Extend curator's pin flag from 'skip auto-transitions' to 'no agent
edits at all'. All five skill_manage mutation actions (edit, patch,
delete, write_file, remove_file) now refuse pinned skills with a
message pointing the user at `hermes curator unpin <name>`.
Motivation: pin used to only stop the curator's own maintenance pass
from touching a skill. Nothing prevented the main agent from editing
or deleting a pinned skill via skill_manage in-session. This gives
users a hard fence against unwanted agent edits — same semantics as
curator pinning, extended to the write tool.
Create is unaffected (you can't pin a name that doesn't exist yet,
and name collisions already error out). Broken sidecars fail open
rather than lock the agent out.
The schema description advertises the new refusal so models know
not to route around it with rename/recreate tricks.
Closes#4759, closes#4381.
Mutating actions (patch, edit, write_file, remove_file, delete) used to
refuse skills that lived under `skills.external_dirs` with 'Skill X is in
an external directory and cannot be modified. Copy it to your local skills
directory first.' Faced with that error, the agent would fall back to
action='create', which always writes under ~/.hermes/skills/ — producing
a silent duplicate of the external skill in the local store.
Fix: drop the read-only gate. `skills.external_dirs` is configured by the
user; if they pointed it at a directory, they already said 'these are my
skills, treat them the same.' Filesystem permissions handle the genuine
read-only case (write fails, agent sees the error).
- New _containing_skills_root() resolves whichever dir actually contains
the skill; _delete_skill uses it to bound empty-category cleanup so an
external root is never rmdir'd.
- _create_skill behavior is unchanged: new skills still land in local
SKILLS_DIR only. Fewer moving parts.
- Seven new TestExternalSkillMutations tests covering patch/edit/write_file/
remove_file/delete/create against a mocked two-root layout + a category
rmdir-safety check.
The "cfg.get('X', {}).get('Y', default)" pattern appears 50+ times
across tools/, gateway/, and plugins/. Each call site manually handles
the same three gotchas:
1. Missing intermediate key → empty dict → chain works
2. Non-dict value at intermediate position → AttributeError
(uncaught in most sites, so a misconfigured YAML crashes the tool)
3. cfg is None → AttributeError
Introduces cfg_get(cfg, *keys, default=None) in hermes_cli/config.py
as the canonical helper. Handles all three uniformly, returns default
only when the final key is *absent* (matches dict.get semantics —
explicit None values are preserved, falsy values like 0 / False / ''
are preserved).
Named cfg_get rather than cfg_path to avoid shadowing the existing
'cfg_path = _hermes_home / "config.yaml"' local variable that appears
in gateway/run.py, cron/scheduler.py, hermes_cli/main.py, etc.
Migrated 20 call sites as the first-batch proof-of-value:
gateway/run.py 10 sites (agent/display subtrees)
tools/browser_tool.py 3 sites
tools/vision_tools.py 2 sites
tools/browser_camofox.py 1 site
tools/approval.py 1 site
tools/skills_tool.py 1 site
tools/skill_manager_tool.py 1 site
tools/credential_files.py 1 site
tools/env_passthrough.py 1 site
The remaining ~30 sites across plugins/ and smaller tool files can be
migrated opportunistically — the helper is now available and the
pattern is established.
Fixed a latent bug along the way: tools/vision_tools.py had its
cfg_get usage at line 560 inside a function that locally re-imports
'from hermes_cli.config import load_config', but the AST-based
migration script wrote the top-level cfg_get import to a different
function scope, leaving line 560's cfg_get as a NameError silently
swallowed by the surrounding try/except. Test
test_vision_uses_configured_temperature_and_timeout caught it. Fixed
by including cfg_get in the function-local import.
Verified:
- 7880/7893 tests/tools/ + tests/gateway/ + tests/hermes_cli/test_config
tests pass; all 13 failures pre-existing on main (MCP, delegate,
session_split_brain — verified earlier in the sweep).
- All 20 migrated sites AST-verified to have cfg_get in scope (either
module-level or function-local).
- Live 'hermes chat' smoke: 2 turns + /model switch + tool calls +
/quit, zero errors. Agent correctly counted 20 cfg_get hits across
8 tool files — matching the migration.
Semantic parity verified against the original pattern across 8 edge
cases (missing keys, None values, falsy values, empty strings, string
instead of dict, None cfg, nested levels).
