* fix(curator): defer first run and add --dry-run preview (#18373)
Curator was meant to run 7 days after install, not on the very first
gateway tick. On a fresh install (no .curator_state), should_run_now()
returned True immediately because last_run_at was None — so the gateway
cron ticker fired Curator against a fresh skill library moments after
'hermes update'. Combined with the binary 'agent-created' provenance
model (anything not bundled and not hub-installed), this consolidated
hand-authored user workflow skills without consent.
Changes:
- should_run_now(): first observation seeds last_run_at='now' and returns
False. The next real pass fires one full interval_hours later (7 days
by default), matching the original design intent.
- hermes curator run --dry-run: produces the same review report without
applying automatic transitions OR permitting the LLM to call
skill_manage / terminal mv. A DRY-RUN banner is prepended to the
prompt and the caller skips apply_automatic_transitions. State is
NOT advanced so a preview doesn't defer the next scheduled real pass.
- hermes update: prints a one-liner on fresh installs pointing at
--dry-run, pause, and the docs. Silent on steady state.
- Docs: curator.md and cli-commands.md explain the deferred first-run
behavior and warn that hand-written SKILL.md files share the
'agent-created' bucket, with guidance to pin or preview before the
first pass.
Tests:
- test_first_run_defers replaces the old 'first run always eligible'
assertion — same fixture, inverted expectation.
- test_maybe_run_curator_defers_on_fresh_install covers the gateway tick
path end-to-end.
- Three new dry-run tests cover state-advance suppression, prompt
banner injection, and apply_automatic_transitions skipping.
Fixes#18373.
* feat(curator): pre-run backup + rollback (#18373)
Every real curator pass now snapshots ~/.hermes/skills/ into
~/.hermes/skills/.curator_backups/<utc-iso>/skills.tar.gz before calling
apply_automatic_transitions or the LLM review. If a run consolidates or
archives something the user didn't want touched, 'hermes curator
rollback' restores the tree in one command. Dry-run is skipped — no
mutation means no snapshot needed.
Changes:
- agent/curator_backup.py (new): tar.gz snapshot + safe rollback. The
snapshot excludes .curator_backups/ (would recurse) and .hub/ (managed
by the skills hub). Extract refuses absolute paths and .. components,
and uses tarfile's filter='data' on Python 3.12+. Rollback takes a
pre-rollback safety snapshot FIRST, stages the current tree into
.rollback-staging-<ts>/ so the extract lands in an empty dir, and
cleans the staging dir on success. A failed extract restores the
staged contents.
- agent/curator.py: run_curator_review() calls curator_backup.
snapshot_skills(reason='pre-curator-run') before apply_automatic_
transitions. Best-effort — a failed snapshot logs at debug and the
run continues (a transient disk issue shouldn't silently disable
curator forever).
- hermes_cli/curator.py: new 'hermes curator backup' and 'hermes curator
rollback' subcommands. rollback supports --list, --id <ts>, -y.
- hermes_cli/config.py: curator.backup.{enabled, keep} config block
with sane defaults (enabled=true, keep=5).
- Docs: curator.md gets a 'Backups and rollback' section; cli-commands
.md table gets the new rows.
Tests (new file tests/agent/test_curator_backup.py, 16 cases):
- snapshot creates tarball + manifest with correct counts
- snapshot excludes .curator_backups/ (recursion guard) and .hub/
- snapshot disabled via config returns None without creating anything
- snapshot uniquifies ids within the same second (-01 suffix)
- prune honors keep count, newest-first
- list_backups + _resolve_backup cover newest-default and unknown-id
- rollback restores a deleted skill with content intact
- rollback is itself undoable — safety snapshot shows up in list_backups
- rollback with no snapshots returns an error
- rollback refuses tarballs with absolute paths or .. components
- real curator runs take a 'pre-curator-run' snapshot; dry-runs do not
All curator tests: 210 passing locally.
Voscko reported curator.auxiliary.provider/model was advertised in the
docs but ignored — the review fork read only model.provider/default. The
narrow fix would wire the one-off key through, but that leaves curator
as a parallel system: not in `hermes model` → auxiliary picker, not in
the dashboard Models tab, missing per-task base_url/api_key/timeout/
extra_body.
Unify curator with the rest of the aux task system so `hermes model`
and the dashboard configure it like every other aux task.
Four sources of truth updated:
- hermes_cli/config.py — add 'curator' slot to DEFAULT_CONFIG.auxiliary
(timeout=600 since reviews run long), drop the one-off curator.auxiliary
block from DEFAULT_CONFIG.curator.
- hermes_cli/main.py — add ('curator', 'Curator', 'skill-usage review pass')
to _AUX_TASKS so the CLI picker offers it.
- hermes_cli/web_server.py — add 'curator' to _AUX_TASK_SLOTS so the
dashboard REST endpoint accepts it.
- web/src/pages/ModelsPage.tsx — add Curator entry so the dashboard
Models tab renders the task.
agent/curator.py _resolve_review_model() now reads auxiliary.curator
first (canonical), falls back to legacy curator.auxiliary (with an info
log asking users to migrate), then falls back to the main chat model.
