Cold CLI time-to-banner was ~1.8s (hermes) / ~2.8s (hermes -w). The banner
path was paying for work the session doesn't need before first input:
- aux availability probes built REAL OpenAI/httpx clients (openai import
~0.3s + SSL context) just to answer check_fns. New aux_probe_mode()
returns a cache-excluded stub; resolution policy unchanged.
- tools/mcp_tool imported the mcp SDK (~260ms, mcp.types pydantic model
construction) at module import even with zero MCP servers configured.
SDK import is now lazy behind _ensure_mcp_sdk(); _MCP_AVAILABLE is a
find_spec probe so every existing gate/test keeps its semantics.
- banner blocked 500ms on the update-check prefetch; now waits 50ms and
defers the warning line to a daemon thread (prints above the prompt).
- banner recomputed get_tool_definitions + skills scan + git state every
launch; now snapshotted to ~/.hermes/cache/banner_snapshot.json keyed on
(config.yaml, .env, checkout rev, toolsets) and replayed on warm launches
with a background refresh. Agent tool list is still computed fresh.
- _resolve_active_context_length probed the Nous portal /models (~200ms
network) per launch; the tool-search gate now prefers the on-disk
context cache when present.
- schema reconciliation re-executed SCHEMA_SQL in a scratch SQLite DB
(~85ms) per SessionDB(); the reference parse is now disk-memoized by
DDL hash (live-DB diffing still runs every startup).
- bundled-skills sync (~120-170ms rglob/hash) moved off the startup path
to a daemon thread; plugin discovery starts in the background and every
synchronous consumer joins via discover_plugins().
- hermes_cli.auth imported httpx eagerly (~30ms); now a lazy proxy that
test monkeypatching still reaches (setattr forwards to the real module).
- fast chat launch: unambiguous 'hermes'/'hermes chat' invocations skip
building all ~40 subcommand parsers (bails to full dispatch on anything
else, incl. container mode).
- -w path: git worktree add runs with checkout.workers=8 (0.6s→0.2s) and
overlaps HermesCLI construction; --skills preload runs in the background
and is folded in at agent init (finalize_preloaded_skills, same
fail-loud contract for fully-unknown skill lists); stale-worktree prune
moved off the banner path.
Warm results (PTY time-to-banner, 5-run): hermes 1.80s → 0.38-0.40s;
hermes -w -s hermes-agent-dev --yolo 2.82s → 0.57-0.69s.
Remove unused imports (F401) and duplicate/shadowed import
redefinitions (F811) across the codebase using ruff's safe
autofixes. No behavioral changes -- imports only.
- ~1400 safe autofixes applied across 644 files (net -1072 lines)
- __init__.py re-exports preserved (excluded from F401 removal so
public re-export surfaces stay intact)
- Re-exports that are imported or monkeypatched by tests but look
unused in their defining module are kept with explicit # noqa:
F401 (gateway/run.py load_dotenv; run_agent re-exports from
agent.message_sanitization, agent.context_compressor,
agent.retry_utils, agent.prompt_builder, agent.process_bootstrap,
agent.codex_responses_adapter)
- Unsafe F841 (unused-variable) fixes deliberately skipped -- those
can change behavior when the RHS has side effects
- ruff lints remain disabled in pyproject.toml (only PLW1514 is
selected); this is a one-time cleanup, not a config change
Verification:
- python -m compileall: clean
- pytest --collect-only: all 27161 tests collect (zero import errors)
- core entry points import clean (run_agent, model_tools, cli,
toolsets, hermes_state, batch_runner, gateway)
- static scan: every name any test imports directly from an edited
module still resolves
* fix: banner skill count now respects disabled skills and platform filtering
The banner's get_available_skills() was doing a raw rglob scan of
~/.hermes/skills/ without checking:
- Whether skills are disabled (skills.disabled config)
- Whether skills match the current platform (platforms: frontmatter)
This caused the banner to show inflated skill counts (e.g. '100 skills'
when many are disabled) and list macOS-only skills on Linux.
Fix: delegate to _find_all_skills() from tools/skills_tool which already
handles both platform gating and disabled-skill filtering.
* fix: system prompt and slash commands now respect disabled skills
Two more places where disabled skills were still surfaced:
1. build_skills_system_prompt() in prompt_builder.py — disabled skills
appeared in the <available_skills> system prompt section, causing
the agent to suggest/load them despite being disabled.
2. scan_skill_commands() in skill_commands.py — disabled skills still
registered as /skill-name slash commands in CLI help and could be
invoked.
Both now load _get_disabled_skill_names() and filter accordingly.
* fix: skill_view blocks disabled skills
skill_view() checked platform compatibility but not disabled state,
so the agent could still load and read disabled skills directly.
Now returns a clear error when a disabled skill is requested, telling
the user to enable it via hermes skills or inspect the files manually.
---------
Co-authored-by: Test <test@test.com>
Teknium