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.
Extract the islink/realpath guard from the 16743 fix into a single
atomic_replace() helper in utils.py, then migrate every os.replace()
call site in the codebase to use it.
The original PR #16777 correctly identified and fixed the bug, but
only patched 9 of ~24 call sites. The same bug class (managed
deployments that symlink state files silently losing the link on
every write) still existed at auth.json, sessions file, gateway
config, env_loader, webhook subscriptions, debug store, model
catalog, pairing, google OAuth, nous rate guard, and more.
Rather than add another 10+ copies of the same three-line guard,
consolidate into atomic_replace(tmp, target) which:
- resolves symlinks via os.path.realpath before os.replace
- returns the resolved real path so callers can re-apply permissions
- is a drop-in replacement for os.replace at the use sites
Changes:
- utils.py: new atomic_replace() helper + atomic_json_write /
atomic_yaml_write now call it instead of inlining the guard
- 16 files: all os.replace() call sites migrated to atomic_replace()
- agent/{google_oauth, nous_rate_guard, shell_hooks}.py
- cron/jobs.py
- gateway/{pairing, session, platforms/telegram}.py
- hermes_cli/{auth, config, debug, env_loader, model_catalog, webhook}.py
- tools/{memory_tool, skill_manager_tool, skills_sync}.py
Tests: tests/test_atomic_replace_symlinks.py pins the invariant for
atomic_replace + atomic_json_write + atomic_yaml_write, covers plain
files, first-time creates, broken symlinks, and permission preservation.
Refs #16743
Builds on #16777 by @vominh1919.
os.replace(tmp, path) replaces the symlink itself with a regular file,
breaking users who symlink config.yaml, SOUL.md, or .env from ~/.hermes/
to a dotfiles repo or managed profile package.
Fix: resolve symlinks via os.path.realpath() before os.replace(), so the
real file is overwritten in-place while the symlink survives.
Fixed in 7 files covering all os.replace call sites:
- utils.py (atomic_json_write, atomic_yaml_write — fixes save_config)
- hermes_cli/config.py (env sanitizer, save_env_value, remove_env_value)
- tools/skill_manager_tool.py (_atomic_write_text — SOUL.md writes)
- tools/memory_tool.py (memory file writes)
- tools/skills_sync.py (manifest writes)
- cron/jobs.py (job state + output file writes)
- agent/shell_hooks.py (hook file writes)
FixesNousResearch/hermes-agent#16743
Replaces the blanket 'always allow' change from the previous commit with
an opt-in config flag so users who want belt-and-suspenders security can
still get the keyword scan on skill_manage output.
## Default behavior (flag off)
skill_manage(action='create'|'edit'|'patch') no longer runs the keyword
scanner. The agent can write skills that mention risky keywords in prose
(documenting what reviewers should watch for, describing cache-bust
semantics in a PR-review skill, referencing AGENTS.md, etc.) without
getting blocked.
Rationale: the agent can already execute the same code paths via
terminal() with no gate, so the scan adds friction without meaningful
security against a compromised or malicious agent.
## Opt-in behavior (flag on)
Set skills.guard_agent_created: true in config.yaml to get the original
behavior back. Scanner runs on every skill_manage write; dangerous
verdicts surface as a tool error the agent can react to (retry without
the flagged content).
## External hub installs unaffected
trusted/community sources (hermes skills install) always get scanned
regardless of this flag. The gate is specifically for skill_manage,
which only agents call.
## Changes
- hermes_cli/config.py: add skills.guard_agent_created: False to DEFAULT_CONFIG
- tools/skill_manager_tool.py: _guard_agent_created_enabled() reads the flag;
_security_scan_skill() short-circuits to None when the flag is off
- tools/skills_guard.py: restore INSTALL_POLICY['agent-created'] =
('allow', 'allow', 'ask') so the scan remains strict when it does run
- tests/tools/test_skills_guard.py: restore original ask/force tests
- tests/tools/test_skill_manager_tool.py: new TestSecurityScanGate class
covering both flag states + config error handling
## Validation
- tests/tools/test_skills_guard.py + test_skill_manager_tool.py: 115/115 pass
- E2E: flagged-keyword skill creates with default config, blocks with flag on
Follow-ups on top of @teyrebaz33's cherry-picked commit:
1. New shared helper format_no_match_hint() in fuzzy_match.py with a
startswith('Could not find') gate so the snippet only appends to
genuine no-match errors — not to 'Found N matches' (ambiguous),
'Escape-drift detected', or 'identical strings' errors, which would
all mislead the model.
