Every PLUGIN-COMPAT __getattr__ now calls hermes_cli.plugin_compat.warn_once(facade, name, target) before
resolving, emitting a HermesPluginCompatWarning (FutureWarning) once per process per name: old path, new
path, removal target. Importing a facade for its live API stays silent; only resolving a moved name warns.
COMPAT_MANIFEST.md documents the warning and how to silence it during migration.
Verified the runtime never routes through a pointer: every entry point (run_agent, cli, hermes_cli.main,
gateway.run, tui_gateway.server, web_server, model_tools + tool discovery, hermes_state, cron.scheduler,
browser_tool, mcp_tool, kanban, auth) imports clean and `hermes doctor` runs end to end with the warning
promoted to an error.
Also restores the check_compat_pointers CI step to .github/workflows/lint.yml, which a0be177aac dropped
when the compat layer was regenerated (the lint script itself was present; the workflow step was not).
hermes_cli/plugin_compat.py, tests/test_plugin_compat_warning.py and the two-line insert per facade are
part of the compat layer and go away with it.
The Sep 2026 decomposition (PR #102117) makes internal import paths a non-API: names now live in
the focused modules that define them. This commit is the ONLY thing keeping the old paths alive,
so external plugins have time to update. It is deliberately a single, unsquashed commit:
git revert <this sha>
removes every shim, stub and manifest at once on the announced date. Nothing in-tree may depend on
these pointers: scripts/check_compat_pointers.py (wired into lint.yml) fails CI if it does.
What it adds (see COMPAT_MANIFEST.md, compat_manifest.json):
- 332 facade modules get one delimited `PLUGIN-COMPAT` block appended at the end of the file
- 1,172 moved names resolved lazily via a module `__getattr__` (PEP 562) — never a top-level import,
so no import cycles; facades that already had `__getattr__` get a chained one
- 592 third-party/stdlib names the old modules used to expose, with their original import statements
- 266 public definitions that had been deleted as unused, restored byte-for-byte from the pre-decomposition
tree (+40 private helpers and 16 imports pulled in only because a restored definition needs them)
- 3 deleted modules recreated as re-export stubs (gateway/startup_watchdog, hermes_cli/observability/
relay_runtime, tools/environments/modal_utils)
- private names (`_x`) get no pointer: they were never API (3,792 skipped)
Verified: all 335 touched modules import under a fresh HERMES_HOME and every manifest name resolves;
the lint reports zero in-tree uses; ruff clean; targeted suites unchanged.
For each issue anchor present in BASE 63279301bc non-test .py and absent on HEAD, the BASE comment/docstring block was re-attached at the HEAD location of the code it explained (matched by the distinctive code line / enclosing def). Sentences already covered by an existing HEAD comment were deduped; the issue number always survives. Insert-only: no code lines changed.
Audit finding (Blank Slate): the system prompt advertised web_search,
skill_view, todo, and the hermes-agent skill even when the toolset had
none of them — the model chases phantoms it can't call.
- hermes-agent skill is now essential: cannot be disabled (config reads
strip it, hermes tools writes drop it), cannot be deleted by
skill_manage, is re-seeded past curator suppression, and is seeded
even on .no-bundled-skills profiles (Blank Slate / --no-skills).
- Blank Slate core toolsets grow from file+terminal to
file+terminal+vision+skills: read_file cannot read images and points
at vision_analyze; the essential skill needs skill_view to load.
- HERMES_AGENT_HELP_GUIDANCE degrades to a docs-URL-only variant when
skill tools are absent.
- Execution-discipline guidance drops its web_search lines when web
tools are off (execution_guidance_text renderer).
- Skills-index preamble says 'basic tools like terminal' instead of
naming web_search when web tools are off.
- Coding operating brief drops the todo-tracking sentence when the todo
tool isn't loaded.
