- probe_only is consumed inside __init__ only; no instance attribute.
- _sync_manager is assigned only on the probe branch, after the connection is
up, so a normal SSHEnvironment whose constructor fails still behaves exactly
as before (its __del__ cleanup does not reach the shared socket teardown).
- _remote_home has no reader on the probe path; not assigned.
- prompt_builder passes probe_only=True unconditionally: which backends honor
it is the builder table's decision, not a caller-side env_type check.
- Tests trimmed to the probe_only contract: the cleanup-raises case was green
on main (pre-existing try/except), the socket-name length and double-cleanup
assertions covered pre-existing behaviour.
The prompt-time backend probe built a normal SSHEnvironment just to run a
one-line `uname`. That constructor detects the remote home, creates the
~/.hermes tree, force-uploads every sync file and snapshots a login session;
when the throwaway object was later garbage-collected, __del__ -> cleanup()
ran sync_back() and `ssh -O exit` against the ControlMaster socket the
agent's real environment shares (keyed by user@host:port).
Add an internal probe_only construction path for SSH: an isolated,
same-length ControlMaster socket (keyed by the instance's session id), no
remote dir setup, no FileSyncManager, no session snapshot. The probe now
tears its own connection down explicitly on success, non-zero exit and
exception, without replacing the probe result when cleanup fails. Normal
SSH callers and non-SSH backends are unchanged.
Salvaged from #77933 onto the facade/sibling layout (the probe body moved to
_run_backend_probe, _create_environment to tools/terminal_tool_backends.py).
_find_git_root walked cwd's parents with Path.exists(); on hosts where a parent is
mode 700 for another user that raised PermissionError out of prompt construction.
Treat an unreadable ancestor as 'no .git here'.
The memory guidance led with 'Save proactively' and the memory tool schema
ranked 'user preferences & corrections' as top priority, while the skills
nudge was a conditional 'offer to save'. In practice that asymmetry made
the agent end sessions writing memory entries (fighting a 2,200-char
budget) and skip updating the skill it had just used, even though the
procedure was the reusable artifact. Both surfaces now state the same
rule with skills first: what you learn doing a task, including the user's
preferences and corrections for that kind of work, goes in the task's
skill; memory is only for facts that apply to every session.
On agent.tool_use_enforcement/execution_guidance "auto", muse-spark-* was in
neither model tuple, so it received only the universal finish-the-job block,
answered in prose with 0 tool calls, and the turn closed on finish_reason=stop.
Add "muse" to both tuples; Claude and every other family are unchanged.
Co-authored-by: Edder Talmor <talmoredder@gmail.com>
Expose the read deadline as a top-level config.yaml key beside
context_file_max_chars (same load_config_readonly resolution shape), default
5s, documented in context-files.md. Narrow the reader thread's catch from
BaseException to Exception: control-flow exceptions can't originate inside
read_text on a worker thread, and re-raising one would bypass the sites'
except Exception / except (OSError, UnicodeDecodeError) handlers.
Context files (SOUL.md, .hermes.md/HERMES.md, AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md,
.cursorrules, .cursor/rules/*.mdc) and subdirectory hint files are read on
the startup / per-turn path. On network-backed filesystems (iCloud Drive,
OneDrive, NFS) a cold read of an evicted file can block indefinitely, which
stalls system-prompt assembly before the first turn.
Read them on a daemon thread with a 5s deadline via _read_text_with_timeout;
a timed-out file is logged at WARNING and skipped so the next context source
still loads. Read errors propagate exactly as before, so each site's
existing try/except handling is unchanged.
Re-cut against current main from PR #10110 (the original diff predates the
context_length plumbing and the AGENTS.md directory-chain loader); helper,
sites and regression tests follow the original.
