Bot Mode agents now DM teammates through a real tool instead of
hand-assembled shell commands. message_agent(target, message) validates
the target against the live roster, applies the sender's attribution
prefix server-side, and delivers over the existing proven transports
(hermes -p ... --query-file for local teammates, hermes peer dm for
peer gateways) as a tracked background process with notify-on-complete
— fire-and-forget, the reply wakes the sender on a later turn.
Containment: the schema is injected per-turn ONLY into a bot's
canonical 'Bot Chat' session on Bot-Mode-managed installs (same gate as
the protocol section); it is never registered in the tool registry or
any toolset, and dispatch re-gates on the session title so a forged
call from any other session refuses. The gate is session-stable, so the
tool list stays byte-identical across turns (prompt-cache safe).
The protocol section is rewritten to teach the tool and now carries the
teammate roster WITH ROLES (Bot Mode title + profile description), so
bots know who does what before picking a recipient. Roles and a
protocol version salt join the capability fingerprint: existing eternal
Bot Chats adopt the v2 protocol + tool with one epoch refresh, and a
rename/description edit refreshes the roster on the next message.
Bots could message teammates on their own machine (hermes -p <bot> chat) and
the desktop could relay user mentions over Connections, but a bot had NO
transport to a bot on another gateway. This adds one, with zero new server
surface: the peer's existing api_server platform is the wire.
- hermes_cli/subcommands/peer.py: `hermes peer add/list/remove/dm`.
`dm <peer>[/<agent>]` resolves the remote agent's canonical "Bot Chat"
(list by title, create when missing), runs one synchronous agent turn via
POST /api/sessions/{id}/chat, and prints the reply on stdout — the exact
cross-machine twin of the local bot-messaging command, so the Bot Mode
protocol composes over it unchanged. Named profiles route via the peer's
/p/<profile>/ multiplex mirror. Peer URLs live in config.yaml
(`bot_peers`); the peer's API_SERVER_KEY is a credential and lives in
~/.hermes/.env as HERMES_PEER_<NAME>_KEY.
- hermes_cli/main.py: parser wiring + fast-path/session-flag command sets.
- tools/bot_mode_probe.py: when peers are registered, the injected Bot Chat
messaging protocol gains a cross-machine paragraph (peer roster +
`hermes peer dm` pattern) so agents discover remote teammates on their
own; peers join the capability fingerprint so registering/removing one
refreshes eternal Bot Chat prompts on the next message (loud, one-time,
user-initiated — no per-turn cache drift).
- Docs: Bot Mode guide (bot-initiated DMs across machines) + cli-commands
reference (`hermes peer` section + summary row).
Tests: tests/hermes_cli/test_peer_cmd.py (target parsing, /p/ scoping,
registry round-trip in isolated config, real-loopback-HTTP dm flow incl.
Bot Chat create-vs-reuse and bearer auth), bot_mode_probe peer-paragraph +
epoch tests. E2E: real `python -m hermes_cli.main peer ...` against a live
fake peer over HTTP with isolated HERMES_HOME (config/.env persistence,
bare + /p/<profile> routing, stdin, --json). 23 passed; ruff clean.
Bot Chats created before the epoch mechanism persisted prompts with no
protocol section and no stamp — the staleness check only fires on
stamped prompts, so pre-existing bots would never learn to message
teammates. stored_bot_chat_prompt_needs_upgrade() migrates them: one
rebuild, title-gated to Bot Chat, only when the probe would actually
emit a section (SOUL-append legacies and unmanaged installs are left
alone — rebuilding those would loop). The rebuilt prompt carries the
stamp, so the upgrade can never re-fire.
E2E v3b through the real restore path: legacy Bot Chat upgraded once
then verbatim-reused; legacy regular sessions byte-untouched.
tests/agent/ 4648/4648.
Bot Chats break the "new sessions come often" assumption behind
build-once system prompts: capability edits used to sit invisible until
/new or compression, and the frozen birth date became misinformation.
- tools/bot_mode_probe.py: capability_fingerprint() hashes the profile's
capability surface (disabled skills, toolset pins, MCP config, SOUL.md,
installed skills, Bot-Mode roster); Bot Chat prompts embed the 12-hex
epoch stamp
- agent/conversation_loop.py restore path: stored Bot Chat prompt whose
epoch mismatches disk → ONE rebuild (through a cleared skills-prompt
cache so new installs appear), persisted so the next turn reuses the
new bytes verbatim. Prompts without a stamp — every non-Bot-Chat
session — never take the branch; probe failure fails closed to reuse
- agent/system_prompt.py: Bot Chat prompts are timeless — the
"Conversation started:" date is dropped (timezone kept); no ticking
fields in an eternal session
- tui_gateway: _sync_bot_capabilities at turn start rebuilds the live
agent (tool definitions are construction-baked) when the fingerprint
moves, same session id/history, with a user-visible notice
Cache stance: this is the /model exception applied to capabilities — a
loud, user-initiated, once-per-change prefix break. Unchanged state
hashes identically and stored bytes are reused verbatim (E2E-proven).
Validation: 9 probe unit tests incl. per-axis fingerprint changes;
E2E v3 against the real restore path (fresh build → verbatim reuse →
skill install → single refresh w/ new skill in index → verbatim reuse;
regular sessions dated, unstamped, never refreshed); tests/agent/
4647/4647.
Replaces the plugin-side SOUL.md protocol append: on Bot-Mode-managed
installs (any profile carrying ui_meta['hermes-bots']) the prompt builder
injects the "Messaging other agents" section into every session of every
profile — including headless `hermes -p <bot> chat` sessions a teammate
starts — so bot handoffs work without mutating user-authored SOUL files.
- tools/bot_mode_probe.py: silent-when-unmanaged probe, cached per
(process, home), keyed off the agent's OWN home (not ambient
HERMES_HOME); silent when SOUL.md already carries the legacy section
- agent/system_prompt.py + agent_init.py + config_defaults.py: wired as
agent.bot_mode_protocol (default True), stable tier, byte-stable
across rebuilds (E2E-verified against the real build_system_prompt)
- tui_gateway profiles.list gains bot_mode_protocol capability flag;
the bundled plugin gates ALL SOUL protocol writes on it (backfill,
composeSoul, Edit save) — older gateways keep the SOUL-append path
- overhead: ~916 bytes, only on Bot-Mode installs; zero elsewhere
Supersedes the SOUL backfill half of Hermes-Bot-Mode#99 (credit
@kaduxo — the handle fix, `hermes profile list` correction, and
idempotent-append guards from that PR ship in the bundled plugin).
Teknium