All gating keys off agent.valid_tool_names, fixed at session
construction — prompt stays byte-stable per session (cache-safe).
tools/skills_sync.py bound HERMES_HOME / SKILLS_DIR / MANIFEST_FILE at
import time — the third module in the same lineage as skills_tool
(f8723c478) and skill_manager_tool (c6a3d412d). In a long-lived
dashboard/TUI process, console skills commands (reset, diff,
list-modified, opt-in/out, repair-official) dispatched in-process under
_profile_scope's set_hermes_home_override(), but skills_sync's frozen
constants kept resolving against whichever profile was live at import.
Sharpest edge: reset_bundled_skill()'s #48200 rmtree strict-child guard
was computed against the WRONG skills root.
Fix: same call-time accessor pattern as the two prior fixes —
_hermes_home()/_skills_dir()/_manifest_file() honor an explicitly
patched module global (tests, retargeting) and otherwise re-resolve
from the live profile-scoped get_hermes_home() on every call. All 37
call sites migrated; module constants kept for compat.
Also documents in _profile_scope() that skills_sync needs no module
retargeting since the contextvar override now reaches it.
Regression tests (sabotage-verified: all 3 fail on the old binding):
- accessors follow set_hermes_home_override at call time
- explicit module patch still wins over the override
- rmtree guard anchors on the overridden profile's skills root
Fixes#65828
_write_manifest still used a hand-rolled mkstemp + atomic_replace,
so every sync reset .bundled_manifest to mkstemp's 0600, dropping a
group-readable or shared mode the operator had set. Replace the block
with utils.atomic_write_text(preserve_mode=True) — the same shared
writer and mode-preservation contract PR #86255 applied to the skill
manager's document writes.
This is the remaining half of PR #14410 by @sgaofen, who reported the
manifest mode reset first; the skill-manager half of that PR was
superseded by the atomic_write_text refactor and #86255.
Skip hashing active copies when the bundled origin is unchanged, build rename and optional migration indexes lazily, and reuse one optional-skill directory index per sync.
Add regression coverage for unchanged copies, deferred modification detection, lazy rename recovery, and optional provenance scans.
`hermes curator status` reported only the skills it manages, staying silent
about curation-eligible skills it can never touch. On a 237-skill library that
meant 112 skills were invisible to every automatic transition with no signal
anywhere — the curator looked broken when it was working as designed.
A skill becomes curator-managed only when `created_by: agent` lands on its
usage record, and only the background review fork writes that marker. Two
populations therefore never qualify: records written before the marker existed
(no key at all, authorship unknowable) and every foreground
`skill_manage(create)` (unset by design — those skills belong to the user).
- skill_usage: `list_unmanaged_skill_names()` / `unmanaged_report()` enumerate
the blind spot, tagging each row with `has_provenance_key` so the two causes
are distinguishable. `adopt_skill()` writes the marker on user declaration
and refuses bundled, hub-installed, external, and protected built-ins.
Adoption never resets the inactivity clock.
- curator CLI: status prints an `unmanaged (no provenance marker)` block on
BOTH the managed and no-managed-skills paths; new `adopt` verb takes names or
`--all-unmanaged`, with `--dry-run` and a confirmation prompt on bulk.
- skills_sync: `_backfill_optional_provenance()` matched candidates by
repo-derived path only, so a skill installed at `mlops/chroma` that upstream
later moved to `mlops/vector-databases/chroma` was skipped forever and
`hermes skills repair-optional` could not fix it. Falls back to an
unambiguous name match, still gated on identical content, and records the
ACTUAL install path.
Provenance stays a declaration, never an inference: a high patch count proves
the agent MAINTAINS a skill, not that it authored one, since Hermes edits
user-written skills on the user's behalf routinely. An "looks agent-made"
heuristic would eventually archive hand-written work.
Validation: 347 targeted tests pass. Each new test verified via sabotage run
(revert the fix, confirm the test goes red) — one initially passed for the
wrong reason because the fixture pinned `prune_builtins` off, masking the guard
under test; fixed to force the shipped default on.
`sync_skills()` keys the bundled manifest by frontmatter name but computes
the destination from the bundled path. When upstream renames or
recategorizes a skill, the manifest key still matches while the new dest
does not exist yet, so the loop fell into its "in manifest but not on
disk" branch and misread the skill as user-deleted: the user's copy was
stranded at the old path forever and never received another update.
