Adds -Q/--quiet to `hermes chat` for use by external orchestrators
(Paperclip, scripts, CI). When combined with -q, suppresses:
- Banner and ASCII art
- Spinner animations
- Tool preview lines (┊ prefix)
Only outputs:
- The agent's final response text
- A parseable 'session_id: <id>' line for session resumption
Usage: hermes chat -q 'Do something' -Q
Used by: Paperclip adapter (@nousresearch/paperclip-adapter-hermes)
Two related bugs prevented users from reliably switching providers:
1. OPENAI_BASE_URL poisoning OpenRouter resolution: When a user with a
custom endpoint ran /model openrouter:model, _resolve_openrouter_runtime
picked up OPENAI_BASE_URL instead of the OpenRouter URL, causing model
validation to probe the wrong API and reject valid models.
Fix: skip OPENAI_BASE_URL when requested_provider is explicitly
'openrouter'.
2. Provider never saved to config: _save_model_choice() could save
config.model as a plain string. All five _model_flow_* functions then
checked isinstance(model, dict) before writing the provider — which
silently failed on strings. With no provider in config, auto-detection
would pick up stale credentials (e.g. Codex desktop app) instead of
the user's explicit choice.
Fix: _save_model_choice() now always saves as dict format. All flow
functions also normalize string->dict as a safety net before writing
provider.
Adds 4 regression tests. 2873 tests pass.
Add support for using Nous Portal via a direct API key, mirroring
how OpenRouter and other API-key providers work. This gives users a
simpler alternative to the OAuth device-code flow when they already
have a Nous API key.
Changes:
- Add 'nous-api' to PROVIDER_REGISTRY as an api_key provider
pointing to https://inference-api.nousresearch.com/v1
- Add NOUS_API_KEY and NOUS_BASE_URL to OPTIONAL_ENV_VARS
- Add NOUS_API_BASE_URL / NOUS_API_CHAT_URL to hermes_constants
- Add 'Nous Portal API key' as first option in setup wizard
- Add provider aliases (nous_api, nousapi, nous-portal-api)
- Add test for nous-api runtime provider resolution
Closes#644
Each themed skin (ares, poseidon, sisyphus, charizard) now has custom
banner_hero art that replaces the default Hermes caduceus. The hero art
uses braille-dot patterns themed to each skin:
- Ares: shield/spear emblem in crimson/bronze
- Poseidon: trident with wave patterns in blue/seafoam
- Sisyphus: boulder on slope in grayscale
- Charizard: dragon silhouette in orange/ember
Also fixes triple-quote string termination that caused a syntax error
in the previous commit.
Adds 3 new built-in skins (poseidon, sisyphus, charizard) with full
customization — colors, spinner faces/verbs/wings, branding text, and
custom ASCII art banner logos. Total: 7 built-in skins.
Also adds banner_logo and banner_hero fields to SkinConfig, allowing
any skin to replace the HERMES-AGENT ASCII art logo and the caduceus
hero art with custom artwork. The CLI now renders the skin's logo when
available, falling back to the default Hermes logo.
Skins with custom logos: ares, poseidon, sisyphus, charizard
Skins using default logo: default, mono, slate
- AGENTS.md: add Skin/Theme System section with architecture, skinnable
elements table, built-in skins list, adding built-in/user skins guide,
YAML example; add skin_engine.py to project structure; mention skin
engine in CLI Architecture section
- CONTRIBUTING.md: add skin_engine.py to project structure; add 'Adding
a Skin/Theme' section with YAML schema, activation instructions
- cli-config.yaml.example: add full skin config documentation with
schema reference, built-in skins list, all color/spinner/branding keys
- docs/skins/example-skin.yaml: complete annotated skin template with
all available fields and inline documentation
- hermes_cli/skin_engine.py: expand module docstring to full schema
reference with all fields documented, usage examples, built-in skins
list
Automatic filesystem snapshots before destructive file operations,
with user-facing rollback. Inspired by PR #559 (by @alireza78a).