2. file_tools.patch_tool suppresses the legacy generic '[Hint: old_string
not found...]' string when the rich 'Did you mean?' snippet is
already attached — no more double-hint.
3. Wire the same helper into patch_parser.py (V4A patch mode, both
_validate_operations and _apply_update) and skill_manager_tool.py so
all three fuzzy callers surface the hint consistently.
Tests: 7 new gating tests in TestFormatNoMatchHint cover every error
class (ambiguous, drift, identical, non-zero match count, None error,
no similar content, happy path). 34/34 test_fuzzy_match, 96/96
test_file_tools + test_patch_parser + test_skill_manager_tool pass.
E2E verified across all four scenarios: no-match-with-similar,
no-match-no-similar, ambiguous, success. V4A mode confirmed
end-to-end with a non-matching hunk.
* fix: show correct env var name in provider API key error (#9506)
The error message for missing provider API keys dynamically built
the env var name as PROVIDER_API_KEY (e.g. ALIBABA_API_KEY), but
some providers use different names (alibaba uses DASHSCOPE_API_KEY).
Users following the error message set the wrong variable.
Fix: look up the actual env var from PROVIDER_REGISTRY before
building the error. Falls back to the dynamic name if the registry
lookup fails.
Closes#9506
* fix: five HERMES_HOME profile-isolation leaks (#5947)
Bug A: Thread session_title from session_db to memory provider init kwargs
so honcho can derive chat-scoped session keys instead of falling back to
cwd-based naming that merges all gateway users into one session.
Bug B: Replace 14 hardcoded ~/.hermes/skills/ paths across 10 skill files
with HERMES_HOME-aware alternatives (${HERMES_HOME:-$HOME/.hermes} in
shell, os.environ.get('HERMES_HOME', ...) in Python).
Bug C: install.sh now respects HERMES_HOME env var and adds --hermes-home
flag. Previously --dir only set INSTALL_DIR while HERMES_HOME was always
hardcoded to $HOME/.hermes.
Bug D: Remove hardcoded ~/.hermes/honcho.json fallback in resolve_config_path().
Non-default profiles no longer silently inherit the default profile's honcho
config. Falls through to ~/.honcho/config.json (global) instead.
Bug E: Guard _edit_skill, _patch_skill, _delete_skill, _write_file, and
_remove_file against writing to skills found in external_dirs. Skills
outside the local SKILLS_DIR are now read-only from the agent's perspective.
Closes#5947
Tool schema descriptions and tool return values contained hardcoded
~/.hermes paths that the model sees and uses. When HERMES_HOME is set
to a custom path (Docker containers, profiles), the agent would still
reference ~/.hermes — looking at the wrong directory.
Fixes 6 locations across 5 files:
- tools/tts_tool.py: output_path schema description
- tools/cronjob_tools.py: script path schema description
- tools/skill_manager_tool.py: skill_manage schema description
- tools/skills_tool.py: two tool return messages
- agent/skill_commands.py: skill config injection text
All now use display_hermes_home() which resolves to the actual
HERMES_HOME path (e.g. /opt/data for Docker, ~/.hermes/profiles/X
for profiles, ~/.hermes for default).