Three skills hit this in the July 2026 reorg (computer-use,
evaluating-llms-harness, serving-llms-vllm) — silently frozen at their
pre-rename content on every machine that ran `hermes update`.
Recovery only moves a stale copy when it is byte-identical to the origin
hash recorded the last time sync wrote it, which proves the directory is
ours rather than the user's work. User-modified copies are kept in place
with a warning, hub-installed paths are never touched, and a genuine
deletion (no copy anywhere on disk) is still respected.
- tools/skills_sync.py: add _recover_renamed_skill() plus the
_index_active_skills() / _read_hub_install_paths() indexes; call it
before classification and report moves via a new `relocated` key.
- hermes_cli/main.py: surface relocations in both `hermes update` skill
sync reporting sites.
- tests: 4 cases covering relocate, user-modified preservation,
hub-installed exemption, and genuine-deletion respect.
On Windows with a non-UTF-8 system locale (e.g. CP936/GBK on zh-CN),
Python defaults stdout/stderr to the active codepage. tools/skills_sync.py
prints glyphs such as checkmark (U+2713) and up-arrow (U+2191) that GBK
cannot encode, raising UnicodeEncodeError mid-run.
The installer (scripts/install.ps1) captures this script's stdout and the
Rust bootstrap parses it as UTF-8 expecting a JSON result frame. A GBK
byte stream (or the traceback it triggers) surfaces as:
WARN stdout read error: stream did not contain valid UTF-8
stage=config-templates state=Failed
error=install.ps1 -Stage config-templates produced no JSON result frame
(exit=Some(0))
i.e. the stage fails even though the script exits 0. install.ps1 already
sets [Console]::OutputEncoding = UTF8, but that does not propagate to the
python.exe child (Python reads PYTHONIOENCODING / locale, not the console
encoding).
Fix in two places for defense in depth:
- tools/skills_sync.py: reconfigure sys.stdout/stderr to UTF-8 at import so
output is valid UTF-8 regardless of caller or active codepage.
- scripts/install.ps1: set PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8 and PYTHONUTF8=1 (scoped
to the call, restored afterwards) around the skills_sync.py invocation.
Removes Homebrew and PyPI wheel/sdist as Hermes distribution paths while
preserving the supported source, Docker, and Nix workflows.
Changes:
- Removes the Homebrew formula, PyPI publish workflow, sdist manifest
(MANIFEST.in), and wheel/sdist release-attachment logic from scripts/release.py.
- Keeps setuptools metadata and entry points required by editable installs
and Docker/Nix builds, but adds a setup.py guard that rejects wheel/sdist
builds outside a sealed Nix derivation (HERMES_NIX_BUILD=1).
- Removes pip/Homebrew install detection, PyPI update checks, the pip
self-update path, the deprecation-banner state, the postinstall subcommand,
wheel data-directory fallbacks in agent/i18n.py and hermes_constants.py,
and the ACP Registry manifest/version-lockstep release logic.
- Adds /nix/store/ path detection so `nix run` / `nix profile install`
installs (which don't set HERMES_MANAGED) are correctly identified as
"nix" rather than falling through to "git"/"unknown".
- Retired install-method values ("pip", "homebrew") in existing
.install_method stamps (both code-scoped and home-scoped) are ignored by
the allowlist reader and fall through to "unknown" instead of resurrecting
a retired enum value.
- Updates Nix packaging to ship bare runtime data (locales, optional-mcps)
through store symlinks and wrapper env vars instead of wheel data-files.
- Removes the ACP Registry manifest/icon and their version-lockstep tests.
- Deletes or rewrites packaging, pip-update, Homebrew, and ACP Registry
tests; adds parametrized coverage for the packaging build guard covering
BOTH sdist and wheel paths (the guards live in separate cmdclass entries
— a passing sdist test proves nothing about the wheel path).