Follow-up to the cherry-picked fix:
- decide force_remove by inspect.signature (the idiom cleanup_vm already
uses) instead of catching TypeError, which would misread a TypeError
raised inside cleanup() as a signature mismatch and call cleanup twice
- skip teardown for ssh: SSHEnvironment has no task-scoped sandbox and its
cleanup() runs sync_back + 'ssh -O exit' on a ControlMaster socket keyed
by user@host:port, shared with the agent's real environment
`_probe_remote_backend` spins up an environment with
`task_id="prompt-backend-probe"` purely to run one `uname` for the system
prompt, then drops the reference without cleaning up. Container backends
default to `container_persistent` / `docker_persist_across_processes`, so
that throwaway sandbox stays up for the entire process lifetime, sitting
idle next to the agent's own `default` sandbox.
Observed on a three-profile Docker-backend host: six running containers
where three were doing any work. Every profile permanently paid for one
extra container whose only job had been a single `uname` at startup.
Fix: wrap the probe in `try/finally` and call
`env.cleanup(force_remove=True)` — the explicit-teardown path that
`DockerEnvironment.cleanup` already documents ("No current caller passes
`force_remove=True`; the parameter is here so the explicit-teardown
semantics can be wired up later"). Backends that inherit the kwarg-less
base `cleanup()` fall back to the bare call.
Verified on a live aarch64 Docker backend: the probe container is now
created, used and reclaimed within the same call. Three regression tests
cover the success path, the exception path, and the kwarg-less fallback;
all three fail without the source change.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PLbMzWqHVTPNBFisM8UiNB
- build_environment_hints: split into _local_host_hints / _remote_backend_hint /
_embedder_environment_hint; backend probe split into _run_backend_probe +
_format_backend_probe with image-key / container-config dispatch tables
replacing the if/elif chain.
- Skills index: _SkillFilter (frozen dataclass) unifies the disabled+conditions
check that was copied 4x (snapshot, scan, project, external);
_collect_extra_skills dedupes the project/external scan loops;
_read_category_descriptions dedupes DESCRIPTION.md reading;
_label_visible_entries and _render_skills_index lift the org-labeling and
rendering regions out of _build_skills_system_prompt_inner; snapshot and scan
sources now feed one visibility pass.
- Context files: _read_context_file + _context_section unify the
read/strip/scan/section/truncate sequence across .hermes.md, AGENTS.md,
CLAUDE.md and .cursorrules loaders.
- Dead: _clear_backend_probe_cache (test-only helper; tests clear the dict
directly), unused org_id_of_path re-export.
- Comments/docstrings hand-compacted; every rule, invariant, ordering and
failure-mode rationale kept.
System prompt text verified byte-identical against origin/main over a 273-case
fixture corpus (env hints x backends/probe states, skills index x toolsets /
platforms / project / org / compact, context files x all loaders, full
AIAgent._build_system_prompt_parts x 9 configs). Tool schema byte-identical.
* refactor(prompt): diet the memory/skills guidance block — schema-taught curricula removed, form rule + pruning contract kept (537 -> 223 tok in the combined block)
* polish: literal check-glyphs in source; memory capacity posture — save proactively, replace/consolidate when full
* refactor: single spine for memory/profile guidance — form rule + capacity posture written once, variants differ only in opening frame
* refactor: ONE memory-guidance builder — frame adapts to enabled stores, body written once, positive posture leads (maintainer direction)
* fix wording: memory is loaded per SESSION, not injected per turn (maintainer correction)
* refactor(prompt): remove the Nous Subscription block from the system prompt (~1.2K tokens/call)
* chore: retrigger CI (zero-job dispatch failure, auto-heal)
Follow-up to the ContextVar-leak fix: the autouse fixture now drains on
both sides (drain(); yield; drain()) so earlier files can't pollute this
file's assertions either.
Running `pytest tests/agent/test_prompt_builder.py
tests/agent/test_system_prompt.py` failed
test_build_system_prompt_records_stable_prefix with AttributeError:
'...SimpleNamespace' object has no attribute '_emit_status'
(#93018). A truncation warning recorded by test_prompt_builder.py stays
in the shared thread context under plain pytest, so the later file's
build_system_prompt call drains a warning and forwards it to
agent._emit_status - which the test stub lacked.