Pre-unification users keep working.
Docs updated: docs/user-guide/features/curator.md now points at
`hermes model` → auxiliary → Curator and the dashboard Models tab.
Tests: 6 unit tests on _resolve_review_model (auto default, canonical
slot honored, partial override fallback, legacy fallback with
deprecation log assertion, new-wins-over-legacy, empty-config safety)
plus a cross-registry test that curator is wired into all four sources
of truth. test_aux_tasks_keys_all_exist_in_default_config already
covers the DEFAULT_CONFIG ↔ _AUX_TASKS invariant.
Reported by Voscko on Discord.
Every curator pass now emits a dated report directory under
`~/.hermes/logs/curator/{YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS}/` with two files:
- `run.json` — machine-readable full record (before/after snapshot,
state transitions, all tool calls, model/provider, timing, full LLM
final response untruncated, error if any)
- `REPORT.md` — human-readable markdown: model + duration header,
auto-transition counts, LLM consolidation stats, archived-this-run
list, new-skills-this-run list, state transitions, the full LLM
final summary, and a recovery footer pointing at the archive + the
`hermes curator restore` command
Reports live under `logs/curator/`, not inside `skills/` — they're
operational telemetry, not user-authored skill data, and belong
alongside `agent.log` / `gateway.log`.
Internals:
- `_run_llm_review()` now returns a dict (final, summary, model,
provider, tool_calls, error) instead of a bare truncated string so
the reporter has full fidelity
- Report writer is fully best-effort — any failure logs at DEBUG and
never breaks the curator itself. Same-second rerun gets a numeric
suffix so reports can't clobber each other
- Report path stamped into `.curator_state` as `last_report_path`
- `hermes curator status` surfaces a "last report:" line so users
can immediately open the latest run
Tests (all green):
- 7 new tests in tests/agent/test_curator_reports.py covering: report
location (logs not skills), both files written, run.json shape and
diff accuracy, markdown structure, error path still writes, state
transitions captured, same-second runs get unique dirs
- Existing test_run_review_synchronous_invokes_llm_stub updated to
stub the new dict-returning _run_llm_review signature
Live E2E: ran a synchronous pass against a 1-skill test collection
with a stubbed LLM; report written correctly, state stamped with
last_report_path, markdown human-readable, run.json machine-parseable.
Based on three live test runs against 346 agent-created skills on the
author's own setup (~6.5 min, opus-4.7, 86 API calls), the curator
prompt needed three sharpenings before it consistently produced real
umbrella consolidation instead of passive audit output:
**Umbrella-first framing.** The original 'decide keep/patch/archive/
consolidate' framing lets opus default to 'keep' whenever two skills
aren't byte-identical. The new prompt explicitly tells the reviewer
that pairwise distinctness is the wrong bar — the right question is
'would a human maintainer write this as N separate skills, or one
skill with N labeled subsections?' Expect 10-25 prefix clusters; merge
each into an umbrella via one of three methods.
**Three concrete consolidation methods.** (a) Merge into an existing
umbrella (patch the broadest skill, archive siblings); (b) Create a
new umbrella SKILL.md (skill_manage action=create); (c) Demote
session-specific detail into references/, templates/, or scripts/
under the umbrella via skill_manage action=write_file, then archive
the narrow sibling. This matches the support-file vocabulary the
review-prompt side already uses (PR #17213).
**Two observed bailouts pre-empted:** 'usage counters are zero so I
can't judge' (rule 4: judge on content, not use_count) and 'each has
a distinct trigger' (rule 5: pairwise distinctness is the wrong bar).
**Config-aware parent inheritance.** _run_llm_review() was building
AIAgent() without explicit provider/model, hitting an auto-resolve
path that returned empty credentials → HTTP 400 'No models provided'
against OpenRouter. Fork now inherits the user's main provider and
model (via load_config + resolve_runtime_provider) before spawning —
runs on whatever the user is currently on, OAuth-backed or
pool-backed included.
**Unbounded iteration ceiling.** max_iterations=8 was way too low for
an umbrella-build pass over hundreds of skills. A live pass takes
50-100 API calls (scanning, clustering, skill_view'ing candidates,
patching umbrellas, mv'ing siblings). Raised to 9999 — the natural
stopping criterion is 'no more clusters worth processing', not an
arbitrary tool-call budget.
**Tests updated:** test_curator_review_prompt_has_invariants accepts
DO NOT / MUST NOT and drops 'keep' from the required-verb set (the
umbrella-first prompt correctly deemphasizes 'keep' as a first-class
decision label since passive keep-everything is the failure mode
being prevented). Added test_curator_review_prompt_is_umbrella_first
asserting the umbrella framing, class-level thinking, references/
+ templates/ + scripts/ support-file mentions, and the 'use_count
is not evidence of value' pre-emption. Added
test_curator_review_prompt_offers_support_file_actions asserting
skill_manage action=create and action=write_file are both named.
