The coding posture's names-only demotion of non-coding skill categories
(#44342) applied under the default auto mode, silently changing the skill
index for every user in a git repo. Index changes must be opt-in: demotion
now only fires under agent.coding_context=focus, alongside the toolset
collapse. auto/on leave the skill index untouched; focus semantics are
unchanged (demoted, never hidden; deny-list keeps coding-adjacent and
custom categories at full entries).
Real-world failure with the original index pruning: under the default auto
posture, an agent-created ops skill in a demoted category vanished from the
prompt's skill index mid-project, and the agent silently fell back to a
stale sibling skill instead. The "discovery-only" premise didn't hold —
models do not reach for skills_list to rediscover what the index stops
showing them, and agent-created skills are the model's accumulated project
memory (runbooks, pitfalls, operating rules).
Gating pruning behind the opt-in focus mode was the wrong fix too: users
opening a worktree don't know the config exists, so the index-noise win
would effectively never ship.
Instead, the coding posture now DEMOTES non-coding categories rather than
hiding them: each demoted category renders as a single names-only line
("gaming [names only]: allthemons10-ops, mc-backup") with a footer note
explaining the omitted descriptions. Every skill name stays in the prompt,
so memory-anchored recall ("load <name>") keeps working in every mode,
while the description noise is still cut. Applies in auto/on/focus alike;
the general posture demotes nothing. Deny-list semantics unchanged —
unknown/custom categories and coding-adjacent ones keep full entries.
API renamed to match the honest semantics: hidden_skill_categories →
compact_skill_categories, build_skills_system_prompt(hidden_categories=) →
compact_categories=.
* feat(agent): coding-context posture with per-model edit-format tuning
Hermes detects when it's running in a coding context — an interactive
surface (CLI, TUI, ACP, desktop) sitting in a code workspace (git repo or
recognised project root) — and shifts into a coding posture. Outside that
(chat platforms, non-workspaces) nothing changes.
The posture is modelled as a frozen RuntimeMode selected from a small
ContextProfile registry (coding/general). A profile is data: the toolset to
collapse to, the operating brief to inject, and seams for model routing and
memory. Every domain reads the same resolved object instead of re-probing
git/config on its own:
- System prompt — RuntimeMode.system_blocks(): an operating brief (gather
context before editing, edit through tools not chat, verify with terminal,
cap retry loops) plus a live git/workspace snapshot, built once and baked
into the stable prompt tier so per-conversation caching is preserved.
- Per-model edit-format tuning — the brief nudges each model family toward
the patch mode it handles best: OpenAI/Codex toward mode='patch' (V4A
multi-file diffs), Anthropic toward mode='replace' (string replacement).
The model id rides on RuntimeMode; unknown families keep neutral wording.
- Skill index — non-coding skill categories are pruned from the prompt's
skill index (discovery-only; skills_list/skill_view still reach the full
catalog, with a disclosure note).
- Toolset — only under the opt-in 'focus' mode does the posture collapse to
the coding toolset + enabled MCP servers; the default posture is
prompt-only and never overrides configured toolsets.
Activation via agent.coding_context: auto (default), focus, on, off.
Subagents inherit the posture for free via toolset inheritance + the shared
prompt builder. Detection is not memoized so a long-lived gateway/TUI
process can't pin a stale posture across working directories.
* feat(agent): cover new-file authoring in the coding edit-format nudge
The per-model edit-format guidance only addressed editing existing code
(patch mode='patch' vs 'replace'), but authoring a brand-new file —
write_file, not patch — is a large fraction of real coding work and the
nudge was silent on it. Surfaced when building a single-file artifact where
the dominant operation was write_file and the steering offered no guidance.
Both family lines now lead with "author new files with write_file; for
edits to existing code prefer ...". Tests assert write_file appears in each
family's brief; unknown families still get neutral wording.
* docs(agent): correct memoization docstring + clarify TUI config-load asymmetry
* feat(agent): sharpen the coding posture — verify-loop facts, wider edit steering, $HOME guard
Tuning pass on the coding posture from dogfooding it as a harness:
- Workspace snapshot now hands the model its verify loop up front:
detected manifests + package manager (lockfile sniff), the exact
verify commands (package.json scripts, Makefile targets,
scripts/run_tests.sh, pytest config), and which context files
(AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md / .cursorrules) exist at the root. Marker-only
(non-git) projects get the snapshot too instead of nothing. The
"verify before claiming done" brief line was the highest-value piece
in evals — this turns it from advice into an executable loop instead
of making the model rediscover the test command every session. Still
stat-cheap, size-guarded reads, built once at prompt time.
