Six improvements to reduce information loss during context compression,
informed by analysis of Cline, OpenCode, Pi-mono, Codex, and ClawdBot:
1. Structured summary template — sections for Goal, Progress (Done/
In Progress/Blocked), Key Decisions, Relevant Files, Next Steps,
and Critical Context. Forces the summarizer to preserve each
category instead of writing a vague paragraph.
2. Iterative summary updates — on re-compression, the prompt says
'PRESERVE existing info, ADD new progress, UPDATE done/in-progress
status.' Previous summary is stored and fed back to the summarizer
so accumulated context survives across multiple compactions.
3. Token-budget tail protection — instead of fixed protect_last_n=4,
walks backward keeping ~20K tokens of recent context. Adapts to
message density: sessions with big tool results protect fewer
messages, short exchanges protect more. Falls back to protect_last_n
for small conversations.
4. Tool output pruning (pre-pass) — before the expensive LLM summary,
replaces old tool result contents with a placeholder. This is free
(no LLM call) and can save 30%+ of context by itself.
5. Scaled summary budget — instead of fixed 2500 tokens, allocates 20%
of compressed content tokens (clamped to 2000-8000). A 50-turn
conversation gets more summary space than a 10-turn one.
6. Richer summarizer input — tool calls now include arguments (up to
500 chars) and tool results keep up to 3000 chars (was 1500).
The summarizer sees 'terminal(git status) → M src/config.py'
instead of just '[Tool calls: terminal]'.
Replace the fragile hardcoded context length system with a multi-source
resolution chain that correctly identifies context windows per provider.
Key changes:
- New agent/models_dev.py: Fetches and caches the models.dev registry
(3800+ models across 100+ providers with per-provider context windows).
In-memory cache (1hr TTL) + disk cache for cold starts.
- Rewritten get_model_context_length() resolution chain:
0. Config override (model.context_length)
1. Custom providers per-model context_length
2. Persistent disk cache
3. Endpoint /models (local servers)
4. Anthropic /v1/models API (max_input_tokens, API-key only)
5. OpenRouter live API (existing, unchanged)
6. Nous suffix-match via OpenRouter (dot/dash normalization)
7. models.dev registry lookup (provider-aware)
8. Thin hardcoded defaults (broad family patterns)
9. 128K fallback (was 2M)
- Provider-aware context: same model now correctly resolves to different
context windows per provider (e.g. claude-opus-4.6: 1M on Anthropic,
128K on GitHub Copilot). Provider name flows through ContextCompressor.
- DEFAULT_CONTEXT_LENGTHS shrunk from 80+ entries to ~16 broad patterns.
models.dev replaces the per-model hardcoding.
- CONTEXT_PROBE_TIERS changed from [2M, 1M, 512K, 200K, 128K, 64K, 32K]
to [128K, 64K, 32K, 16K, 8K]. Unknown models no longer start at 2M.
- hermes model: prompts for context_length when configuring custom
endpoints. Supports shorthand (32k, 128K). Saved to custom_providers
per-model config.
- custom_providers schema extended with optional models dict for
per-model context_length (backward compatible).
- Nous Portal: suffix-matches bare IDs (claude-opus-4-6) against
OpenRouter's prefixed IDs (anthropic/claude-opus-4.6) with dot/dash
normalization. Handles all 15 current Nous models.
- Anthropic direct: queries /v1/models for max_input_tokens. Only works
with regular API keys (sk-ant-api*), not OAuth tokens. Falls through
to models.dev for OAuth users.