- Updates installation/platform documentation and related user-facing copy.
- Adjusts the supply-chain scan so deleted install-hook files do not trigger
a finding, while additions or modifications still require the existing
ci-reviewed label gate.
Supported installation paths (unchanged):
- git installer (install.sh)
- Docker
- Nix/NixOS
- editable development installs (uv sync, uv pip install -e ., pip install -e .)
Fixes#28126. sync_skills() was unconditionally writing bundled skills
into the local <profile_home>/skills/ tree even when the profile's
config.yaml delegated skill resolution to an external directory
via skills.external_dirs. The skill loader then saw two candidates
for the same name (local shadow + external canonical), refused to
resolve on collision, and every worker that auto-loaded such a skill
crashed with 'Unknown skill(s): <name>'.
Changes:
- _build_external_skill_index() indexes skills available in external
dirs (by directory name and frontmatter name)
- sync_skills() skips writing a bundled skill when it finds the same
name in the external index; records the hash in the manifest so
subsequent syncs treat it as already handled
- Self-healing: removes stale local shadows left by prior buggy syncs
(only when origin_hash == bundled_hash == user_hash, i.e. we wrote
it and user didn't touch it)
- New 'shadowed_by_external' key in sync_skills() return dict
3 new tests in TestExternalDirsIndexing (all passing).
All 48 tests in test_skills_sync.py pass.
Closes#28126
The salvaged guard allowed _rmtree_writable(SKILLS_DIR) itself. No call
site ever passes the root — every site passes a skill subdir or its .bak
sibling — so allowing the root only preserves the #48200 footgun (a dest
that collapses to the root wipes every installed skill). Require a strict
strict-child relationship and update the test that documented the
nonexistent 'full reset' capability.
Defense-in-depth fix for the silent wipe of ~/.hermes/ documented in
#48200. A `hermes update --yes` run silently destroyed a user's
.env, MEMORY.md, kanban.db, custom skills, and scripts. Two changes:
1. `_rmtree_writable` in tools/skills_sync.py now refuses to rmtree
anything outside SKILLS_DIR (the HERMES_HOME/skills/ root).
All five call sites pass paths under SKILLS_DIR, so the guard is
a no-op for current code and a loud, recoverable failure for
any future regression (bad path join, malicious bundled
manifest, stale path in scope after an exception).
2. The default `updates.pre_update_backup` flips from false to
true in hermes_cli/config.py. A few minutes of zip per update
is negligible compared to silent total data loss. Still
overridable; --no-backup still works for one-off opt-out.
Five new tests in TestRmtreeWritableScopeGuard (root path,
hermes home, sibling dir, skills root itself, subdir) plus a
flipped `test_default_enabled_creates_backup` in test_backup.py.
178/178 tests pass in the two affected files. Public method
signatures unchanged, no test-stub blast radius.
Closes#48200
Cleanup pass on the salvage (behavior-preserving):
- diff_bundled_skill now uses the existing _skill_file_list() helper
instead of reimplementing the rglob/is_file/relative_to file-set
enumeration inline (twice).
- Extract _is_tracked_user_modification(origin_hash, user_hash) and use
it in BOTH the sync loop and list_user_modified_bundled_skills() so the
'kept user edit' rule can't drift between the two sites.
- _read_text_for_diff -> _read_for_diff returns (bytes, text); the binary
branch now compares the bytes it already read instead of re-reading
both files from disk.
- Drop the unused 'user_present' key from diff_bundled_skill's return
contract (no consumer or test ever read it).
- test_update_modified_notice: drop the brittle '>= 2 sites' count-floor
so consolidating the two print paths into a shared helper stays a
welcome refactor; keep the per-site 'count notice => discovery hint'
invariant (still mutation-tested).
`hermes update` keeps (won't overwrite) bundled skills the user edited
locally, but only printed a count — "~ N user-modified (kept)" — with no way
to learn which skills, or see what changed. Reverting already existed
(`hermes skills reset <name> [--restore]`); discovery and inspection did not.