- Edit-format steering covers the families Hermes actually serves:
Gemini and open-weight coding models (DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi, GLM,
Grok, Hermes, Llama, Mistral, Devstral, MiniMax) steer to
mode='replace' — their RL scaffolds use str_replace-style editors.
Previously only GPT/Codex and Claude families got steering; the
models Hermes users disproportionately run all fell to neutral.
- Operating brief gains four behaviors elite harnesses encode: batch
independent reads/searches in one turn; fix root causes and the bug
class (sibling call paths), not the reported site; no drive-by
refactors/renames/reformatting; never read, print, or commit secrets.
Plus a patch-failure escalation ladder: after the same region fails
twice, rewrite the enclosing function/file with write_file instead of
a third patch attempt.
- $HOME dotfiles guard: a git repo rooted exactly at the home directory
(or a marker sitting in it, e.g. a global ~/AGENTS.md) is user config,
not a code workspace — without the guard, every session anywhere under
a dotfiles-managed home silently flipped to the coding posture. Real
projects under such a home still detect via their own markers/repos;
'on' mode bypasses the guard.
A steer rides inside a tool result (the only role-alternation-safe slot
mid-turn), so a bare "User guidance:" line reads as untrusted tool content —
well-behaved models refuse it as suspected prompt injection (observed live:
"I only follow instructions from you directly, not ones injected through
command results").
- Wrap steers in a bounded, self-describing [OUT-OF-BAND USER MESSAGE] marker
(prompt_builder.format_steer_marker), shared by both drain sites.
- Add STEER_CHANNEL_NOTE to the core system prompt so the model expects this
exact marker and trusts it as a genuine user message — while still ignoring
lookalikes buried in tool/web/file output. Static text → byte-stable prompt,
no prompt-cache regression; gated on the agent having tools.
- Desktop: steer ack is now an inline transcript note (⏩ steered · …) instead
of a toast.
Marker is intentionally static (not a per-session nonce) to honor the
byte-stable system-prompt caching policy; nonce hardening noted as follow-up.
* fix(codex): surface error code in Responses 'failed' status errors
When a Codex Responses turn ends with status=failed, the response carries
the failure details under `response.error` as
`{code, message, param, ...}`. The previous extractor pulled only
`message`, so users seeing a rate-limit failure got a bare "Slow down"
string indistinguishable from a generic stream truncation; an
internal_error with empty message degraded to a dict dump
("{'code': 'internal_error', 'message': ''}").
Extract a `_format_responses_error()` helper that:
- prefixes `code` when both code and message are present
(e.g. 'rate_limit_exceeded: Slow down')
- falls back to the bare `code` when message is empty
- accepts both dict and attribute-style payloads (SDK and JSON-RPC paths)
- preserves the prior status-only fallback when no error payload exists
Apply the same helper at the sibling site in
`codex_app_server_session.run_turn()` so codex-CLI subprocess turn
failures get the same treatment.
Tests:
- 8 new unit tests for `_format_responses_error` covering both shapes,
empty/missing fields, non-string fields, and the status-only fallback.
- 2 regression tests on `_normalize_codex_response` for failed status
with and without a code, asserting the exact RuntimeError message.
- All 3603 tests in tests/agent/ pass.
Adapted from anomalyco/opencode#28757.
* feat(prompt): universal task-completion guidance + local Python toolchain probe
Two cross-model failure modes get a single-line answer in the cached
system prompt. Both gated by config (default on), both add zero overhead
when not needed, both verified via real AIAgent prompt builds.
## What changed
`TASK_COMPLETION_GUIDANCE` — short prompt block applied to ALL models.
Targets two failure modes observed on a real Sarasota real-estate build
task: (1) Opus stopped after writing an 85-byte stub and gave a prose
response with finish_reason=stop on call #3 of 90; (2) DeepSeek pushed
through a PEP-668 wall, then returned fabricated listings instead of
admitting the blocker. Both behaviors are model-family-agnostic, so the
guidance lives outside the existing tool_use_enforcement gate (~192
tokens, paid once per session via prefix cache).
`tools/env_probe.py` — local Python toolchain probe. Detects
python3/pip/uv/PEP-668 state and emits ONE short line in the system
prompt when something is non-default. Emits NOTHING when the env is
clean (zero token cost for normal users). Skipped entirely for remote
terminal backends (docker/modal/ssh) — they have their own probe.
Example output on a broken environment (the actual case):
Python toolchain: python3=3.11.15 (no pip module),
python=missing (use python3), pip→python3.12 (mismatch),
PEP 668=yes (use venv or uv).
## Config
Both flags live under `agent.` in config.yaml, default True:
agent:
task_completion_guidance: true # universal "finish the job" block
environment_probe: true # local Python toolchain hints
Neither addition required a `_config_version` bump — deep-merge fills
defaults in for existing user configs.