Tests: 5574 passed (18 new tests for models_dev + updated probe tiers)
Docs: Updated configuration.md context length section, AGENTS.md
Co-authored-by: Test <test@test.com>
* fix: detect context length for custom model endpoints via fuzzy matching + config override
Custom model endpoints (non-OpenRouter, non-known-provider) were silently
falling back to 2M tokens when the model name didn't exactly match what the
endpoint's /v1/models reported. This happened because:
1. Endpoint metadata lookup used exact match only — model name mismatches
(e.g. 'qwen3.5:9b' vs 'Qwen3.5-9B-Q4_K_M.gguf') caused a miss
2. Single-model servers (common for local inference) required exact name
match even though only one model was loaded
3. No user escape hatch to manually set context length
Changes:
- Add fuzzy matching for endpoint model metadata: single-model servers
use the only available model regardless of name; multi-model servers
try substring matching in both directions
- Add model.context_length config override (highest priority) so users
can explicitly set their model's context length in config.yaml
- Log an informative message when falling back to 2M probe, telling
users about the config override option
- Thread config_context_length through ContextCompressor and AIAgent init
Tests: 6 new tests covering fuzzy match, single-model fallback, config
override (including zero/None edge cases).
* fix: auto-detect local model name and context length for local servers
Cherry-picked from PR #2043 by sudoingX.
- Auto-detect model name from local server's /v1/models when only one
model is loaded (no manual model name config needed)
- Add n_ctx_train and n_ctx to context length detection keys for llama.cpp
- Query llama.cpp /props endpoint for actual allocated context (not just
training context from GGUF metadata)
- Strip .gguf suffix from display in banner and status bar
- _auto_detect_local_model() in runtime_provider.py for CLI init
Co-authored-by: sudo <sudoingx@users.noreply.github.com>
* fix: revert accidental summary_target_tokens change + add docs for context_length config
- Revert summary_target_tokens from 2500 back to 500 (accidental change
during patching)
- Add 'Context Length Detection' section to Custom & Self-Hosted docs
explaining model.context_length config override
---------
Co-authored-by: Test <test@test.com>
Co-authored-by: sudo <sudoingx@users.noreply.github.com>
_align_boundary_backward only checked messages[idx-1] to decide if
the compress-end boundary splits a tool_call/result group. When an
assistant issues 3+ parallel tool calls, their results span multiple
consecutive messages. If the boundary fell in the middle of that group,
the parent assistant was summarized away and orphaned tool results were
silently deleted by _sanitize_tool_pairs.
Now walks backward through all consecutive tool results to find the
parent assistant, then pulls the boundary before the entire group.
6 regression tests added in tests/test_compression_boundary.py.
Co-authored-by: Guts <Gutslabs@users.noreply.github.com>
* perf: cache base_url.lower() via property, consolidate triple load_config(), hoist set constant
run_agent.py:
- Add base_url property that auto-caches _base_url_lower on every
assignment, eliminating 12+ redundant .lower() calls per API cycle
across __init__, _build_api_kwargs, _supports_reasoning_extra_body,
and the main conversation loop
- Consolidate three separate load_config() disk reads in __init__
(memory, skills, compression) into a single call, reusing the
result dict for all three config sections
model_tools.py:
- Hoist _READ_SEARCH_TOOLS set to module level (was rebuilt inside
handle_function_call on every tool invocation)
* Use endpoint metadata for custom model context and pricing
---------
Co-authored-by: kshitij <82637225+kshitijk4poor@users.noreply.github.com>
Replaces all remaining print() calls in compress() with logger.info()
and logger.warning() for consistency with the rest of the module.
Inspired by PR #1822.
compress() checks both the head and tail neighbors when choosing the
summary message role. When only the tail collides, the role is flipped.
When BOTH roles would create consecutive same-role messages (e.g.
head=assistant, tail=user), the summary is merged into the first tail
message instead of inserting a standalone message that breaks role
alternation and causes API 400 errors.
The previous code handled head-side collision but left the tail-side
uncovered — long conversations would crash mid-reply with no useful
error, forcing the user to /reset and lose session history.
Based on PR #1186 by @alireza78a, with improved double-collision
handling (merge into tail instead of unconditional 'user' fallback).
Co-authored-by: alireza78a <alireza78.crypto@gmail.com>
The summary message role was determined only by the last head message,
ignoring the first tail message. This could create consecutive user
messages (rejected by Anthropic) when the tail started with 'user'.
