From 960ea8a849dee4d4c4475d321b82e6da314dd2eb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Brooklyn Nicholson <brooklyn.bb.nicholson@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 29 May 2026 23:26:31 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] fix(dashboard): honor injected HERMES_DASHBOARD_SESSION_TOKEN

The desktop shell mints a session token and signs its /api + /api/ws
calls with it via HERMES_DASHBOARD_SESSION_TOKEN, but the main-merge
restored a web_server.py that ignored the env var and minted its own
random _SESSION_TOKEN -- so every desktop request 401'd and the UI
reported "gateway offline". Read the injected token (fall back to a
fresh random one) so loopback HTTP + WS auth line up.

Adds a regression test so a future merge can't silently drop the read.
---
 hermes_cli/web_server.py            |  9 ++++++---
 tests/hermes_cli/test_web_server.py | 29 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 35 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/hermes_cli/web_server.py b/hermes_cli/web_server.py
index 40dd9e2efff..10f20dc35ad 100644
--- a/hermes_cli/web_server.py
+++ b/hermes_cli/web_server.py
@@ -85,10 +85,13 @@ app = FastAPI(title="Hermes Agent", version=__version__)
 
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Session token for protecting sensitive endpoints (reveal).
-# Generated fresh on every server start — dies when the process exits.
-# Injected into the SPA HTML so only the legitimate web UI can use it.
+# The desktop shell mints the token and injects it via
+# HERMES_DASHBOARD_SESSION_TOKEN so its main process can authenticate the
+# /api calls it makes on the user's behalf; otherwise we generate one fresh
+# on every server start. Either way it dies when the process exits and is
+# injected into the SPA HTML so only the legitimate web UI can use it.
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-_SESSION_TOKEN = secrets.token_urlsafe(32)
+_SESSION_TOKEN = os.environ.get("HERMES_DASHBOARD_SESSION_TOKEN") or secrets.token_urlsafe(32)
 _SESSION_HEADER_NAME = "X-Hermes-Session-Token"
 
 # In-browser Chat tab (/chat, /api/pty, …).  Off unless ``hermes dashboard --tui``
diff --git a/tests/hermes_cli/test_web_server.py b/tests/hermes_cli/test_web_server.py
index 04774113c63..7bc5c5185ac 100644
--- a/tests/hermes_cli/test_web_server.py
+++ b/tests/hermes_cli/test_web_server.py
@@ -89,6 +89,35 @@ class TestRedactKey:
         assert "not set" in result.lower() or result == "***" or "\x1b" in result
 
 
+class TestSessionTokenInjection:
+    """The desktop shell mints HERMES_DASHBOARD_SESSION_TOKEN and signs its
+    /api + /api/ws calls with it. The backend must adopt that token, else every
+    desktop request 401s ("gateway is offline"). A main-merge once silently
+    dropped this read — this guards the contract, not a literal value.
+    """
+
+    def test_honors_injected_token(self, monkeypatch):
+        import importlib
+        import hermes_cli.web_server as ws
+
+        monkeypatch.setenv("HERMES_DASHBOARD_SESSION_TOKEN", "desktop-seeded-token")
+        try:
+            importlib.reload(ws)
+            assert ws._SESSION_TOKEN == "desktop-seeded-token"
+        finally:
+            monkeypatch.delenv("HERMES_DASHBOARD_SESSION_TOKEN", raising=False)
+            importlib.reload(ws)
+
+    def test_falls_back_to_random_token(self, monkeypatch):
+        import importlib
+        import hermes_cli.web_server as ws
+
+        monkeypatch.delenv("HERMES_DASHBOARD_SESSION_TOKEN", raising=False)
+        importlib.reload(ws)
+
+        assert ws._SESSION_TOKEN and len(ws._SESSION_TOKEN) >= 32
+
+
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # web_server tests (FastAPI endpoints)
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------