## Validation
| Test surface | Result |
|---|---|
| tests/tools/test_env_probe.py | 10/10 pass (probe unit) |
| tests/run_agent/test_run_agent.py — new classes | 8/8 pass (integration) |
| TestToolUseEnforcementConfig | 17/17 pass (no regression) |
| TestBuildSystemPrompt | 9/9 pass (no regression) |
| TestInvalidateSystemPrompt | 2/2 pass (no regression) |
| tests/agent/test_prompt_builder.py | 124/124 pass (no regression) |
| tests/hermes_cli/ | 5662/5662 pass (config defaults) |
| E2E AIAgent build (broken env) | Both blocks present, 2,178 chars |
| E2E AIAgent build (clean env) | 771-char net overhead, env probe silent |
* fix(profiles): cross-profile soft guard on file-write tools + system-prompt hint
Adds a soft guard so an agent running under one Hermes profile cannot
silently edit a different profile's skills/plugins/cron/memories.
Three layers:
A. agent/file_safety.classify_cross_profile_target
Classifies a write target against the active HERMES_HOME. Returns
a {active_profile, target_profile, area, target_path} dict when the
path lands in another profile's scoped area. PROFILE_SCOPED_AREAS =
(skills, plugins, cron, memories). get_cross_profile_warning()
wraps it into a model-facing error string that names both profiles,
names the area, and points at the cross_profile=True bypass.
Defense-in-depth, NOT a security boundary — the terminal tool runs
as the same OS user and can write any of these paths directly. The
guard exists to prevent confused-agent corruption, not to stop a
determined attacker. SECURITY.md §3.2 (terminal-bypass posture)
still applies.
Wired into tools/file_tools.write_file_tool and patch_tool with a
cross_profile=False kwarg. WRITE_FILE_SCHEMA and PATCH_SCHEMA both
advertise cross_profile so the model can pass it after explicit
user direction. patch_tool extracts target paths from V4A patch
bodies before checking (same shape as the existing sensitive-path
check).
skill_manage is already scoped to the active profile's SKILLS_DIR
by construction, so no extra guard wiring is needed there. The
D-side error message (below) still names other profiles when the
skill exists elsewhere.
B. agent/system_prompt
One deterministic line near the environment-hints block names the
active profile and tells the model not to modify another profile's
skills/plugins/cron/memories without explicit direction. Profile
name is stable for the lifetime of the AIAgent, so the line is
prompt-cache-safe.
D. tools/skill_manager_tool._skill_not_found_error
Replaces the bare "Skill 'X' not found." with a message that:
- names the active profile,
- searches OTHER profiles' skills dirs for the same name,
- names the profile(s) where the skill exists and the path,
- suggests `hermes -p <name>` to switch profiles, or
cross_profile=True for an explicit edit.
All 5 "not found" sites in skill_manager_tool (edit, patch, delete,
write_file, remove_file) now go through the helper.
Reference incident (May 2026): a hermes-security profile session
edited skills under both ~/.hermes/profiles/hermes-security/skills/
AND ~/.hermes/skills/ (the default profile's skills) without
realizing the second path belonged to a different profile. Three of
the four skill files needed manual restoration afterward.
What this PR does NOT do:
* No hard block. The terminal tool can still touch any of these
paths with no guard — same posture as the dangerous-command
approval flow. SECURITY.md §3.2 applies.
* No regex sweep on terminal commands for cross-profile paths.
That direction is a Skills-Guard-style arms race (cd + relative
paths, base64, etc.) and would false-positive on legitimate
cross-profile reads. Filed as a follow-up.
* No on-disk path migration. ~/.hermes/skills/ remains the
default profile's skills dir; this PR is about telling the
agent about that boundary, not changing the layout.
Tests:
tests/agent/test_file_safety_cross_profile.py (16 tests)
- _resolve_active_profile_name covers default/named/failure paths
- classify_cross_profile_target covers all four scoped areas,
both directions (default → named, named → default, named → named),
non-Hermes paths, and root-level config files
- get_cross_profile_warning covers in-profile no-op, cross-profile
message shape, and the defense-in-depth self-documentation
tests/tools/test_cross_profile_guard.py (12 tests)
- write_file: in-profile allow, cross-profile block, cross_profile=True
bypass, non-Hermes pass-through
- patch: replace-mode block, cross_profile=True bypass, V4A patch
path extraction
- skill_manage: error names the other profile (single + multiple),
missing-everywhere falls back to skills_list hint
- system prompt: contract-level checks (both branches present,
cross_profile=True mentioned, ~/.hermes/profiles/ referenced)
All 207 existing tests in file_safety/file_operations/skill_manager
still pass. 10 system-prompt tests still pass.