Reported by: Sandeep Narahari (PrithviDevs)
- Bug 1: replace read_file(limit=10000) with read_file_raw in _apply_update,
preventing silent truncation of files >2000 lines and corruption of lines
>2000 chars; add read_file_raw to FileOperations abstract interface and
ShellFileOperations
- Bug 2: split apply_v4a_operations into validate-then-apply phases; if any
hunk fails validation, zero writes occur (was: continue after failure,
leaving filesystem partially modified)
- Bug 3: parse_v4a_patch now returns an error for begin-marker-with-no-ops,
empty file paths, and moves missing a destination (was: always returned
error=None)
- Bug 4: raise strategy 7 (block anchor) single-candidate similarity threshold
from 0.10 to 0.50, eliminating false-positive matches in repetitive code
- Bug 5: add _strategy_unicode_normalized (new strategy 7) with position
mapping via _build_orig_to_norm_map; smart quotes and em-dashes in
LLM-generated patches now match via strategies 1-6 before falling through
to fuzzy strategies
- Bug 6: extend fuzzy_find_and_replace to return 4-tuple (content, count,
error, strategy); update all 5 call sites across patch_parser.py,
file_operations.py, and skill_manager_tool.py
- Bug 7: guard in _apply_update returns error when addition-only context hint
is ambiguous (>1 occurrences); validation phase errors on both 0 and >1
- Bug 8: _apply_delete returns error (not silent success) on missing file
- Bug 9: _validate_operations checks source existence and destination absence
for MOVE operations before any write occurs
The config key skills.external_dirs and core resolution (get_all_skills_dirs,
get_external_skills_dirs in agent/skill_utils.py) already existed but several
code paths still only scanned SKILLS_DIR. Now external dirs are respected
everywhere:
- skills_categories(): scan all dirs for category discovery
- _get_category_from_path(): resolve categories against any skills root
- skill_manager_tool._find_skill(): search all dirs for edit/patch/delete
- credential_files.get_skills_directory_mount(): mount all dirs into
Docker/Singularity containers (external dirs at external_skills/<idx>)
- credential_files.iter_skills_files(): list files from all dirs for
Modal/Daytona upload
- tools/environments/ssh.py: rsync all skill dirs to remote hosts
- gateway _check_unavailable_skill(): check disabled skills across all dirs
Usage in config.yaml:
skills:
external_dirs:
- ~/repos/agent-skills/hermes
- /shared/team-skills
* feat(skills): add content size limits for agent-created skills
Agent writes via skill_manage (create/edit/patch/write_file) are now
constrained to prevent unbounded growth:
- SKILL.md and supporting files: 100,000 character limit
- Supporting files: additional 1 MiB byte limit
- Patches on oversized hand-placed skills that reduce the size are
allowed (shrink path), but patches that grow beyond the limit are
rejected
Hand-placed skills and hub-installed skills have NO hard limit —
they load and function normally regardless of size. Hub installs
get a warning in the log if SKILL.md exceeds 100k chars.
This mirrors the memory system's char_limit pattern. Without this,
the agent auto-grows skills indefinitely through iterative patches
(hermes-agent-dev reached 197k chars / 72k tokens — 40x larger than
the largest skill in the entire skills.sh ecosystem).
Constants: MAX_SKILL_CONTENT_CHARS (100k), MAX_SKILL_FILE_BYTES (1MiB)
Tests: 14 new tests covering all write paths and edge cases
* feat(skills): add fuzzy matching to skill patch
_patch_skill now uses the same 8-strategy fuzzy matching engine
(tools/fuzzy_match.py) as the file patch tool. Handles whitespace
normalization, indentation differences, escape sequences, and
block-anchor matching. Eliminates exact-match failures when agents
patch skills with minor formatting mismatches.
Validate category names in _create_skill() before using them as
filesystem path segments. Previously, categories like '../escape' or
'/tmp/pwned' could write skill files outside ~/.hermes/skills/.
Adds _validate_category() that rejects slashes, backslashes, absolute
paths, and non-alphanumeric characters (reuses existing VALID_NAME_RE).
Tests: 5 new tests for traversal, absolute paths, and valid categories.
Salvaged from PR #1939 by Gutslabs.
Centralizes two widely-duplicated patterns into hermes_constants.py:
1. get_hermes_home() — Path resolution for ~/.hermes (HERMES_HOME env var)
- Was copy-pasted inline across 30+ files as:
Path(os.getenv("HERMES_HOME", Path.home() / ".hermes"))
- Now defined once in hermes_constants.py (zero-dependency module)
- hermes_cli/config.py re-exports it for backward compatibility
- Removed local wrapper functions in honcho_integration/client.py,
tools/website_policy.py, tools/tirith_security.py, hermes_cli/uninstall.py
2. parse_reasoning_effort() — Reasoning effort string validation
- Was copy-pasted in cli.py, gateway/run.py, cron/scheduler.py
- Same validation logic: check against (xhigh, high, medium, low, minimal, none)
- Now defined once in hermes_constants.py, called from all 3 locations
- Warning log for unknown values kept at call sites (context-specific)
31 files changed, net +31 lines (125 insertions, 94 deletions)
Full test suite: 6179 passed, 0 failed
Changes the policy for agent-created skills with critical security
findings from 'block' (silently rejected) to 'ask' (allowed with
warning logged). The agent created the skill, so blocking it entirely
is too aggressive — let it through but log the findings.
