:
1. Direct provider with credentials (e.g. DEEPSEEK_API_KEY set)
2. OpenRouter catalog match with proper slug remapping
3. Direct provider without creds (clear error beats silent failure)
Also adds DeepSeek as a first-class API-key provider — just set
DEEPSEEK_API_KEY and /model deepseek-chat routes directly.
Bare model names get remapped to proper OpenRouter slugs:
/model gpt-5.4 → openai/gpt-5.4
/model claude-opus-4.6 → anthropic/claude-opus-4.6
Salvages the concept from PR #1177 by @virtaava with credential
awareness and OpenRouter slug mapping added.
Co-authored-by: virtaava <virtaava@users.noreply.github.com>
_update_config_for_provider() was called immediately after provider
selection for zai, kimi-coding, minimax, minimax-cn, and anthropic —
before model selection happened. Since the gateway re-reads config.yaml
per-message, this created a race where the gateway would pick up the
new provider but still use the old (incompatible) model name.
Capture selected_base_url in each provider block, then call
_update_config_for_provider() once, after model selection completes,
right before save_config(). The in-memory _set_model_provider() calls
stay in place so the config object remains consistent during setup.
Closes#1182
- Add 'emoji' field to ToolEntry and 'get_emoji()' to ToolRegistry
- Add emoji= to all 50+ registry.register() calls across tool files
- Add get_tool_emoji() helper in agent/display.py with 3-tier resolution:
skin override → registry default → hardcoded fallback
- Replace hardcoded emoji maps in run_agent.py, delegate_tool.py, and
gateway/run.py with centralized get_tool_emoji() calls
- Add 'tool_emojis' field to SkinConfig so skins can override per-tool
emojis (e.g. ares skin could use swords instead of wrenches)
- Add 11 tests (5 registry emoji, 6 display/skin integration)
- Update AGENTS.md skin docs table
Based on the approach from PR #1061 by ForgingAlex (emoji centralization
in registry). This salvage fixes several issues from the original:
- Does NOT split the cronjob tool (which would crash on missing schemas)
- Does NOT change image_generate toolset/requires_env/is_async
- Does NOT delete existing tests
- Completes the centralization (gateway/run.py was missed)
- Hooks into the skin system for full customizability
SSH persistent shell now defaults to true — non-local backends benefit
most from state persistence across execute() calls. Local backend
remains opt-in via TERMINAL_LOCAL_PERSISTENT env var.
New config.yaml option: terminal.persistent_shell (default: true)
Controls the default for non-local backends. Users can disable with:
hermes config set terminal.persistent_shell false
Precedence: per-backend env var > TERMINAL_PERSISTENT_SHELL > default.
Wired through cli.py, gateway/run.py, and hermes_cli/config.py so the
config.yaml value reaches terminal_tool via env var bridge.
Two changes to align Discord behavior with Slack:
1. Auto-thread on @mention (default: true)
- When someone @mentions the bot in a server channel, a thread is
automatically created from their message and the response goes there.
- Each thread gets its own isolated session (like Slack).
- Configurable via discord.auto_thread in config.yaml (default: true)
or DISCORD_AUTO_THREAD env var (env takes precedence).
- DMs and existing threads are unaffected.
2. Skip @mention in bot-participated threads
- Once the bot has responded in a thread (auto-created or manually
entered), subsequent messages in that thread no longer require
@mention. Users can just type normally.
- Tracked via in-memory set (_bot_participated_threads). After a
gateway restart, users need to @mention once to re-establish.
- Threads the bot hasn't participated in still require @mention.
Config change:
discord:
auto_thread: true # new, added to DEFAULT_CONFIG
Tests: 7 new tests covering auto-thread default, disable, bot thread
participation tracking, and mention skip logic. All 903 gateway tests pass.
Hermes startup entrypoints now load ~/.hermes/.env and project fallback env files with user config taking precedence over stale shell-exported values. This makes model/provider/base URL changes in .env actually take effect after restarting Hermes. Adds a shared env loader plus regression coverage, and reproduces the original bug case where OPENAI_BASE_URL and HERMES_INFERENCE_PROVIDER remained stuck on old shell values before import.
Resolve session IDs by exact match or unique prefix for sessions delete/export/rename so IDs copied from Preview Last Active Src ID
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Search for GitHub/GitLab source repositories for 11m ago cli 20260315_034720_8e1f
[SYSTEM: The user has invoked the "minecraft-atm 1m ago cli 20260315_034035_57b6
1h ago cron cron_job-1_20260315_
[SYSTEM: The user has invoked the "hermes-agent- 9m ago cli 20260315_014304_652a
4h ago cron cron_job-1_20260314_
[The user attached an image. Here's what it cont 4h ago cli 20260314_233806_c8f3
[SYSTEM: The user has invoked the "google-worksp 1h ago cli 20260314_233301_b04f
Inspect the opencode codebase for how it sends m 4h ago cli 20260314_232543_0601
Inspect the clawdbot codebase for how it sends m 4h ago cli 20260314_232543_8125
4h ago cron cron_job-1_20260314_
Reply with exactly: smoke-ok 4h ago cli 20260314_231730_aac9
4h ago cron cron_job-1_20260314_
[SYSTEM: The user has invoked the "hermes-agent- 4h ago cli 20260314_231111_3586
[SYSTEM: The user has invoked the "hermes-agent- 4h ago cli 20260314_225551_daff
5h ago cron cron_job-1_20260314_
[SYSTEM: The user has invoked the "google-worksp 4h ago cli 20260314_224629_a9c6
k_sze — 10:34 PM Just ran hermes update and I 5h ago cli 20260314_224243_544e
5h ago cron cron_job-1_20260314_
5h ago cron cron_job-1_20260314_
5h ago cron cron_job-1_20260314_ work even when the table view truncates them. Add SessionDB prefix-resolution coverage and a CLI regression test for deleting by listed prefix.
_save_platform_tools() overwrote the entire platform_toolsets list with
only the toolsets known to CONFIGURABLE_TOOLSETS. This silently dropped
any MCP server toolsets that users had added manually to config.yaml.
Fix: collect any existing toolset keys that are not in CONFIGURABLE_TOOLSETS
and append them back after the wizard's selections are written. This ensures
MCP toolsets survive a hermes tools save.
Fixes#1247
- add stt.enabled to the default user config
- make transcription_tools respect the disabled flag globally
- surface disabled state cleanly in voice mode diagnostics
- add regression coverage for disabled STT provider selection
- mark private-channel scopes/events as optional
- note reinstall requirement after scope/event changes
- correct Slack allowlist messaging to match gateway behavior
- Add background thread mechanism (prefetch_update_check/get_update_result)
so git fetch runs in parallel with skill sync and agent init
- Fix repo path fallback in check_for_updates() for dev installs
- Remove duplicate build_welcome_banner (~180 lines) and
_format_context_length from cli.py — the banner.py version is
now the single source of truth
- Port skin banner_hero/banner_logo support and terminal width check
from cli.py's version into banner.py
- Add update status output to hermes version command
- Add unit tests for update check, prefetch, and version string