Architecture:
- Shadow git repos at ~/.hermes/checkpoints/{hash}/ via GIT_DIR
- CheckpointManager: take/list/restore, turn-scoped dedup, pruning
- Transparent — the LLM never sees it, no tool schema, no tokens
- Once per turn — only first write_file/patch triggers a snapshot
Integration:
- Config: checkpoints.enabled + checkpoints.max_snapshots
- CLI flag: hermes --checkpoints
- Trigger: run_agent.py _execute_tool_calls() before write_file/patch
- /rollback slash command in CLI + gateway (list, restore by number)
- Pre-rollback snapshot auto-created on restore (undo the undo)
Safety:
- Never blocks file operations — all errors silently logged
- Skips root dir, home dir, dirs >50K files
- Disables gracefully when git not installed
- Shadow repo completely isolated from project git
Tests: 35 new tests, all passing (2798 total suite)
Docs: feature page, config reference, CLI commands reference
When a user runs `hermes -w -c Pokemon Agent Dev` without quoting the
session name, argparse would fail with:
error: argument command: invalid choice: 'Agent'
This is because argparse parses `-c Pokemon` (consuming one token via
nargs='?'), then sees 'Agent' and tries to match it as a subcommand.
Fix: add _coalesce_session_name_args() that pre-processes sys.argv before
argparse, joining consecutive non-flag, non-subcommand tokens after -c or
-r into a single argument. This makes both quoted and unquoted multi-word
session names work transparently.
Includes 17 tests covering all edge cases: multi-word names, single-word,
bare flags, flag ordering, subcommand boundaries, and passthrough.
Authored by shitcoinsherpa. Adds encoding='utf-8' to all text-mode
open() calls in gateway/run.py, gateway/config.py, hermes_cli/config.py,
hermes_cli/main.py, and hermes_cli/status.py. Prevents encoding errors
on Windows where the default locale is not UTF-8.
Also fixed 4 additional open() calls in gateway/run.py that were added
after the PR branch was created.
Complements PR #453 by 0xbyt4. Adds isinstance(dict) guard in
run_agent.py to catch cases where json.loads returns non-dict
(e.g. null, list, string) before they reach downstream code.
Also adds 15 tests for build_tool_preview covering None args,
empty dicts, known/unknown tools, fallback keys, truncation,
and all special-cased tools (process, todo, memory, session_search).
Authored by PercyDikec. Fixes#445.
Changes 'hide' to 'hidden' in _fetch_models_from_api to match
_read_cache_models and the actual API response format.
The Docker backend already supports user-configured volume mounts via
docker_volumes, but it was undocumented — missing from DEFAULT_CONFIG,
cli.py defaults, and configuration docs.
Changes:
- hermes_cli/config.py: Add docker_volumes to DEFAULT_CONFIG with
inline documentation and examples
- cli.py: Add docker_volumes to load_cli_config defaults
- configuration.md: Full Docker Volume Mounts section with YAML
examples, use cases (providing files, receiving outputs, shared
workspaces), and env var alternative
The 'hermes gateway setup' instructions for Slack were missing:
- The 'Subscribe to Events' step entirely (message.im, message.channels,
app_mention, message.groups)
- Several required scopes (app_mentions:read, groups:history, users:read,
files:write)
- Warning about bot only working in DMs without message.channels
- Step to invite the bot to channels
The 'hermes setup' flow (setup.py) and the website docs (slack.md)
already had the correct information — only gateway.py was outdated.
Reported by JordanB on Slack.
The #1 support issue with Slack is 'bot works in DMs but not channels'.
This is almost always caused by missing event subscriptions (message.channels,
message.groups) or missing OAuth scopes (channels:history, groups:history).
Changes:
- slack.md: Move channels:history and groups:history from optional to required
scopes. Move message.channels and message.groups to required events. Add new
'How the Bot Responds' section explaining DM vs channel behavior. Add Step 8
for inviting bot to channels. Expand troubleshooting table with specific
'works in DMs not channels' entry. Add quick checklist for channel debugging.
- setup.py: Expand Slack setup wizard with all required scopes, event
subscriptions, and a warning that without message.channels/message.groups
the bot only works in DMs. Add link to full docs. Improve Member ID
discovery instructions.
- config.py: Update SLACK_BOT_TOKEN and SLACK_APP_TOKEN descriptions to list
required scopes and event subscriptions inline.
Selecting a saved custom provider now switches instantly without
probing /models — the model name is stored in the config entry
as a complete profile (name + url + key + model).
Changes:
- custom_providers entries now include 'model' field
- Selecting a saved provider with a model just activates it
- Only probes /models if no model is saved (first-time setup)
- Menu shows saved model name: 'Local (localhost:8000) — llama-70b'
- Dedup on re-entry: still activates the model, just doesn't add
a duplicate config entry (updates model name if changed)
When a user adds a custom endpoint via 'hermes model' → 'Custom
endpoint', it now automatically saves to custom_providers in
config.yaml so it persists and appears in the provider menu on
subsequent runs. Deduplicates by base_url.