- Policy: agent-created dangerous changed from block to ask
- should_allow_install returns None for 'ask' (vs True/False)
- format_scan_report shows 'NEEDS CONFIRMATION' for ask
- skill_manager_tool.py caller handles None (allows with warning)
- force=True still overrides as before
Based on PR #2271 by redhelix (closed — 3200 lines of unrelated
Mission Control code excluded).
* feat: improve memory prioritization — user preferences over procedural knowledge
Inspired by OpenAI Codex's memory prompt improvements (openai/codex#14493)
which focus memory writes on user preferences and recurring patterns
rather than procedural task details.
Key insight: 'Optimize for reducing future user steering — the most
valuable memory prevents the user from having to repeat themselves.'
Changes:
- MEMORY_GUIDANCE (prompt_builder.py): added prioritization hierarchy
and the core principle about reducing user steering
- MEMORY_SCHEMA (memory_tool.py): reordered WHEN TO SAVE list to put
corrections first, added explicit PRIORITY guidance
- Memory nudge (run_agent.py): now asks specifically about preferences,
corrections, and workflow patterns instead of generic 'anything'
- Memory flush (run_agent.py): now instructs to prioritize user
preferences and corrections over task-specific details
* feat: more aggressive skill creation and update prompting
Press harder on skill updates — the agent should proactively patch
skills when it encounters issues during use, not wait to be asked.
Changes:
- SKILLS_GUIDANCE: 'consider saving' → 'save'; added explicit instruction
to patch skills immediately when found outdated/wrong
- Skills header: added instruction to update loaded skills before finishing
if they had missing steps or wrong commands
- Skill nudge: more assertive ('save the approach' not 'consider saving'),
now also prompts for updating existing skills used in the task
- Skill nudge interval: lowered default from 15 to 10 iterations
- skill_manage schema: added 'patch it immediately' to update triggers
- Add 'emoji' field to ToolEntry and 'get_emoji()' to ToolRegistry
- Add emoji= to all 50+ registry.register() calls across tool files
- Add get_tool_emoji() helper in agent/display.py with 3-tier resolution:
skin override → registry default → hardcoded fallback
- Replace hardcoded emoji maps in run_agent.py, delegate_tool.py, and
gateway/run.py with centralized get_tool_emoji() calls
- Add 'tool_emojis' field to SkinConfig so skins can override per-tool
emojis (e.g. ares skin could use swords instead of wrenches)
- Add 11 tests (5 registry emoji, 6 display/skin integration)
- Update AGENTS.md skin docs table
Based on the approach from PR #1061 by ForgingAlex (emoji centralization
in registry). This salvage fixes several issues from the original:
- Does NOT split the cronjob tool (which would crash on missing schemas)
- Does NOT change image_generate toolset/requires_env/is_async
- Does NOT delete existing tests
- Completes the centralization (gateway/run.py was missed)
- Hooks into the skin system for full customizability
The security scanner (skills_guard.py) was only wired into the hub install path.
All other write paths to persistent state — skills created by the agent, memory
entries, cron prompts, and context files — bypassed it entirely. This closes
those gaps:
- file_operations: deny-list blocks writes to ~/.ssh, ~/.aws, ~/.hermes/.env, etc.
- code_execution_tool: filter secret env vars from sandbox child process
- skill_manager_tool: wire scan_skill() into create/edit/patch/write_file with rollback
- skills_guard: add "agent-created" trust level (same policy as community)
- memory_tool: scan content for injection/exfil before system prompt injection
- prompt_builder: scan AGENTS.md, .cursorrules, SOUL.md for prompt injection
- cronjob_tools: scan cron prompts for critical threats before scheduling
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Added a new `skill_manager_tool` to enable agents to create, update, and delete their own skills, enhancing procedural memory capabilities.
- Updated the skills directory structure to support user-created skills in `~/.hermes/skills/`, allowing for better organization and management.
- Enhanced the CLI and documentation to reflect the new skill management functionalities, including detailed instructions on creating and modifying skills.
- Implemented a manifest-based syncing mechanism for bundled skills to ensure user modifications are preserved during updates.