Harden both sides:
- tests/agent/test_system_prompt.py: _make_agent() stub gains a no-op
_emit_status, so draining a stray warning is harmless.
- tests/agent/test_prompt_builder.py: autouse fixture drains pending
truncation warnings after every test, leaving the ContextVar clean.
The order-dependent failure no longer reproduces in either ordering.
Un-fences OPENAI_MODEL_EXECUTION_GUIDANCE from the gpt/codex/grok substring
check and gives it its own injection gate, independent of
tool_use_enforcement, controlled by config.yaml `agent.execution_guidance`
(auto/true/false/list — same semantics as tool_use_enforcement). The "auto"
list (EXECUTION_GUIDANCE_MODELS) now also covers deepseek, kimi, qwen, glm,
minimax, mimo, and mistral.
Composio agentic-eval traces showed Hermes+DeepSeek/Kimi failing where
competitors passed: financial math done in prose, no read-back after
external writes, malformed identifiers "repaired", completeness claimed
despite count mismatches. The discipline block existed but those models
never received it.
The block is extended with compact clauses distilled from that analysis:
- external-write read-back (tool-call success is not task success; internal
file edits already confirmed by the tool are not re-verified)
- count reconciliation (declared totals/has_more are hard assertions)
- literal preservation (never normalize identifiers that fail a stated
format; lookup success does not validate a malformed token)
- retry-differently (empty/partial/suspiciously narrow results get a
broader retry before concluding)
- completion gated on verification (done = every named acceptance
criterion verified, never a plausible subset)
The todo tool description now encourages enumeration-as-checklist for
"all N items" tasks and gates completed status on verified work, never
intent.
Guidance is chosen once at session start keyed on model name, so the
system prompt stays byte-stable for the life of a conversation.
Supersedes/absorbs prior contributor proposals: #20588, #35087, #41874
(MiMo), #53847 (GLM tool-calls-as-text stall).
Co-authored-by: Mat-London <56627804+Mat-London@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: intelac <8803887+intelac@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: 6ylqq <51219463+6ylqq@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: tauros1983 <267660491+tauros1983@users.noreply.github.com>
AGENTS.override.md now takes priority over AGENTS.md in both startup
project-context loading (prompt_builder) and progressive subdirectory
hint discovery (subdirectory_hints). Lets developers keep a personal,
typically-gitignored override next to committed project instructions
without editing the tracked file.
many tests patched sys.platform or a module's _IS_WINDOWS flag, then
ran on linux ci. the patch selects the branch under test, but the host
does not have the behavior the branch exists for. the test proves the
patch, not the platform. some gated assertions never ran on any host.
this commit adds three markers: linux_only, macos_only, windows_only.
a conftest hook skips a marked test on the other hosts, with a clear
reason. no test fakes a host now. two documented fakes remain
(android/termux, freebsd) because no ci runner exists for them.
each fake site got one of four treatments:
- gate it: the real host supplies the platform; mocks cover real
dependencies only, never host identity
- patch the module's own probe when the subject is the probe's consumer
- assert against the real host when the fake stood in for any non-x host
- delete the patch when it set the value the host already has
bare skipif(sys.platform != ...) guards became markers too. the lane
model skips these on linux and never imports them on windows, so they
ran on no host. platform parametrize tables are now one marked test
per os.
running on real hosts found real errors: a chrome-sandbox failure in
test_gui_command that main hides, and two windows failures fixed here.
the agents.md testing section now documents the policy.
Main's 243c9182b1/a16fd675df/7142dc4580 added load_config_readonly
sibling stubs across 38 files; our pruned versions of 11 of those files
kept only the load_config stubs. Re-applied the pairing at every
surviving site (26 patch()/setattr sites) — same return_value/
side_effect as the adjacent load_config stub. 494 tests green across
the 11 files.