Now checks both neighbors. Priority: avoid colliding with the head
(already committed). If the chosen role also collides with the tail,
flip it — but only if flipping wouldn't re-collide with the head.
Adapt PR #916 onto current main by replacing the old context summary marker
with a clearer handoff wrapper, updating the summarization prompt for
resume-oriented summaries, and preserving the current call_llm-based
compression path.
* fix: Home Assistant event filtering now closed by default
Previously, when no watch_domains or watch_entities were configured,
ALL state_changed events passed through to the agent, causing users
to be flooded with notifications for every HA entity change.
Now events are dropped by default unless the user explicitly configures:
- watch_domains: list of domains to monitor (e.g. climate, light)
- watch_entities: list of specific entity IDs to monitor
- watch_all: true (new option — opt-in to receive all events)
A warning is logged at connect time if no filters are configured,
guiding users to set up their HA platform config.
All 49 gateway HA tests + 52 HA tool tests pass.
* docs: update Home Assistant integration documentation
- homeassistant.md: Fix event filtering docs to reflect closed-by-default
behavior. Add watch_all option. Replace Python dict config example with
YAML. Fix defaults table (was incorrectly showing 'all'). Add required
configuration warning admonition.
- environment-variables.md: Add HASS_TOKEN and HASS_URL to Messaging section.
- messaging/index.md: Add Home Assistant to description, architecture
diagram, platform toolsets table, and Next Steps links.
* fix(terminal): strip provider env vars from background and PTY subprocesses
Extends the env var blocklist from #1157 to also cover the two remaining
leaky paths in process_registry.py:
- spawn_local() PTY path (line 156)
- spawn_local() background Popen path (line 197)
Both were still using raw os.environ, leaking provider vars to background
processes and interactive PTY sessions. Now uses the same dynamic
_HERMES_PROVIDER_ENV_BLOCKLIST from local.py.
Explicit env_vars passed to spawn_local() still override the blocklist,
matching the existing behavior for callers that intentionally need these.
Gap identified by PR #1004 (@PeterFile).
* feat(delegate): add observability metadata to subagent results
Enrich delegate_task results with metadata from the child AIAgent:
- model: which model the child used
- exit_reason: completed | interrupted | max_iterations
- tokens.input / tokens.output: token counts
- tool_trace: per-tool-call trace with byte sizes and ok/error status
Tool trace uses tool_call_id matching to correctly pair parallel tool
calls with their results, with a fallback for messages without IDs.
Cherry-picked from PR #872 by @omerkaz, with fixes:
- Fixed parallel tool call trace pairing (was always updating last entry)
- Removed redundant 'iterations' field (identical to existing 'api_calls')
- Added test for parallel tool call trace correctness
Co-authored-by: omerkaz <omerkaz@users.noreply.github.com>
* feat(stt): add free local whisper transcription via faster-whisper
Replace OpenAI-only STT with a dual-provider system mirroring the TTS
architecture (Edge TTS free / ElevenLabs paid):
STT: faster-whisper local (free, default) / OpenAI Whisper API (paid)
Changes:
- tools/transcription_tools.py: Full rewrite with provider dispatch,
config loading, local faster-whisper backend, and OpenAI API backend.
Auto-downloads model (~150MB for 'base') on first voice message.
Singleton model instance reused across calls.
- pyproject.toml: Add faster-whisper>=1.0.0 as core dependency
- hermes_cli/config.py: Expand stt config to match TTS pattern with
provider selection and per-provider model settings
- agent/context_compressor.py: Fix .strip() crash when LLM returns
non-string content (dict from llama.cpp, None). Fixes#1100 partially.