Add two CLI commands (zero model-tool footprint), reusing the manifest
origin-hash that sync already maintains:
- `hermes skills list-modified [--json]` — list the bundled skills whose
on-disk copy diverges from the last-synced origin hash (the exact test the
sync loop uses to decide what to skip).
- `hermes skills diff <name>` — unified diff between the user's copy and the
current bundled (stock) version, so the user can confirm what changed
before reverting.
Both are mirrored as `/skills list-modified` and `/skills diff`. The
`hermes update` notice now points at `hermes skills list-modified`. Core
helpers `list_user_modified_bundled_skills()` and `diff_bundled_skill()` live
in tools/skills_sync.py alongside the existing reset logic.
Recover an orphaned .bak before classification (interrupted updates no longer read as user deletions), clear a stale .bak before shutil.move (replace, not nest), and clear a partial dest before restore so restore-on-failure actually runs.
Fixes#44942
* feat(install): --no-skills flag for blank-slate default profile
Add an install-time --no-skills flag so the default ~/.hermes profile can
be created with zero bundled skills, matching what
`hermes profile create --no-skills` already does for named profiles.
The flag writes $HERMES_HOME/.no-bundled-skills and skips the install-time
seed. sync_skills() now honors that marker with an early return
(skipped_opt_out=True), so neither the installer, a later `hermes update`,
nor a direct sync re-injects bundled skills into a profile that opted out.
Previously the marker was only checked by seed_profile_skills() (named
profiles); the default profile had no opt-out and `hermes update` would
re-seed it every time.
Tests: TestNoBundledSkillsOptOut covers marker-present (no-op) and
marker-absent (normal seed) paths.
* feat(skills): hermes skills opt-out / opt-in for existing profiles
Adds an interactive counterpart to the install-time --no-skills flag so
an already-installed profile (default or named) can toggle the
.no-bundled-skills marker without reinstalling.
- `hermes skills opt-out` writes the marker (stop future seeding). Safe
by default: nothing on disk is touched.
- `hermes skills opt-out --remove` ALSO deletes already-present bundled
skills, but ONLY ones that are manifest-tracked AND byte-identical to
their origin hash. User-edited bundled skills, hub-installed skills, and
hand-written skills are never removed. Previews + confirms before
deleting (--yes to skip).
- `hermes skills opt-in [--sync]` removes the marker and optionally
re-seeds immediately.
Core logic lives in tools/skills_sync.py (set_bundled_skills_opt_out,
is_bundled_skills_opt_out, remove_pristine_bundled_skills) reusing the
existing manifest origin-hash machinery for the safety check.
Tests: TestOptOutToggleAndRemove covers marker toggle idempotency and
proves user-modified + non-bundled skills survive --remove.
* docs: blank-slate skills — install --no-skills + opt-out/opt-in
- features/skills.md: new 'Starting with a blank slate' section covering
the install flag, profile-create flag, and runtime opt-out/opt-in, with
a safe-by-default note.
- reference/cli-commands.md: document the new skills opt-out / opt-in
subcommands + examples.
- reference/profile-commands.md: fix the marker filename (was .no-skills,
actually .no-bundled-skills) and cross-link the runtime commands.
Validated with a full docusaurus build (exit 0); the three edited pages
compile clean with no new warnings.
Two related changes to the skill curator:
1. Built-in pruning. New curator.prune_builtins config (default on) lets the
curator archive bundled built-in skills after the inactivity period, not
just agent-created ones. A .curator_suppressed list tells the update-time
re-seeder (tools/skills_sync) to leave pruned built-ins archived, so the
prune is durable across `hermes update`. Built-ins are seeded with a
baseline record on first sight, so the inactivity clock starts at upgrade
time -- no mass-prune on the first run. Hub-installed skills are never
pruned regardless of the flag. Restoring a built-in clears its suppression.
