GoalManager.set() on an event-loop thread only waits the bounded
_DB_BOOTSTRAP_INIT_WAIT_S window for the background SessionDB bootstrap
(deliberate: an unbounded init starved the gateway loop watchdog). On a
loaded CI runner the cold init overruns that window, the goal write is
silently dropped by design, and the test flakes downstream: /loop showed
no active-goal note and the goal continuation was never enqueued (both
FLAKY on main run 33455779041).
Fix the class: every async goal test fixture that clears goals._DB_CACHE
now pre-warms it via _get_session_db() from sync context (unbounded init
path), so the bounded-window degradation can never fire mid-test. Applied
to all four gateway goal/loop test files; sync-only goal tests are
unaffected by construction.
Live repro: slowing SessionDB.__init__ past the window reproduces the
dropped write deterministically without the pre-warm and never with it.
A fresh state.db init (schema DDL, FTS tables, first config import)
measures ~300ms warm on a fast machine. The gateway constructs
GoalManager on the event-loop thread, and a cold cache ran that init
behind a 0.25s bootstrap grace window: on a slow CI box the /goal set
path's waits expired and save_goal silently no-oped — the reply said
"Goal set (7-turn budget)..." but nothing persisted, and a fresh
GoalManager read back no state (first assertion passes, second fails).
Two changes, one per caller shape:
- Async callers (_get_goal_manager_for_event,
_get_heartbeat_manager_for_event, _post_turn_goal_continuation, and
the heartbeat poller) warm the SessionDB cache off-loop through the
context-preserving executor before constructing the manager (shared
_warm_goals_session_db helper). The loop never blocks and the first
write lands at any init duration. A bare to_thread would lose the
per-turn profile home override under multiplex; the executor hop
keeps it (same pattern as the goal judge path).
- Sync callers (heartbeat persistence, _goal_still_active_for_session)
cannot await, so the bootstrap windows stay: the call that starts the
bootstrap waits a one-time init window (1.5s) instead of the short
per-call window (0.25s), giving healthy cold inits room to land while
a contended migration still degrades to None with only a bounded
one-time stall. The bootstrap thread binds the caller's home as a
contextvar override so a multiplexed worker cannot cache the default
profile's DB under another profile's key.
save_goal and heartbeat save_state now log at WARNING when they drop a
write, because the reply has already told the user the state was set.
Regression test pins the contract: init past the window, write
persists, loop gap under 2s (the flake-policy floor for wall-clock
bounds; the slow-init margin grew to match, so the test still tells
on-loop from off-loop).
Independent diagnosis + measurement by jackulau (#88965 review); the
off-loop warm-up shape follows their harness table. Simplify-code
review (4-agent) contributed the helper extraction and the poller
warm-up.
Streamed replies return None so the adapter does not send twice.
The /loop hook then saw empty text and never ran, so
awaiting_response stayed true and later ticks never fired.
Stash the delivered text on the event and use it for the post-turn
hooks. /goal uses the same path.
Tests: tests/gateway/test_loop_command.py
Ports Claude Code's /loop (and its /proactive alias) across every Hermes
surface. /loop [interval] <prompt> re-runs a prompt or slash command on a
recurring cadence inside the live session; omitting the interval enables
self-paced mode (starts at the floor, backs off exponentially while the
agent's replies stop changing, snaps back on change — local digest
comparison, zero extra LLM cost).
Stop conditions: agent-emitted LOOP_COMPLETE marker, --times N,
--until <condition> (judged by the existing goal_judge aux task,
fail-open), /loop stop, and a loops.max_ticks backstop budget.
Core: hermes_cli/loops.py (LoopState + LoopManager + shared
dispatch_loop_command), persisted per session in SessionDB state_meta
(loop:<sid>) so /resume picks it up; migrates across compression
boundaries like /goal. New SessionDB.list_meta_prefix() powers the
gateway's cross-session scan.
Surfaces:
- CLI: /loop handler + idle-fire and post-turn-complete hooks in
process_loop (mirrors the /goal hook shape; Ctrl+C pauses the loop)
- Gateway: /loop handler with route capture, mid-run control-verb guard,
post-turn tick completion, and a supervised loop_wakeup_watcher that
injects due wakeups into idle chats via the synthetic-message path
- TUI/dashboard/desktop: command.dispatch handler + per-session
notification-poller wakeup driver + post-turn completion in the turn
dispatcher; /loop added to the desktop slash palette
- /goal mixing: an active non-parked goal owns the idle boundary — loop
ticks defer until it finishes, pauses, or parks; real user input always
wins over both
Config: loops.{min_interval_seconds,max_ticks,self_paced_floor_seconds,
self_paced_ceiling_seconds}. Docs page + sidebar entry. 77 new tests.
Slack's 50-slash cap: /version moves to /hermes version to free the
native slot for /loop.
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