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hermes-agent/docs
Michael Jordan e8237050fc docs(agent): state the real cost, and make model choice the main knob
Three corrections, all from measuring a real 3.5 hour session rather than
reasoning about the design.

"During the idle moment after a response" was wrong. A pass is a real call
to the compression model at the end of a turn: the answer has streamed, but
the turn does not close until it finishes. Measured 2 to 37 seconds, median
around 31, on a small local model. Say so.

Add the choice of `auxiliary.compression` model as its own section, because
it dominates everything else here. A pass sends only a few thousand tokens
but runs every turn, so latency is felt repeatedly, and reasoning models are
a poor fit -- merging one exchange into a summary is mechanical work, and a
thinking model spends reasoning tokens on it for no benefit. Two measured
data points are given as illustrations of the shape, explicitly not as
recommendations: the right answer depends on the operator's hardware.

Add what a working session actually looks like: occupancy climbing to ~22%
and flattening (equilibrium -- 4,841 tokens added between the last two
passes, 4,395 reclaimed), zero batch compactions, and reclamation only
ramping after the tail budget is crossed. Also state the cost in the same
breath rather than burying it.

Frame the feature as a tuning option rather than a win: it lets you choose
how the compression cost is distributed and which model pays it. It is not
a magic bullet and the docs should not imply otherwise.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-31 17:44:19 +05:30
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