The readonly swaps mean agent/ modules now read config through
load_config_readonly(); tests that stubbed only load_config stopped
intercepting those reads. Added sibling readonly stubs (same
return_value/side_effect/lambda) at every affected site across 11 test
files, found via a tree-wide sweep of load_config stubs cross-referenced
against the swapped modules. 3,915 tests green across the 38-file
sibling sweep.
Correction to the previous commit (PR #68402): the claim that api_server
never intercepts MEDIA: tags is inaccurate on current main.
_resolve_media_to_data_urls() (gateway/platforms/api_server.py) DOES
inline image MEDIA: tags (<=5MB, image extensions only) as base64 data
URLs on the four main endpoints (_handle_session_chat,
_handle_session_chat_stream, _handle_chat_completions, _handle_responses).
The real gaps elphamale's PR points at are narrower:
- the /v1/runs output path (_handle_runs) never calls the resolver;
- non-image filetypes are never resolved anywhere (_MEDIA_IMG_EXT is
image-only).
Reword the hint to teach both halves: images via MEDIA: work on the
chat/completions/responses endpoints; non-image files and anything on
the runs endpoint must fall back to plain file paths in the response
text. Update the test to pin the scoped guidance instead of a blanket
prohibition.
Every PLATFORM_HINTS entry for a messaging platform (Telegram, WhatsApp,
Discord, Slack, Signal, WebUI, desktop) teaches the model the MEDIA:/path
convention because an interception mechanism actually resolves it there
(native attachment delivery, or a validated/inlined data URL). The cli
entry, which has no such mechanism, explicitly tells the model NOT to use
it and to state the path in plain text instead.
The api_server entry had neither instruction. Its /v1/runs handler never
routes the final response through any MEDIA: resolver (confirmed against
source: none of the four call sites of the api_server module's media-tag
resolver are inside its runs-endpoint handler), so a MEDIA:/path tag there
renders as inert literal text in the API response — exposing a raw host
filesystem path to the caller with no delivery ever taking place. Nothing
platform-specific told the model not to use a convention it's correctly
taught for several sibling platforms in this same dict, so the general
cross-platform habit could surface here too, unlike cli where an explicit
prohibition already closes the gap.
Mirrors cli's prohibition, adapted for api_server's actual constraint: no
"state the path in plain text" fallback, since a typical API caller has no
filesystem access to the host at all. Points at "a registered file-delivery
tool" generically rather than naming any specific tool, since api_server
toolsets are deployment-defined.
Follow-up to the salvaged #52552 and #53083 commits:
- Rework the Matrix PLATFORM_HINTS entry around what the adapter actually
emits: headings, numbered lists, blockquotes, strikethrough-free markdown
all render (the adapter converts them to sanctioned HTML). Keep the
genuinely valuable guidance: no Markdown tables (Element X / Beeper /
mobile clients don't render HTML tables — cells collapse into one line),
no spoilers/checkboxes/~~strikethrough~~ (not converted by
python-markdown), prefer descriptive link text.
- Regression test: hint must steer models away from tables.
- Fix test_long_response_split_preserves_thread_context to derive its
payload size from the adapter's configurable limit instead of assuming
the old hardcoded 4000.
- Document matrix.max_message_length in the Matrix docs page.
- Contributor mapping for RKelln.
Follow-up on the salvaged #64611 commit: the original guard blocked the
install tree unconditionally, which would have broken the legitimate
'developing Hermes from a source clone' CLI flow (launching hermes inside
the repo and getting its AGENTS.md as project context).
Refined policy:
- resolve_context_cwd(): validates configured paths (missing dir -> None +
warning) but honors an EXPLICIT install-tree cwd verbatim — deliberate
user choice.
- build_context_files_prompt(): blocks only the cwd=None -> os.getcwd()
FALLBACK into the install tree, with a new allow_install_tree_fallback
param. system_prompt.py passes it for platform cli/tui (launch dir is
the user's real shell cwd there); desktop/gateway surfaces keep the
guard (their fallback dir is self-spawned, never user-picked).
- Warning log names the resolved dir and the terminal.cwd remedy.