E2E verified: the exact incident scenario (security profile editing
default's hermes-agent-dev skill) is now blocked with the warning
message; cross_profile=True unblocks.
* fix(code_execution): add cross_profile to write_file/patch stubs
The cross_profile kwarg added to write_file_tool/patch_tool needs to
flow through the execute_code sandbox stubs in _TOOL_STUBS so the
test_stubs_cover_all_schema_params drift test passes. Without this,
scripts running inside execute_code couldn't pass cross_profile=True
through hermes_tools.write_file().
Caught by CI on PR #31290.
Salvages #24402 by @RyanRana. The KANBAN_GUIDANCE block (~835 tokens)
is session-static — the dispatcher decides at spawn time whether the
process is a kanban worker via the kanban_show tool's check_fn (gated
on HERMES_KANBAN_TASK env var). Re-checking 'kanban_show' in
valid_tool_names and re-loading the reference on every system-prompt
rebuild (init + each context compression) is wasted work.
Caches the resolved string on agent._kanban_worker_guidance once in
agent_init and consumes it in system_prompt.build_system_prompt(),
with a getattr fallback for code paths that bypass agent_init.
The system prompt's 'Conversation started:' line carried minute precision
(%I:%M %p), making it byte-unstable across every rebuild path. Within a
CLI session the in-memory cache held, but on the gateway path (fresh
AIAgent per turn → restore from session DB), any silent failure in the
read or write path dropped the cache stem and forced a full re-prefill
on every subsequent turn. Local prefix-caching backends (llama.cpp /
vLLM) saw this as KV-cache invalidation; remote prefix-caching providers
saw it as an Anthropic-style cache miss.
Three changes:
1. Date-only timestamp ('Sunday, May 17, 2026' instead of '... 03:42 PM').
System prompt now byte-stable for the full day. The model can still
query exact time via tools when it actually needs it. Credit:
@iamfoz (PR #20451).
2. Loud logging on session DB write failures. The update_system_prompt
call used to log at DEBUG, hiding disk-full / locked-database / schema
drift behind a silent fall-through that forced fresh rebuilds on
every subsequent turn. Now WARN with the session id and exception so
persistent issues show up in agent.log without verbose mode.
3. Three-way stored-state distinction on read. The previous
'session_row.get("system_prompt") or None' collapsed three states
into one (missing row / null column / empty string). Now we tell them
apart and WARN when a continuing session lands on null/empty (which
means the previous turn's write never persisted — every subsequent
turn rebuilds and the prefix cache misses every time).
The restore block is extracted into _restore_or_build_system_prompt()
so the prefix-cache path can be unit-tested in isolation.
E2E proof: fresh AIAgent constructed for turn 2 across a minute-boundary
sleep restores byte-identical bytes from the session DB. NULL stored
prompt fires the new warning. Date-only timestamp survives the rebuild
path. All on real SessionDB, no mocks.
Tests:
- tests/agent/test_system_prompt_restore.py (10 new tests)
- tests/run_agent/test_run_agent.py::TestBuildSystemPrompt::
test_datetime_is_date_only_not_minute_precision
Closes#20451 (date-only), #18547 (prefix stabilization),
#8689 (stabilize timestamp across compression), #15866 (timestamp
caching question), #8687 (compression timestamp), #27339
(claim #3: live timestamp in cached system prompt).
Co-authored-by: Martyn Forryan <9133432+iamfoz@users.noreply.github.com>
Grok models hit the same failure modes that OPENAI_MODEL_EXECUTION_GUIDANCE
addresses for GPT/Codex: claiming completion without tool calls
('to be honest, I didn't create the file yet'), suggesting workarounds
instead of using existing tools (proposing a folder-based memory system
when the memory tool exists), replying with plans instead of executing.
TOOL_USE_ENFORCEMENT_GUIDANCE was already injected for any model whose
name contains 'grok' (TOOL_USE_ENFORCEMENT_MODELS). This extends the
follow-on family-specific block — OPENAI_MODEL_EXECUTION_GUIDANCE
(tool_persistence / mandatory_tool_use / act_dont_ask / prerequisite_checks
/ verification / missing_context) — to grok-named models too.
The OPENAI_ prefix is retained for backwards compat with imports/tests;
docstring + inline comment now note that the body is family-agnostic and
the prefix reflects origin, not exclusivity.
Tests cover the OpenRouter slug (x-ai/grok-4.3) and the xai-oauth bare
name (grok-4.3), plus a negative control on claude.
E2E verified against a real AIAgent build of the system prompt for both
xai-oauth and openrouter grok models.