2. Usage tracking for all skills. Telemetry (view/use/patch) was wrongly gated
behind curation-eligibility, so built-ins were tracked only when prunable
and hub skills never. Telemetry is observability and is now decoupled from
curation: every skill accrues usage counts regardless of provenance, while
lifecycle mutators (set_state/set_pinned/mark_agent_created) stay
curation-gated. New usage_report() + provenance() expose all skills with an
agent/bundled/hub tag.
The cherry-picked fix's onerror handler chmod'd only the failing path, but
unlinking a child requires write permission on its PARENT directory. On a true
Nix-store copy (r-xr-xr-x dirs + files) rmtree still failed. Now chmod the
parent dir as well before retrying.
Also rewrites the regression test: the original asserted the helper FAILS on a
read-only dir (documenting the limitation), which is the wrong success criterion.
Split into two tests — restore succeeds on a full read-only tree (real Nix case),
and manifest is preserved when removal genuinely cannot proceed (monkeypatched).
Two related bugs in tools/skills_sync.py affecting Nix-store and
immutable-package installs:
**#34972 — reset_bundled_skill corrupts manifest on rmtree failure:**
The function deleted the manifest entry BEFORE attempting rmtree. If
rmtree failed (read-only files from Nix store), the function returned
early — leaving the skill in a manifest-less limbo state where future
syncs silently skip it forever.
Fix: reorder steps — attempt rmtree FIRST, only delete manifest entry
after rmtree succeeds. If rmtree fails, nothing is changed.
**#34860 — stale .bak directories after sync:**
sync_skills() called shutil.rmtree(backup, ignore_errors=True) which
silently failed on read-only files, leaving persistent .bak dirs.
Fix: add _rmtree_writable() helper that makes files writable via an
onerror callback before retrying removal. Used in both sync_skills()
backup cleanup and reset_bundled_skill().
Fixes#34972Fixes#34860
Self-review follow-ups on the salvage of #33177 + #33188 + #33209:
W3 (real, lock_path.write_text was non-atomic AND the read path silently
resets data to an empty installed dict on JSONDecodeError — a crash mid-
write could nuke ALL hub provenance, not just official-optional). Switch
to the same mkstemp + fsync + atomic_replace pattern that _write_manifest
already uses in this module.
W5 (dead code) — _validate_category_name had one caller on origin/main
(install_from_quarantine), swapped to _validate_install_parent_path by
#33177. Remove the now-unused definition to avoid the attractive-nuisance
of contributors picking the wrong validator.
Behavior preserved on the happy path; verified all 200 skills/hub tests
plus the three E2E scenarios (destructive restore, backfill idempotency,
adversarial nonexistent skill) still pass after both fixes.
* fix(skills): skip dependency dirs in skill scan
* fix(skills): widen sibling rglob scanners to use shared exclusion set
Follow-up to PR #29968. The contributor's PR widened EXCLUDED_SKILL_DIRS
in the canonical walker (iter_skill_index_files), which fixes the
user-visible discovery path. This commit sweeps the ~12 other
rglob('SKILL.md') sites that did their own ad-hoc filtering — most only
checked .git/.hub, some had no filter at all — so dependency dirs
(.venv, node_modules, site-packages, etc.) cannot leak ghost skills
through the secondary paths.
Adds agent.skill_utils.is_excluded_skill_path(path) helper. Migrates
all 13 sites to use it. Removes 3 hardcoded duplicate filter sets.
Sites touched:
agent/curator_backup.py - skill backup file count
gateway/run.py - disabled-skill response (2 sites)
hermes_cli/dump.py - skill count in env dump
hermes_cli/profile_describer.py- profile description (2 sites)
hermes_cli/profile_distribution.py - profile install count
hermes_cli/profiles.py - profile skill count
hermes_cli/skills_hub.py - category detection
tools/skill_manager_tool.py - skill name lookup (already used set, now uses helper)
tools/skill_usage.py - usage tracking + skill dir lookup (2 sites)
tools/skills_hub.py - optional skills find + scan (2 sites)
tools/skills_sync.py - bundled skills sync
E2E verified with the exact reported shape
(bring/scripts/.venv/.../typer/.agents/skills/typer/SKILL.md): no
sibling site picks up the ghost skill, all five legit-skill counts
still return 1.