E2E-verified all five scenarios: desktop fallback blocked, in-tree CLI dev
keeps AGENTS.md, explicit install-tree cwd honored, invalid TERMINAL_CWD
falls to None then blocked, normal workspace loads.
The platform hint in PLATFORM_HINTS['telegram'] always encouraged rich
Markdown constructs (tables, task lists, math, collapsible details) even
when rich_messages: false (the default). This caused the agent to produce
formatting that MarkdownV2 cannot render, especially broken on Telegram Web.
Split the hint into a base hint (MarkdownV2-compatible) and a
TELEGRAM_RICH_MESSAGES_HINT extension. The extension is conditionally
appended in system_prompt.py only when
platforms.telegram.extra.rich_messages is true.
Fixes#57122
Regression tests for the injection fix: outside a git repo only cwd is
checked (planted ancestor .hermes.md is ignored), a cwd-local .hermes.md
is still found, and inside a git repo the parent walk to the git root
still works.
The system-prompt backend probe imported a nonexistent symbol —
`from tools.environments import get_environment` — which always raised
ImportError: cannot import name 'get_environment'. The exception is caught
and only drops the live backend description to a static fallback, so it is
cosmetic, but it broke the live OS/user/cwd probe for every non-local
backend (docker/singularity/modal/daytona/ssh).
The real factory is `_create_environment` in tools.terminal_tool. Build the
environment the same way the live terminal path does (select backend image,
assemble ssh/container config from _get_env_config()), then run the probe.
Note: this does NOT affect tool loading — tool selection runs each tool's
check_fn and never consults this probe. Regression from #52147 (2026-06-25).
Closes#53667 (probe import); the 'cronjob-only' tool-collapse symptom is
not reproducible — tool selection has no probe dependency and memory's
check_fn is unconditionally True.
The 'whatsapp' and 'signal' PLATFORM_HINTS told the agent 'Please do not
use markdown as it does not render' — factually wrong. Both adapters
actively convert markdown to native formatting:
- whatsapp_common.format_message(): **bold**, ~~strike~~, # headers,
links, code blocks -> WhatsApp native syntax
- signal_format.markdown_to_signal(): same conversions via bodyRanges,
plus '- item' / '* item' bullets -> '• ' Unicode bullets
The wrong hint made the agent strip bullets and bold the adapter would
have rendered (#12224). Rewrote both hints to mirror whatsapp_cloud:
markdown is auto-converted, bullet lists work, tables are not supported.
Added a contract test asserting markdown-converting platforms never
forbid markdown in their hint.
deliver=origin (or omitted) from a TUI or classic-CLI session produces a
job with origin=null, because those sessions never populate the
HERMES_SESSION_PLATFORM/CHAT_ID context vars that _origin_from_env reads.
The scheduler then resolves no delivery target and skips delivery — the
job runs and saves output to last_output, but nothing reaches the user
and they only find out by polling cronjob(action='list') (#51568).
This is by design (local sessions have no live-delivery channel), so the
fix surfaces it instead of silently dropping the intent:
- cronjob create now appends an informational notice to its result when
a created job resolves to zero delivery targets and the user did not
explicitly ask for deliver='local'. The check uses the scheduler's own
_resolve_delivery_targets so it accounts for origin, home channels,
'all', and explicit platform targets — no false positives.
- PLATFORM_HINTS gains a 'tui' entry (the TUI had none) and the 'cli'
hint now states that cron jobs from these sessions are local-only and
that deliver must target a gateway-connected platform to notify the
user. This stops the agent promising a delivery that never happens.
No scheduler/delivery behavior change; no new env var; cron isolation
invariant untouched.
The universal PARALLEL_TOOL_CALL_GUIDANCE block already lives on main, but it
shipped with two rough edges this change cleans up:
- It duplicated the batching steer for Google models. The
GOOGLE_MODEL_OPERATIONAL_GUIDANCE block still carried its own
"Parallel tool calls" bullet, so Gemini/Gemma received the instruction
twice in one prompt. Drop the redundant bullet — the universal block is now
the single source.
