docs(s6): document container supervision; doctor + skill + user-guide updates

Phase 5 of the s6-overlay supervision plan. Documentation + small
diagnostic cleanups; no behavior changes.

website/docs/user-guide/docker.md:
  - Replace the old 'entrypoint script does the bootstrap' section
    with the s6-overlay boot flow (cont-init.d/01-hermes-setup,
    cont-init.d/02-reconcile-profiles, static main-hermes + dashboard
    services, ENTRYPOINT-as-main-program pattern).
  - Add a 'Per-profile gateway supervision' subsection covering the
    new lifecycle commands, restart semantics, log persistence, and
    'Manager: s6 (container supervisor)' status reporting.
  - Add 'Breaking change vs. pre-s6 images' callout naming the
    /init ENTRYPOINT and pointing affected wrappers at the pin
    workaround.

website/docs/user-guide/profiles.md:
  - Add a note under 'Persistent services' pointing container users
    at the docker.md section explaining s6 supervision inside the
    image. Host-side systemd/launchd documentation is unchanged.

skills/software-development/hermes-s6-container-supervision/SKILL.md:
  - New maintainer skill covering the supervision-tree map, file
    layout, the Architecture B rationale (cont-init.d args + halt
    exit-code propagation), quick recipes, and the 8 pitfalls we hit
    while implementing the plan (PATH-without-/command, root-owned
    profile dirs, SOUL.md as marker, the '143' anti-pattern, etc.).

hermes_cli/doctor.py:
  - _check_gateway_service_linger skips on s6 (the linger concept
    doesn't apply inside the container).
  - New _check_s6_supervision section reports main-hermes/dashboard
    state and per-profile-gateway count (registered vs supervised
    up), only inside the s6 container. Host doctor output unchanged.
  - External Tools / Docker check no longer emits a 'docker not
    found' warning inside the container; prints an explanatory
    info line instead. Still respects an explicit TERMINAL_ENV=docker
    (in case the user mounted /var/run/docker.sock).

hermes_cli/gateway.py:
  - Document _container_systemd_operational more precisely: it's
    NOT for our Hermes Docker image (s6-overlay handles that via
    detect_service_manager() == 's6'). It still covers
    systemd-nspawn / k8s-with-systemd-init cases, so leaving it in
    place is correct; the docstring just makes that explicit.

Test harness (verification, no test changes in this commit):
  19 passed, 0 xfailed. 66 service-manager / container-boot /
  profiles-s6-hooks / gateway-s6-dispatch unit tests still green.
  61 doctor tests still green. Hadolint + shellcheck clean.

Refs: docs/plans/2026-05-07-s6-overlay-dynamic-subagent-gateways.md
This commit is contained in:
Ben 2026-05-21 17:05:32 +10:00
parent 57c6e29666
commit 7d07dd60a8
5 changed files with 314 additions and 13 deletions