- tests/: 23 new tests for STT providers + 2 for compressor fix
- docs/: Updated Voice & TTS page with STT provider table, model sizes,
config examples, and fallback behavior
Fallback behavior:
- Local not installed → OpenAI API (if key set)
- OpenAI key not set → local whisper (if installed)
- Neither → graceful error message to user
Co-authored-by: Jah-yee <Jah-yee@users.noreply.github.com>
---------
Co-authored-by: omerkaz <omerkaz@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Jah-yee <Jah-yee@users.noreply.github.com>
* fix: ClawHub skill install — use /download ZIP endpoint
The ClawHub API v1 version endpoint only returns file metadata
(path, size, sha256, contentType) without inline content or download
URLs. Our code was looking for inline content in the metadata, which
never existed, causing all ClawHub installs to fail with:
'no inline/raw file content was available'
Fix: Use the /api/v1/download endpoint (same as the official clawhub
CLI) to download skills as ZIP bundles and extract files in-memory.
Changes:
- Add _download_zip() method that downloads and extracts ZIP bundles
- Retry on 429 rate limiting with Retry-After header support
- Path sanitization and binary file filtering for security
- Keep _extract_files() as a fallback for inline/raw content
- Also fix nested file lookup (version_data.version.files)
* chore: lower default compression threshold from 85% to 50%
Triggers context compression earlier — at 50% of the model's context
window instead of 85%. Updated in all four places where the default
is defined: context_compressor.py, cli.py, run_agent.py, config.py,
and gateway/run.py.
Add centralized call_llm() and async_call_llm() functions that own the
full LLM request lifecycle:
1. Resolve provider + model from task config or explicit args
2. Get or create a cached client for that provider
3. Format request args (max_tokens handling, provider extra_body)
4. Make the API call with max_tokens/max_completion_tokens retry
5. Return the response
Config: expanded auxiliary section with provider:model slots for all
tasks (compression, vision, web_extract, session_search, skills_hub,
mcp, flush_memories). Config version bumped to 7.
Migrated all auxiliary consumers:
- context_compressor.py: uses call_llm(task='compression')
- vision_tools.py: uses async_call_llm(task='vision')
- web_tools.py: uses async_call_llm(task='web_extract')
- session_search_tool.py: uses async_call_llm(task='session_search')
- browser_tool.py: uses call_llm(task='vision'/'web_extract')
- mcp_tool.py: uses call_llm(task='mcp')
- skills_guard.py: uses call_llm(provider='openrouter')
- run_agent.py flush_memories: uses call_llm(task='flush_memories')
Tests updated for context_compressor and MCP tool. Some test mocks
still need updating (15 remaining failures from mock pattern changes,
2 pre-existing).
Three interconnected fixes for auxiliary client infrastructure:
1. CENTRALIZED PROVIDER ROUTER (auxiliary_client.py)
Add resolve_provider_client(provider, model, async_mode) — a single
entry point for creating properly configured clients. Given a provider
name and optional model, it handles auth lookup (env vars, OAuth
tokens, auth.json), base URL resolution, provider-specific headers,
and API format differences (Chat Completions vs Responses API for
Codex). All auxiliary consumers should route through this instead of
ad-hoc env var lookups.
Refactored get_text_auxiliary_client, get_async_text_auxiliary_client,
and get_vision_auxiliary_client to use the router internally.
2. FIX CODEX VISION BYPASS (vision_tools.py)
vision_tools.py was constructing a raw AsyncOpenAI client from the
sync vision client's api_key/base_url, completely bypassing the Codex
Responses API adapter. When the vision provider resolved to Codex,
the raw client would hit chatgpt.com/backend-api/codex with
chat.completions.create() which only supports the Responses API.
Fix: Added get_async_vision_auxiliary_client() which properly wraps
Codex into AsyncCodexAuxiliaryClient. vision_tools.py now uses this
instead of manual client construction.
3. FIX COMPRESSION FALLBACK + VISION ERROR HANDLING
- context_compressor.py: Removed _get_fallback_client() which blindly
looked for OPENAI_API_KEY + OPENAI_BASE_URL (fails for Codex OAuth,
API-key providers, users without OPENAI_BASE_URL set). Replaced
with fallback loop through resolve_provider_client() for each
known provider, with same-provider dedup.
- vision_tools.py: Added error detection for vision capability
failures. Returns clear message to the model when the configured
model doesn't support vision, instead of a generic error.