- Its comment claimed "nothing in the open-source system prompt encouraged
batching," which was wrong: the steer existed for Google models only. Reword
to say the gap was that every *other* model got nothing.
- Tighten the test that asserts the steer (precedence-correct), and add an
invariant guarding against re-introducing the Google duplicate.
* Port from cline/cline#11514: encourage parallel tool calls
Add a universal system-prompt guidance block telling the model to batch
independent tool calls (reads, searches, web fetches, read-only commands)
into a single assistant turn instead of one call per turn. The runtime
already executes independent batches concurrently (read-only tools always;
non-overlapping path-scoped file ops); the open-source system prompt had
nothing steering the model to PRODUCE the batch. Fewer round-trips means
less resent context, which compounds over a long conversation.
- prompt_builder.py: new PARALLEL_TOOL_CALL_GUIDANCE block (short, static,
cache-amortised) modeled on TASK_COMPLETION_GUIDANCE.
- system_prompt.py: inject right after the task-completion block, gated by
agent.valid_tool_names + the new toggle.
- agent_init.py: read agent.parallel_tool_call_guidance (default True).
- config.py: add the default under the agent section.
- test_prompt_builder.py: behavior-contract tests (batching steer, dependent
carve-out, length bound) — invariants, not wording snapshots.
Adapted from Cline's TypeScript tool-surface guidance to hermes-agent's
Python prompt-assembly architecture and config-over-env conventions.
* fix(desktop): never persist or restore a named custom provider as bare "custom"
Custom providers vanish from the Desktop/TUI model picker with
"No LLM provider configured" — repeatedly fixed (#44062, #44109, #45578)
and repeatedly regressed (#44022, #47714) because every fix only recovered
the entry identity from a persisted base_url. When a session is
persisted/restored with the resolved provider "custom" and NO base_url, bare
"custom" leaked through verbatim; resolve_runtime_provider("custom") routes to
the OpenRouter default URL with no api_key, so the next turn/resume dies.
Bare "custom" is the resolved billing class shared by every named providers:/
custom_providers: entry — it is not a routable identity. Centralize the
"never let bare custom escape" invariant in one helper,
runtime_provider.canonical_custom_identity(), and apply it at all four leak
sites in tui_gateway/server.py:
- _ensure_session_db_row — the ORIGIN: first DB write seeds the bad row
- _runtime_model_config — live persist
- _stored_session_runtime_overrides — resume restore (heals old rows; drops
unrecoverable bare custom so resume falls back to config default)
- _make_agent — rebuild / per-turn
The helper recovers custom:<name> from the endpoint URL when present, else
from config.model.provider (the durable identity left when no base_url
survived). Regression tests in test_custom_provider_session_persistence.py
lock the no-base_url vector at every site so it cannot regress again.
Context files (AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, .hermes.md, .cursorrules, SOUL.md) were
hard-capped at a flat 20K chars before head/tail truncation. Among the agent
harnesses we track, only Codex caps project docs at all (32 KiB); Claude Code,
OpenCode, and Cline load them whole. The flat 20K predates large context
windows and silently truncates real-world AGENTS.md files.
B — dynamic cap: when context_file_max_chars is unset (now the shipped
default), the cap scales with the model's context window
(ctx_tokens * 4 * 0.06, floor 20K, ceiling 500K). Small-context models stay at
the historical 20K; a 200K model gets 48K; large models stop truncating real
docs. An explicit context_file_max_chars still wins. Context length is resolved
once per conversation (stable -> prompt cache untouched).
C — when truncation does happen, the marker now names the concrete file path
and tells the agent to read_file it for the full content.
Validation: 154 targeted tests + full agent/ + hermes_cli/ + test_config
(0 failures); E2E against a real 60K AGENTS.md confirms small windows truncate
with the path-bearing marker, large windows load whole, and the system prompt
is byte-stable across rebuilds.