Auto-generated names based on URL:
http://localhost:8000/v1 → 'Local (localhost:8000)'
https://xyz.runpod.ai/v1 → 'RunPod (xyz.runpod.ai)'
https://api.example.com/v1 → 'Api.example.com'
Also adds 'Remove a saved custom provider' option to the menu
(only shown when custom providers exist) with a selection UI
to pick which one to remove.
Users can also manually edit custom_providers in config.yaml
for full control over names and settings.
Users with multiple local servers or custom endpoints can now define
them all in config.yaml and switch between them from the model
selection menu:
custom_providers:
- name: 'Local Llama 70B'
base_url: 'http://localhost:8000/v1'
api_key: 'not-needed'
- name: 'RunPod vLLM'
base_url: 'https://xyz.runpod.ai/v1'
api_key: 'rp_xxxxx'
These appear in `hermes model` provider selection alongside the
built-in providers. When selected, the endpoint's /models API is
probed to show available models in a selection menu.
Previously only a single 'Custom endpoint' option existed, requiring
manual URL entry each time you wanted to switch between local servers.
Requested by @ZiarnoBobu on Twitter.
When switching FROM Codex/Nous/custom TO OpenRouter via 'hermes setup',
the old provider stayed active because setup only saved the API key but
never updated config.yaml or auth.json. This caused resolve_provider()
to keep returning the old provider (e.g. openai-codex) even after the
user selected OpenRouter.
Fix: the OpenRouter path in setup now deactivates any OAuth provider
in auth.json and writes model.provider='openrouter' to config.yaml,
matching what all other provider paths already do.
Three issues caused the gateway to display 'openrouter' instead of
'Custom endpoint' when users configured a custom OAI-compatible endpoint:
1. hermes setup: custom endpoint path saved OPENAI_BASE_URL and
OPENAI_API_KEY to .env but never wrote model.provider to config.yaml.
All other providers (Codex, z.ai, Kimi, etc.) call
_update_config_for_provider() which sets this — custom was the only
path that skipped it. Now writes model.provider='custom' and
model.base_url to config.yaml.
2. hermes model: custom endpoint set model.provider='auto' in config.yaml.
The CLI display had a hack to detect OPENAI_BASE_URL and override to
'custom', but the gateway didn't. Now sets model.provider='custom'
directly.
3. gateway /model and /provider commands: defaulted to 'openrouter' and
read config.yaml — which had no provider set. Added OPENAI_BASE_URL
detection fallback (same pattern the CLI uses) as a defensive catch
for existing users who set up before this fix.
Moved redact_secrets out of DEFAULT_CONFIG (it's on by default when
unset) and into the commented sections at the bottom of config.yaml,
alongside fallback_model. Users can see the option and uncomment to
disable.
New config option:
security:
redact_secrets: false # default: true
When set to false, API keys, tokens, and passwords are shown in
full in read_file, search_files, and terminal output. Useful for
debugging auth issues where you need to verify the actual key value.
Bridged to both CLI and gateway via HERMES_REDACT_SECRETS env var.
The check is in redact_sensitive_text() itself, so all call sites
(terminal, file tools, log formatter) respect it.
The wizard and tools_command each loaded their own config dict. When
tools_command saved platform_toolsets (with MoA/HA disabled), the
wizard's final save_config() overwrote it with its own dict that lacked
platform_toolsets entirely — resetting everything to defaults.
Fix: pass the wizard's config dict into tools_command so they share the
same object. Now platform_toolsets survives the wizard's final save.
Three fixes:
1. Web search provider menu now says 'Select Search Provider' and notes
that a free DuckDuckGo search skill is included if Firecrawl isn't
desired. Supports custom setup_title/setup_note per TOOL_CATEGORIES.
2. All multi-provider menus (web, browser, TTS) now include a
'Skip — keep defaults / configure later' option so users can move on.
3. First-install flow now walks through ALL tools with provider options
(browser, TTS, web, image_gen, etc.), not just ones missing API keys.
Previously, tools with a free provider (browser/Local, TTS/Edge) were
silently skipped — users never got to choose between Local vs
Browserbase or Edge vs ElevenLabs.
On fresh installs, the multi-level curses menu flow (platform menu →
checklist → loop back → Done) was unreliable — users could end up
skipping API key configuration entirely.
Now the setup wizard passes first_install=True to tools_command(), which:
- Skips the platform selection menu entirely
- Goes straight to the tool checklist
- Prompts for API keys on ALL selected tools that need them
- Linear flow, no loop — impossible to accidentally skip
Returning users (hermes tools / hermes setup tools) get the existing
platform menu loop as before.
New users shouldn't have these pre-checked in the tool configurator:
- MoA requires OpenRouter API key and is a niche feature
- Home Assistant requires HASS_TOKEN and most users don't have one
- RL Training requires Tinker + WandB keys
They're still available in the checklist to enable, just not pre-selected.
Existing users with saved platform_toolsets are unaffected.
Two issues fixed:
1. (Critical) hermes setup tools / hermes tools: On first-time setup,
the tool checklist showed all tools as pre-selected (from the default
hermes-cli toolset), but after confirming the selection, NO API key
prompts appeared. This is because the code only prompted for 'newly
added' tools (added = new_enabled - current_enabled), but since all
tools were already in the default set, 'added' was always empty.
Fix: Detect first-time configuration (no platform_toolsets entry in
config) and check ALL enabled tools for missing API keys, not just
newly added ones. Returning users still only get prompted for newly
added tools (preserving skip behavior).
2. install.sh: When run via curl|bash on WSL2/Ubuntu, ripgrep and ffmpeg
install was silently skipped with a confusing 'Non-interactive mode'
message. The script already uses /dev/tty for the setup wizard, but
the system package section didn't.
Fix: Try reading from /dev/tty when available (same pattern as the
build-tools section and setup wizard). Only truly skip when no
terminal is available at all (Docker build, CI).
Split fallback provider handling into two clean registries:
_FALLBACK_API_KEY_PROVIDERS — env-var-based (openrouter, zai, kimi, minimax)
_FALLBACK_OAUTH_PROVIDERS — OAuth-based (openai-codex, nous)
New _resolve_fallback_credentials() method handles all three cases
(OAuth, API key, custom endpoint) and returns a uniform (key, url, mode)
tuple. _try_activate_fallback() is now just validation + client build.
Adds Nous Portal as a fallback provider — uses the same OAuth flow
as the primary provider (hermes login), returns chat_completions mode.
OAuth providers get credential refresh for free: the existing 401
retry handlers (_try_refresh_codex/nous_client_credentials) check
self.provider, which is set correctly after fallback activation.
4 new tests (nous activation, nous no-login, codex retained).
27 total fallback tests passing, 2548 full suite.
Codex OAuth uses a different auth flow (OAuth tokens, not env vars)
and a different API mode (codex_responses, not chat_completions).
The fallback now handles this specially:
- Resolves credentials via resolve_codex_runtime_credentials()
- Sets api_mode to codex_responses
- Fails gracefully if no Codex OAuth session exists
Also added to the commented-out config.yaml example.
2 new tests (codex activation + graceful failure).
Adds a simple config option to play the terminal bell (\a) when the
agent finishes a response. Useful for long-running tasks — switch to
another window and your terminal will ding when done.
Works over SSH since the bell character propagates through the
connection. Most terminal emulators can be configured to flash the
taskbar, play a sound, or show a visual indicator on bell.
Config (default: off):
display:
bell_on_complete: true
Closes#318
New browser capabilities and a built-in skill for agent-driven web QA.
## New tool: browser_console
Returns console messages (log/warn/error/info) AND uncaught JavaScript
exceptions in a single call. Uses agent-browser's 'console' and 'errors'
commands through the existing session plumbing. Supports --clear to reset
buffers. Verified working in both local and Browserbase cloud modes.
## Enhanced tool: browser_vision(annotate=True)
New boolean parameter on browser_vision. When true, agent-browser overlays
numbered [N] labels on interactive elements — each [N] maps to ref @eN.
Annotation data (element name, role, bounding box) returned alongside the
vision analysis. Useful for QA reports and spatial reasoning.
## Config: browser.record_sessions
Auto-record browser sessions as WebM video files when enabled:
- Starts recording on first browser_navigate
- Stops and saves on browser_close
- Saves to ~/.hermes/browser_recordings/
- Works in both local and cloud modes (verified)
- Disabled by default
## Built-in skill: dogfood
Systematic exploratory QA testing for web applications. Teaches the agent
a 5-phase workflow:
1. Plan — accept URL, create output dirs, set scope
2. Explore — systematic crawl with annotated screenshots
3. Collect Evidence — screenshots, console errors, JS exceptions
4. Categorize — severity (Critical/High/Medium/Low) and category
(Functional/Visual/Accessibility/Console/UX/Content)
5. Report — structured markdown with per-issue evidence
Includes:
- skills/dogfood/SKILL.md — full workflow instructions
- skills/dogfood/references/issue-taxonomy.md — severity/category defs
- skills/dogfood/templates/dogfood-report-template.md — report template
## Tests
21 new tests covering:
- browser_console message/error parsing, clear flag, empty/failed states
- browser_console schema registration
- browser_vision annotate schema and flag passing
- record_sessions config defaults and recording lifecycle
- Dogfood skill file existence and content validation
Addresses #315.
