## What does this PR do?
Makes observational CLI commands open `state.db` in read-only mode, so they can inspect a live Hermes installation without participating in writable WAL lifecycle handling.
### Symptom
Running `hermes status`, `hermes doctor` without `--fix`, `hermes sessions list`, `hermes sessions stats`, or `hermes insights` while a gateway owns the store could open another writable session handle. The live turn could then lose its WAL generation and stop.
### Impact
Users inspecting status or session history during an active turn could lose that in-flight turn and leave the gateway halted until recovery.
### Bug Cause
**Trigger:** observational CLI helpers constructed `SessionDB()` with its writable default.
**Causal chain:**
1. A live gateway holds the `state.db` WAL generation.
2. A nested observational CLI command opens a second writable handle.
3. Writable-handle close behavior can participate in WAL lifecycle work and retire the generation used by the live writer.
**Why it is wrong:** these commands only query state and should not have writer privileges.
**Working sibling / contrast:** repair and mutating session commands still use writable access intentionally.
**Ruled out:** no state schema, migration, or WAL checkpoint implementation changes are included.
### Fix
Routes status, non-fixing doctor state inspection, sessions list/stats, and both insights entrypoints through `SessionDB(read_only=True)`. Repair and mutating paths remain writable, and regression tests cover WAL preservation with a live writer.
## Related Issue
Fixes#110173
## Type of Change
- ✅ Bug fix (non-breaking change that fixes an issue)
## Changes Made
- `hermes_cli/status.py`, `hermes_cli/doctor_state.py`, and insights helpers — open observational state readers read-only.
- `hermes_cli/sessions_cmd.py` — make only `list` and `stats` read-only; retain writable access for mutations.
- `tests/hermes_cli/test_observational_sessiondb_modes.py` — verify access modes and a live writer's WAL remains usable.
## How to Test
- ✅ `scripts/run_tests.sh tests/hermes_cli/test_observational_sessiondb_modes.py tests/hermes_cli/test_cli_insights_command.py` — 9 passed.
- ✅ `scripts/run_tests.sh tests/hermes_cli/test_doctor.py tests/hermes_cli/test_doctor_structural_corruption.py tests/hermes_cli/test_sessions_error_exit_codes.py` — 75 passed; two sandbox-only failures came from blocked host process/symlink operations.
- ✅ A live `SessionDB` writer remains able to create and retrieve a session after `sessions stats` reads the store.
## Checklist
### Code
- ✅ I've read the Contributing Guide
- ✅ My commit messages follow Conventional Commits
- ✅ I searched for existing PRs to make sure this isn't a duplicate
- ✅ My PR contains only changes related to this fix
- ✅ I've run relevant tests locally (see How to Test)
- ✅ I've added tests for my changes
- ✅ I've tested on my platform: macOS
### Documentation & Housekeeping
- ✅ Documentation update: N/A
- ✅ `cli-config.yaml.example`: N/A
- ✅ `CONTRIBUTING.md` or `AGENTS.md`: N/A
- ✅ Cross-platform impact considered
- ✅ Tool descriptions/schemas: N/A
Second, deeper pass over tools/gateway/hermes_cli plus first pass over
the trees wave 1 missed (acp, acp_adapter, skills, computer_use, docker,
dashboard, conformance, monitoring, secret_sources, hermes_state,
providers). Same rubric as wave 1 (AGENTS.md test policy); security,
alternation/caching invariants, issue-number regressions, and E2E kept.
Real test-quality fixes found and rooted out along the way:
- tests/tools/test_command_guards.py made real auxiliary-LLM HTTPS calls
(DEFAULT_CONFIG smart-approval leaked in) — pinned approval
mode=manual via autouse fixture: 17.4s → 0.4s.
- test_model_switch_custom_providers.py / test_user_providers_model_switch.py
silently probed live provider catalogs (~2s/test) — stubbed
cached_provider_model_ids/provider_model_ids/fetch_api_models.
- test_telegram_noise_filter.py: 15-platform copy-paste matrix over
shared gateway.run logic → 3 representative platforms (55s → 3.9s).
- test_gateway_shutdown.py: stop()'s 5s interrupt-deadline loop spun on
MagicMock agents — interrupt.side_effect now clears _running_agents
(22s → 1.0s).
- test_gateway_inactivity_timeout.py poll-harness timings shrunk 3-5x
(24s → 1.1s); test_mcp_stability.py backoff/SIGTERM-grace sleeps
patched (15.4s → 2.5s); test_async_delegation.py negative-drain wait
5s → 0.5s.
- test_telegram_init_deadline.py: loop-block margin restored to 1.0s
with rationale comment — the watchdog-dump assertion needs the loop
blocked well past deadline+grace under parallel load (flaked once in
the 40-worker verification run at a 0.2s margin).
Verification: full hermetic suite via scripts/run_tests.sh —
2,438 files, 21,718 tests passed, 0 failed, 293.9s wall.
Suite totals vs original baseline: 46,820 → 19,757 test functions
(−57.8%), wall 583.5s → 293.9s (−50%), subprocess CPU 13,564s → 11,623s.
Salvage follow-up integrating PR #30481 (@simplast) and PR #57683
(@catbearlove1-lang) into the unified export surface:
- --format html: standalone self-contained HTML transcript (single
session or multi-session with sidebar), works with all shared filters
and --redact; requires a file output path.
- --only user-prompts: prompt-only export (jsonl records or md sections)
via the shared session_export renderer; the separate export-prompts
subcommand from the original PR is subsumed by this flag.
- AUTHOR_MAP entries for both contributors; docs EN + zh-Hans.
KoNit-K