Follow-up to salvaged PR #41619: replace the module-global
_truncation_warnings list with a contextvars.ContextVar so concurrent
gateway-session prompt builds can't drain or clear each other's pending
warnings (cross-session leak). Adds a context-isolation test.
PROBLEM: Automatic context files such as SOUL.md and AGENTS.md were capped by a hardcoded CONTEXT_FILE_MAX_CHARS value. Amy's local fork had raised that constant from 20K to 25K so a larger SOUL.md would not be silently truncated, but the hardcoded 25K value changed upstream default behavior and made the patch less generally useful.
SOLUTION: Restore the upstream-compatible 20K default, add a context_file_max_chars config setting for users who intentionally keep larger identity/project-context files, keep chat-visible truncation warnings, and document the new setting. Tests cover the default, config override, explicit max_chars precedence, and the warning text.
Remove the rich_messages config toggle entirely so Telegram replies always try the Bot API 10.1 rich-message path first, with the existing MarkdownV2 fallback/latch behavior for unsupported endpoints and per-message failures.
Restore the Telegram platform hint to encourage rich Markdown tables/task lists/math now that the rich path is the default, and remove the config/docs surface for the old toggle.
- Use reply_parameters per the sendRichMessage spec instead of the
undocumented reply_to_message_id scalar (silently ignored -> reply
anchor quietly dropped).
- Latch rich sends off after an endpoint-capability failure (old PTB /
server without sendRichMessage) so every later reply doesn't pay a
doomed extra roundtrip; per-message BadRequests do NOT latch.
- Default rich_messages to OFF (opt-in) while the day-old Bot API 10.1
endpoint is validated live; revert the prompt-hint table guidance
until the default flips on.
- Tests: reply_parameters shape, send-latch behavior, BadRequest
non-latch; rich tests opt in explicitly via extra.
Introduce opportunistic support for Telegram Bot API 10.1 rich messages by sending raw agent Markdown via sendRichMessage and streaming previews via sendRichMessageDraft. Implements a rich-path fast‑path in gateway/platforms/telegram.py (RICH_MESSAGE_MAX_BYTES=32768, feature gate platforms.telegram.extra.rich_messages, bot capability checks, routing/thread handling, and conservative fallback rules: permanent/capability errors fall back to the legacy MarkdownV2 path, transient/network errors are surfaced without legacy-resend). Also add a latch for draft capability failures (_rich_draft_disabled) and preserve legacy chunking and draft behavior when needed. Update agent prompt hints (telegram encourages rich Markdown/tables), add CLI config example option, update English and Chinese docs to describe rich messages and fallbacks, and add/adjust tests for rich send and draft behavior.
Real-world failure with the original index pruning: under the default auto
posture, an agent-created ops skill in a demoted category vanished from the
prompt's skill index mid-project, and the agent silently fell back to a
stale sibling skill instead. The "discovery-only" premise didn't hold —
models do not reach for skills_list to rediscover what the index stops
showing them, and agent-created skills are the model's accumulated project
memory (runbooks, pitfalls, operating rules).
Gating pruning behind the opt-in focus mode was the wrong fix too: users
opening a worktree don't know the config exists, so the index-noise win
would effectively never ship.
Instead, the coding posture now DEMOTES non-coding categories rather than
hiding them: each demoted category renders as a single names-only line
("gaming [names only]: allthemons10-ops, mc-backup") with a footer note
explaining the omitted descriptions. Every skill name stays in the prompt,
so memory-anchored recall ("load <name>") keeps working in every mode,
while the description noise is still cut. Applies in auto/on/focus alike;
the general posture demotes nothing. Deny-list semantics unchanged —
unknown/custom categories and coding-adjacent ones keep full entries.
API renamed to match the honest semantics: hidden_skill_categories →
compact_skill_categories, build_skills_system_prompt(hidden_categories=) →
compact_categories=.