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@ -261,24 +261,51 @@ The official image is based on `debian:13.4` and includes:
- Python 3 with all Hermes dependencies (`uv pip install -e ".[all]"`)
- Node.js + npm (for browser automation and WhatsApp bridge)
- Playwright with Chromium (`npx playwright install --with-deps chromium --only-shell`)
- ripgrep, ffmpeg, git, and tini as system utilities
- ripgrep, ffmpeg, git, and `xz-utils` as system utilities
- **`docker-cli`** — so agents running inside the container can drive the host's Docker daemon (bind-mount `/var/run/docker.sock` to opt in) for `docker build`, `docker run`, container inspection, etc.
- **`openssh-client`** — enables the [SSH terminal backend](/docs/user-guide/configuration#ssh-backend) from inside the container. The SSH backend shells out to the system `ssh` binary; without this, it failed silently in containerized installs.
- The WhatsApp bridge (`scripts/whatsapp-bridge/`)
- **[`s6-overlay`](https://github.com/just-containers/s6-overlay) v3** as PID 1 (replaces the older `tini`) — supervises the dashboard and per-profile gateways with auto-restart on crash, reaps zombie subprocesses, and forwards signals.
The entrypoint script (`docker/entrypoint.sh`) bootstraps the data volume on first run:
- Creates the directory structure (`sessions/`, `memories/`, `skills/`, etc.)
- Copies `.env.example``.env` if no `.env` exists
- Copies default `config.yaml` if missing
- Copies default `SOUL.md` if missing
- Syncs bundled skills using a manifest-based approach (preserves user edits)
- Optionally launches `hermes dashboard` as a background side-process when `HERMES_DASHBOARD=1` (see [Running the dashboard](#running-the-dashboard))
- Then runs `hermes` with whatever arguments you pass
The container's `ENTRYPOINT` is s6-overlay's `/init`. On boot it:
1. Runs `/etc/cont-init.d/01-hermes-setup` (= `docker/stage2-hook.sh`) as root: optional UID/GID remap, fixes volume ownership, seeds `.env` / `config.yaml` / `SOUL.md` on first boot, syncs bundled skills.
2. Runs `/etc/cont-init.d/02-reconcile-profiles` (= `hermes_cli.container_boot`): walks `$HERMES_HOME/profiles/<name>/`, recreates the per-profile gateway s6 service slot under `/run/service/gateway-<profile>/`, and auto-starts only those whose last recorded state was `running` (see [Per-profile gateway supervision](#per-profile-gateway-supervision)).
3. Starts the static `main-hermes` and `dashboard` s6-rc services.
4. Exec's the container's CMD as the main program (`/opt/hermes/docker/main-wrapper.sh`), which routes the arguments the user passed to `docker run`:
- no args → `hermes` (the default)
- first arg is an executable on PATH (e.g. `sleep`, `bash`) → exec it directly
- anything else → `hermes <args>` (subcommand passthrough)
The container exits when this main program exits, with its exit code.
:::warning
Do not override the image entrypoint unless you keep `/opt/hermes/docker/entrypoint.sh` in the command chain. The entrypoint drops root privileges to the `hermes` user before gateway state files are created. Starting `hermes gateway run` as root inside the official image is refused by default because it can leave root-owned files in `/opt/data` and break later dashboard or gateway starts. Set `HERMES_ALLOW_ROOT_GATEWAY=1` only when you intentionally accept that risk.
:::warning Breaking change vs. pre-s6 images
The container ENTRYPOINT is now `/init` (s6-overlay), not `/usr/bin/tini`. All five documented `docker run` invocation patterns (no args, `chat -q "…"`, `sleep infinity`, `bash`, `--tui`) behave identically to the tini-based image. If you have a downstream wrapper that depended on tini-specific signal behavior or hard-coded `/usr/bin/tini --` invocation, pin to the previous image tag.
:::
:::warning Privilege model
Do not override the image entrypoint unless you keep `/init` (or, equivalently, the legacy `docker/entrypoint.sh` shim that forwards to the stage2 hook) in the command chain. s6-overlay's `/init` runs as root so it can chown the volume on first boot, then drops to the `hermes` user via `s6-setuidgid` for every supervised service AND for the main program. Starting `hermes gateway run` as root inside the official image is refused by default because it can leave root-owned files in `/opt/data` and break later dashboard or gateway starts. Set `HERMES_ALLOW_ROOT_GATEWAY=1` only when you intentionally accept that risk.
:::
### Per-profile gateway supervision
Inside the container, each profile created with `hermes profile create <name>` automatically gets an s6-supervised gateway service registered at `/run/service/gateway-<name>/`. The lifecycle commands you'd run on the host work the same way:
```sh
hermes profile create coder # registers gateway-coder s6 slot
hermes -p coder gateway start # s6-svc -u → supervised gateway
hermes -p coder gateway stop # s6-svc -d → service down
hermes -p coder gateway restart # s6-svc -t → SIGTERM the supervisor
hermes profile delete coder # tears down the s6 slot
```
**Supervision benefits over the pre-s6 image:**
- Gateway crashes are auto-restarted by `s6-supervise` after a ~1s backoff.
- Dashboard crashes are auto-restarted (set `HERMES_DASHBOARD=1` to start it).
- `docker restart` preserves running gateways: the cont-init reconciler reads `$HERMES_HOME/profiles/<name>/gateway_state.json` and brings the slot back up if the last recorded state was `running`. Stopped gateways stay stopped.
- Per-profile gateway logs persist under `$HERMES_HOME/logs/gateways/<profile>/current` (rotated by `s6-log`), and the reconciler's actions are appended to `$HERMES_HOME/logs/container-boot.log` per boot.
`hermes status` inside the container reports `Manager: s6 (container supervisor)`. Use `/command/s6-svstat /run/service/gateway-<name>` for the raw supervisor view (note `/command/` is on PATH for supervision-tree processes only; pass the absolute path when calling from `docker exec`).
## Upgrading
Pull the latest image and recreate the container. Your data directory is untouched.

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@ -172,6 +172,10 @@ assistant gateway install # creates hermes-gateway-assistant service
Each profile gets its own service name. They run independently.
:::note Inside the official Docker image
Per-profile gateways are supervised by [s6-overlay](https://github.com/just-containers/s6-overlay) (PID 1 in the container), so `hermes profile create <name>` automatically registers an s6 service slot at `/run/service/gateway-<name>/`. `hermes -p <name> gateway start/stop/restart` dispatches to `s6-svc` instead of spawning a bare process — crashes are auto-restarted and `docker restart` preserves the previously-running set of gateways. See [Per-profile gateway supervision](/docs/user-guide/docker#per-profile-gateway-supervision) for details.
:::
## Configuring profiles
Each profile has its own: