de9d480413
Path.read_text() and Path.write_text() without encoding= default to the system locale (cp1252 on Windows), which corrupts non-ASCII JSON content. Coverage-gap fix for files not addressed by prior encoding PRs: - tools/skills_hub.py: 6 read_text + 8 write_text (cache, index, lock files) - tools/skills_sync.py: 1 read_text (lock file) - tools/xai_http.py: 1 read_text + 1 write_text (auth store, marker) - agent/shell_hooks.py: 1 read_text (allowlist) - gateway/status.py: 1 read_text (PID file) - hermes_cli/banner.py: 1 read_text + 1 write_text (update cache) All sites read/write JSON or short text. No behavioral change on Linux (already UTF-8); fixes silent data corruption on Windows.