* chore(infographic): retro-pop-grid bento for PR #30042 skill-scanner sweep
---------
Co-authored-by: helix4u <4317663+helix4u@users.noreply.github.com>
When 'hermes update' syncs bundled skills, the summary line only shows
the count of user-modified skills that were kept (e.g. '3 user-modified
(kept)'), but not *which* skills. Once the update finishes, the user
has no way to know which skills need triage.
Append the skill names to the summary line, truncated to 5 with a
'+N more' suffix for long lists:
Done: 12 new, 3 updated, 7 unchanged, 3 user-modified (kept):
hermes-agent, debugging-hermes-tui-commands, system-health.
25 total bundled.
Closes#28121
Salvages #23738 by @LeonSGP43. Wheel installs were missing skills/ and
optional-skills/ because pyproject's [tool.setuptools.packages.find]
only includes Python packages — the skills directories don't have
__init__.py so they were silently dropped from the wheel.
Adds setup.py with data_files spec emitting skills/* and optional-skills/*
under hermes_agent-<v>.data/data/, and a get_bundled_skills_dir() helper
in hermes_constants that discovers the wheel-installed location via
sysconfig before falling back to a source-checkout path. tools/skills_sync
uses the helper so 'hermes update' works for pip-installed users.
Extract the islink/realpath guard from the 16743 fix into a single
atomic_replace() helper in utils.py, then migrate every os.replace()
call site in the codebase to use it.
The original PR #16777 correctly identified and fixed the bug, but
only patched 9 of ~24 call sites. The same bug class (managed
deployments that symlink state files silently losing the link on
every write) still existed at auth.json, sessions file, gateway
config, env_loader, webhook subscriptions, debug store, model
catalog, pairing, google OAuth, nous rate guard, and more.
Rather than add another 10+ copies of the same three-line guard,
consolidate into atomic_replace(tmp, target) which:
- resolves symlinks via os.path.realpath before os.replace
- returns the resolved real path so callers can re-apply permissions
- is a drop-in replacement for os.replace at the use sites
Changes:
- utils.py: new atomic_replace() helper + atomic_json_write /
atomic_yaml_write now call it instead of inlining the guard
- 16 files: all os.replace() call sites migrated to atomic_replace()
- agent/{google_oauth, nous_rate_guard, shell_hooks}.py
- cron/jobs.py
- gateway/{pairing, session, platforms/telegram}.py
- hermes_cli/{auth, config, debug, env_loader, model_catalog, webhook}.py
- tools/{memory_tool, skill_manager_tool, skills_sync}.py
Tests: tests/test_atomic_replace_symlinks.py pins the invariant for
atomic_replace + atomic_json_write + atomic_yaml_write, covers plain
files, first-time creates, broken symlinks, and permission preservation.
Refs #16743
Builds on #16777 by @vominh1919.
os.replace(tmp, path) replaces the symlink itself with a regular file,
breaking users who symlink config.yaml, SOUL.md, or .env from ~/.hermes/
to a dotfiles repo or managed profile package.
Fix: resolve symlinks via os.path.realpath() before os.replace(), so the
real file is overwritten in-place while the symlink survives.
Fixed in 7 files covering all os.replace call sites:
- utils.py (atomic_json_write, atomic_yaml_write — fixes save_config)
- hermes_cli/config.py (env sanitizer, save_env_value, remove_env_value)
- tools/skill_manager_tool.py (_atomic_write_text — SOUL.md writes)
- tools/memory_tool.py (memory file writes)
- tools/skills_sync.py (manifest writes)
- cron/jobs.py (job state + output file writes)
- agent/shell_hooks.py (hook file writes)
FixesNousResearch/hermes-agent#16743
When a newly-bundled skill's name collides with a pre-existing user
skill, sync silently kept the user's copy. Users never learned that
a bundled version shipped by that name.
Now (on non-quiet sync only) print:
⚠ <name>: bundled version shipped but you already have a local
skill by this name — yours was kept. Run `hermes skills reset
<name>` to replace it with the bundled version.