Remove fallback_model from DEFAULT_CONFIG (empty strings were useless
noise). Instead, save_config() appends a commented-out section at the
bottom of config.yaml showing the available providers and example usage.
When the user actually configures fallback_model, it appears as normal
YAML and the comment block is omitted.
Remove hallucinated providers (openai, deepseek, together, groq,
fireworks, mistral, gemini, nous) from the fallback provider map.
These don't exist in hermes-agent's provider system.
The real supported providers for fallback are:
openrouter (OPENROUTER_API_KEY)
zai (ZAI_API_KEY)
kimi-coding (KIMI_API_KEY)
minimax (MINIMAX_API_KEY)
minimax-cn (MINIMAX_CN_API_KEY)
For any other OpenAI-compatible endpoint, users can use the
base_url + api_key_env overrides in the config.
Also adds Kimi User-Agent header for kimi fallback (matching
the main provider system).
The config comment now shows the complete list of built-in providers
that the fallback system supports, each with the env var it reads
for the API key. Also clarifies that custom OpenAI-compatible endpoints
work via base_url + api_key_env.
When the primary model/provider fails after retries (rate limit, overload,
auth errors, connection failures), Hermes automatically switches to a
configured fallback model for the remainder of the session.
Config (in ~/.hermes/config.yaml):
fallback_model:
provider: openrouter
model: anthropic/claude-sonnet-4
Supports all major providers: OpenRouter, OpenAI, Nous, DeepSeek, Together,
Groq, Fireworks, Mistral, Gemini — plus custom endpoints via base_url and
api_key_env overrides.
Design principles:
- Dead simple: one fallback model, not a chain
- One-shot: switches once, doesn't ping-pong back
- Zero new dependencies: uses existing OpenAI client
- Minimal code: ~100 lines in run_agent.py, ~5 lines in cli.py/gateway
- Three trigger points: max retries exhausted, non-retryable client errors,
and invalid response exhaustion
Does NOT trigger on context overflow or payload-too-large errors (those
are handled by the existing compression system).
Addresses #737.
25 new tests, 2492 total passing.
Complete Signal adapter using signal-cli daemon HTTP API.
Based on PR #268 by ibhagwan, rebuilt on current main with bug fixes.
Architecture:
- SSE streaming for inbound messages with exponential backoff (2s→60s)
- JSON-RPC 2.0 for outbound (send, typing, attachments, contacts)
- Health monitor detects stale SSE connections (120s threshold)
- Phone number redaction in all logs and global redact.py
Features:
- DM and group message support with separate access policies
- DM policies: pairing (default), allowlist, open
- Group policies: disabled (default), allowlist, open
- Attachment download with magic-byte type detection
- Typing indicators (8s refresh interval)
- 100MB attachment size limit, 8000 char message limit
- E.164 phone + UUID allowlist support
Integration:
- Platform.SIGNAL enum in gateway/config.py
- Signal in _is_user_authorized() allowlist maps (gateway/run.py)
- Adapter factory in _create_adapter() (gateway/run.py)
- user_id_alt/chat_id_alt fields in SessionSource for UUIDs
- send_message tool support via httpx JSON-RPC (not aiohttp)
- Interactive setup wizard in 'hermes gateway setup'
- Connectivity testing during setup (pings /api/v1/check)
- signal-cli detection and install guidance
Bug fixes from PR #268:
- Timestamp reads from envelope_data (not outer wrapper)
- Uses httpx consistently (not aiohttp in send_message tool)
- SIGNAL_DEBUG scoped to signal logger (not root)
- extract_images regex NOT modified (preserves group numbering)
- pairing.py NOT modified (no cross-platform side effects)
- No dual authorization (adapter defers to run.py for user auth)
- Wildcard uses set membership ('*' in set, not list equality)
- .zip default for PK magic bytes (not .docx)
No new Python dependencies — uses httpx (already core).
External requirement: signal-cli daemon (user-installed).
Tests: 30 new tests covering config, init, helpers, session source,
phone redaction, authorization, and send_message integration.
Co-authored-by: ibhagwan <ibhagwan@users.noreply.github.com>
Adds a simple config option to play the terminal bell (\a) when the
agent finishes a response. Useful for long-running tasks — switch to
another window and your terminal will ding when done.
Works over SSH since the bell character propagates through the
connection. Most terminal emulators can be configured to flash the
taskbar, play a sound, or show a visual indicator on bell.
Config (default: off):
display:
bell_on_complete: true
Closes#318