**Live validation on author's setup:**
- Run 1 (old prompt): 3 archives, stopped after surveying — typical passive outcome
- Run 2 (consolidation prompt): 44 archives, 3 patches, surfaced the 50-skill mlops reorg duplicate bug but didn't umbrella
- Run 3 (this prompt): 249 archives + 18 new class-level umbrellas created, reducing agent-created skills from 346 → 118 with every archived skill's content preserved as references/ under its umbrella. Pinned skill untouched. Full report in PR description.
Weekly is closer to how skill churn actually works — most agent-created
skills don't change multiple times per day, so a daily review is pure
cost without benefit. Bumping the default to 7 days reduces aux-model
spend while still catching drift and staleness on the timescales that
matter (30d stale, 90d archive).
Changes:
- DEFAULT_INTERVAL_HOURS: 24 -> 168 (7 days)
- config.yaml default: interval_hours: 24 -> 24 * 7
- CLI status line renders as '7d' when interval is a whole-day multiple
- Test `test_old_run_eligible` decoupled from the exact default: it now
uses 2 * get_interval_hours() so future tweaks don't break it
Previous invariants only gated the primary entry points
(apply_automatic_transitions, archive_skill, CLI pin). Several paths
were unprotected:
- bump_view / bump_use / bump_patch / set_state / set_pinned wrote
usage records unconditionally, which is confusing noise in
.usage.json even though the review list filtered them out
- restore_skill did not check whether a bundled skill now shadows
the archived name
- CLI unpin was asymmetric with CLI pin — it had no gate
Fixes:
- _mutate() (the shared counter / state writer) now drops silently
when the skill is not agent-created. .usage.json never gains a
record for a bundled or hub-installed skill.
- restore_skill() refuses to restore under a name that is now
bundled or hub-installed (would shadow upstream).
- CLI unpin gate matches CLI pin.
New tests:
- 5 provenance-guard tests on skill_usage (one per mutator)
- 1 end-to-end test that hammers every mutator at a bundled skill
and a hub skill, asserts both are untouched on disk, and asserts
the sidecar stays clean
- 2 CLI tests proving pin/unpin refuse bundled skills symmetrically
64/64 tests passing (29 skill_usage + 27 curator + 8 new guards).
The LLM review prompt mentioned bespoke `archive_skill` and `pin_skill`
tools that are not registered as model tools. Swap the prompt to rely
on the real surface:
- skill_manage action=patch — for patching and consolidation
- terminal — to `mv` skill dirs into .archive/
Also drop `pin` from the model's decision list — pinning is a user
opt-out for `hermes curator pin <skill>`, not something the model
should do autonomously.
Decision list is now: keep / patch / consolidate / archive.
Tests updated: prompt-invariant test now asserts the existing tools
are referenced and that bespoke tool names do NOT appear. New test
prevents `pin` from being re-added as a model decision.
Adds the Curator — an auxiliary-model background task that periodically
reviews AGENT-CREATED skills and keeps the collection tidy: tracks usage,
transitions unused skills through active → stale → archived, and spawns
a forked AIAgent to consolidate overlaps and patch drift.
Default: enabled, inactivity-triggered (no cron daemon). Runs on CLI
startup and gateway boot when the last run is older than interval_hours
(default 24) AND the agent has been idle for min_idle_hours (default 2).
Invariants (all load-bearing):
- Never touches bundled or hub-installed skills (.bundled_manifest +
.hub/lock.json double-filter)
- Never auto-deletes — archive only. Archives are recoverable
via `hermes curator restore <skill>`
- Pinned skills bypass all auto-transitions
- Uses the aux client; never touches the main session's prompt cache
New files:
- tools/skill_usage.py — sidecar .usage.json telemetry, atomic writes,
provenance filter
- agent/curator.py — orchestrator: config, idle gating, state-machine
transitions (pure, no LLM), forked-agent review prompt
- hermes_cli/curator.py — `hermes curator {status,run,pause,resume,
pin,unpin,restore}` subcommand
- tests/tools/test_skill_usage.py — 29 tests
- tests/agent/test_curator.py — 25 tests
Modified files (surgical patches):
- tools/skills_tool.py — bump view_count on successful skill_view
- tools/skill_manager_tool.py — bump patch_count on skill_manage
patch/edit/write_file/remove_file; forget record on delete
- hermes_cli/config.py — add curator: section to DEFAULT_CONFIG
- hermes_cli/commands.py — add /curator CommandDef with subcommands
- hermes_cli/main.py — register `hermes curator` subparser via
register_cli() from hermes_cli.curator
- cli.py — /curator slash-command dispatch + startup hook
- gateway/run.py — gateway-boot hook (mirrors CLI)
Validation:
- 54 new tests across skill_usage + curator, all passing in 3s
- 346 tests across all touched files' neighbors green
- 2783 tests across hermes_cli/ + gateway/test_run_progress_topics.py green
- CLI smoke: `hermes curator status/pause/resume` work end-to-end
Companion to PR #16026 (class-first skill review prompt) — together
they form a loop: the review prompt stops near-duplicate skill creation
at the source, and the curator prunes/consolidates what still accumulates.
Refs #7816.