* feat(agent): coding-context posture with per-model edit-format tuning
Hermes detects when it's running in a coding context — an interactive
surface (CLI, TUI, ACP, desktop) sitting in a code workspace (git repo or
recognised project root) — and shifts into a coding posture. Outside that
(chat platforms, non-workspaces) nothing changes.
The posture is modelled as a frozen RuntimeMode selected from a small
ContextProfile registry (coding/general). A profile is data: the toolset to
collapse to, the operating brief to inject, and seams for model routing and
memory. Every domain reads the same resolved object instead of re-probing
git/config on its own:
- System prompt — RuntimeMode.system_blocks(): an operating brief (gather
context before editing, edit through tools not chat, verify with terminal,
cap retry loops) plus a live git/workspace snapshot, built once and baked
into the stable prompt tier so per-conversation caching is preserved.
- Per-model edit-format tuning — the brief nudges each model family toward
the patch mode it handles best: OpenAI/Codex toward mode='patch' (V4A
multi-file diffs), Anthropic toward mode='replace' (string replacement).
The model id rides on RuntimeMode; unknown families keep neutral wording.
- Skill index — non-coding skill categories are pruned from the prompt's
skill index (discovery-only; skills_list/skill_view still reach the full
catalog, with a disclosure note).
- Toolset — only under the opt-in 'focus' mode does the posture collapse to
the coding toolset + enabled MCP servers; the default posture is
prompt-only and never overrides configured toolsets.
Activation via agent.coding_context: auto (default), focus, on, off.
Subagents inherit the posture for free via toolset inheritance + the shared
prompt builder. Detection is not memoized so a long-lived gateway/TUI
process can't pin a stale posture across working directories.
* feat(agent): cover new-file authoring in the coding edit-format nudge
The per-model edit-format guidance only addressed editing existing code
(patch mode='patch' vs 'replace'), but authoring a brand-new file —
write_file, not patch — is a large fraction of real coding work and the
nudge was silent on it. Surfaced when building a single-file artifact where
the dominant operation was write_file and the steering offered no guidance.
Both family lines now lead with "author new files with write_file; for
edits to existing code prefer ...". Tests assert write_file appears in each
family's brief; unknown families still get neutral wording.
* docs(agent): correct memoization docstring + clarify TUI config-load asymmetry
* feat(agent): sharpen the coding posture — verify-loop facts, wider edit steering, $HOME guard
Tuning pass on the coding posture from dogfooding it as a harness:
- Workspace snapshot now hands the model its verify loop up front:
detected manifests + package manager (lockfile sniff), the exact
verify commands (package.json scripts, Makefile targets,
scripts/run_tests.sh, pytest config), and which context files
(AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md / .cursorrules) exist at the root. Marker-only
(non-git) projects get the snapshot too instead of nothing. The
"verify before claiming done" brief line was the highest-value piece
in evals — this turns it from advice into an executable loop instead
of making the model rediscover the test command every session. Still
stat-cheap, size-guarded reads, built once at prompt time.
- Edit-format steering covers the families Hermes actually serves:
Gemini and open-weight coding models (DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi, GLM,
Grok, Hermes, Llama, Mistral, Devstral, MiniMax) steer to
mode='replace' — their RL scaffolds use str_replace-style editors.
Previously only GPT/Codex and Claude families got steering; the
models Hermes users disproportionately run all fell to neutral.
- Operating brief gains four behaviors elite harnesses encode: batch
independent reads/searches in one turn; fix root causes and the bug
class (sibling call paths), not the reported site; no drive-by
refactors/renames/reformatting; never read, print, or commit secrets.
Plus a patch-failure escalation ladder: after the same region fails
twice, rewrite the enclosing function/file with write_file instead of
a third patch attempt.
- $HOME dotfiles guard: a git repo rooted exactly at the home directory
(or a marker sitting in it, e.g. a global ~/AGENTS.md) is user config,
not a code workspace — without the guard, every session anywhere under
a dotfiles-managed home silently flipped to the coding posture. Real
projects under such a home still detect via their own markers/repos;
'on' mode bypasses the guard.
kshitijk4poor