Addresses #886
The summary message was always injected as 'user' role, which causes
consecutive user messages when the last preserved head message is also
'user'. Some APIs reject this (400 error), and it produces malformed
training data.
Fix: check the role of the last head message and pick the opposite role
for the summary — 'user' after assistant/tool, 'assistant' after user.
Based on PR #328 by johnh4098. Closes#328.
- Added support for auxiliary model overrides in the configuration, allowing users to specify providers and models for vision and web extraction tasks.
- Updated the CLI configuration example to include new auxiliary model settings.
- Enhanced the environment variable mapping in the CLI to accommodate auxiliary model configurations.
- Improved the resolution logic for auxiliary clients to support task-specific provider overrides.
- Updated relevant documentation and comments for clarity on the new features and their usage.
Updated the _generate_summary method to attempt summary generation using the auxiliary model first, with a fallback to the main model. If both attempts fail, the method now returns None instead of a placeholder, allowing the caller to handle missing summaries appropriately. This change enhances the robustness of context compression and improves logging for failure scenarios.
Enhance message compression by adding a method to clean up orphaned tool-call and tool-result pairs. This ensures that the API receives well-formed messages, preventing errors related to mismatched IDs. The new functionality includes removing orphaned results and adding stub results for missing calls, improving overall message integrity during compression.
Replaces the unsafe 128K fallback for unknown models with a descending
probe strategy (2M → 1M → 512K → 200K → 128K → 64K → 32K). When a
context-length error occurs, the agent steps down tiers and retries.
The discovered limit is cached per model+provider combo in
~/.hermes/context_length_cache.yaml so subsequent sessions skip probing.
Also parses API error messages to extract the actual context limit
(e.g. 'maximum context length is 32768 tokens') for instant resolution.
The CLI banner now displays the context window size next to the model
name (e.g. 'claude-opus-4 · 200K context · Nous Research').
Changes:
- agent/model_metadata.py: CONTEXT_PROBE_TIERS, persistent cache
(save/load/get), parse_context_limit_from_error(), get_next_probe_tier()
- agent/context_compressor.py: accepts base_url, passes to metadata
- run_agent.py: step-down logic in context error handler, caches on success
- cli.py + hermes_cli/banner.py: context length in welcome banner
- tests: 22 new tests for probing, parsing, and caching
Addresses #132. PR #319's approach (8K default) rejected — too conservative.
When the auxiliary client (used for context compression summaries) fails
— e.g. due to a stale OpenRouter API key after switching to a local LLM
— fall back to the user's active endpoint (OPENAI_BASE_URL) instead of
returning a useless static summary string.
This handles the common scenario where a user switches providers via
'hermes model' but the old provider's API key remains in .env. The
auxiliary client picks up the stale key, fails (402/auth error), and
previously compression would produce garbage. Now it gracefully retries
with the working endpoint.
On successful fallback, the working client is cached for future
compressions in the same session so the fallback cost is paid only once.
Ref: #348
The OpenAI API returns content: null on assistant messages that only
contain tool calls. msg.get('content', '') returns None (not '') when
the key exists with value None, causing TypeError on len() and string
concatenation in _generate_summary and compress.
Fix: msg.get('content') or '' — handles both missing keys and None.
Tests from PR #216 (@Farukest). Fix also in PR #215 (@cutepawss).
Both PRs had stale branches and couldn't be merged directly.
Closes#211
- Enhanced Codex model discovery by fetching available models from the API, with fallback to local cache and defaults.
- Updated the context compressor's summary target tokens to 2500 for improved performance.
- Added external credential detection for Codex CLI to streamline authentication.
- Refactored various components to ensure consistent handling of authentication and model selection across the application.
- Added _max_tokens_param method in AIAgent to return appropriate max tokens parameter based on the provider (OpenAI vs. others).
- Updated API calls in AIAgent to utilize the new max tokens handling.
- Introduced auxiliary_max_tokens_param function in auxiliary_client for consistent max tokens management across auxiliary clients.
- Refactored multiple tools to use auxiliary_max_tokens_param for improved compatibility with different models and providers.