No behavior change to manifest writes or to the kept user copy —
purely additive warning on the existing collision-skip path.
When a new bundled skill's name collided with a pre-existing user skill
(from hub, custom, or leftover), sync_skills() recorded the bundled hash
in the manifest even though the on-disk copy was unrelated to bundled.
On the next sync, user_hash != origin_hash (bundled_hash) marked the
skill as "user-modified" permanently, blocking all bundled updates for
that skill until the user ran `hermes skills reset`.
Fix: only baseline the manifest entry when the user's on-disk copy is
byte-identical to bundled (safe to track — this is the reset re-sync or
coincidentally-identical install case). Otherwise skip the manifest
write entirely: the on-disk skill is unrelated to bundled and shouldn't
be tracked as if it were.
This preserves reset_bundled_skill()'s re-baseline flow (its post-delete
sync still writes to the manifest when user copy matches bundled) while
fixing the poisoning scenario for genuinely unrelated collisions.
Adds two tests following the existing test_failed_copy_does_not_poison_manifest
pattern: one verifying the manifest stays clean after a collision with
differing content, one verifying no false user_modified flag on resync.
When a user edits a bundled skill, sync flags it as user_modified and
skips it forever. The problem: if the user later tries to undo the edit
by copying the current bundled version back into ~/.hermes/skills/, the
manifest still holds the old origin hash from the last successful
sync, so the fresh bundled hash still doesn't match and the skill stays
stuck as user_modified.
Adds an escape hatch for this case.
hermes skills reset <name>
Drops the skill's entry from ~/.hermes/skills/.bundled_manifest and
re-baselines against the user's current copy. Future 'hermes update'
runs accept upstream changes again. Non-destructive.
hermes skills reset <name> --restore
Also deletes the user's copy and re-copies the bundled version.
Use when you want the pristine upstream skill back.
Also available as /skills reset in chat.
- tools/skills_sync.py: new reset_bundled_skill(name, restore=False)
- hermes_cli/skills_hub.py: do_reset() + wired into skills_command and
handle_skills_slash; added to the slash /skills help panel
- hermes_cli/main.py: argparse entry for 'hermes skills reset'
- tests/tools/test_skills_sync.py: 5 new tests covering the stuck-flag
repro, --restore, unknown-skill error, upstream-removed-skill, and
no-op on already-clean state
- website/docs/user-guide/features/skills.md: new 'Bundled skill updates'
section explaining the origin-hash mechanic + reset usage
_discover_bundled_skills() used the directory name to identify skills,
but skills_tool.py and skills_hub.py use the `name:` field from SKILL.md
frontmatter. This mismatch caused 9 builtin skills whose directory name
differs from their SKILL.md name to be written to .bundled_manifest
under the wrong key, so `hermes skills list` showed them as "local"
instead of "builtin".
Read the frontmatter name field (with directory-name fallback) so the
manifest keys match what the rest of the codebase expects.
Closes#6835
Centralizes two widely-duplicated patterns into hermes_constants.py:
1. get_hermes_home() — Path resolution for ~/.hermes (HERMES_HOME env var)
- Was copy-pasted inline across 30+ files as:
Path(os.getenv("HERMES_HOME", Path.home() / ".hermes"))
- Now defined once in hermes_constants.py (zero-dependency module)
- hermes_cli/config.py re-exports it for backward compatibility
- Removed local wrapper functions in honcho_integration/client.py,
tools/website_policy.py, tools/tirith_security.py, hermes_cli/uninstall.py
2. parse_reasoning_effort() — Reasoning effort string validation
- Was copy-pasted in cli.py, gateway/run.py, cron/scheduler.py
- Same validation logic: check against (xhigh, high, medium, low, minimal, none)
- Now defined once in hermes_constants.py, called from all 3 locations
- Warning log for unknown values kept at call sites (context-specific)
31 files changed, net +31 lines (125 insertions, 94 deletions)
Full test suite: 6179 passed, 0 failed