## Why
Hermes supports Linux, macOS, and native Windows, but the codebase grew up
POSIX-first and has accumulated patterns that silently break (or worse,
silently kill!) on Windows:
- `os.kill(pid, 0)` as a liveness probe — on Windows this maps to
CTRL_C_EVENT and broadcasts Ctrl+C to the target's entire console
process group (bpo-14484, open since 2012).
- `os.killpg` — doesn't exist on Windows at all (AttributeError).
- `os.setsid` / `os.getuid` / `os.geteuid` — same.
- `signal.SIGKILL` / `signal.SIGHUP` / `signal.SIGUSR1` — module-attr
errors at runtime on Windows.
- `open(path)` / `open(path, "r")` without explicit encoding= — inherits
the platform default, which is cp1252/mbcs on Windows (UTF-8 on POSIX),
causing mojibake round-tripping between hosts.
- `wmic` — removed from Windows 10 21H1+.
This commit does three things:
1. Makes `psutil` a core dependency and migrates critical callsites to it.
2. Adds a grep-based CI gate (`scripts/check-windows-footguns.py`) that
blocks new instances of any of the above patterns.
3. Fixes every existing instance in the codebase so the baseline is clean.
## What changed
### 1. psutil as a core dependency (pyproject.toml)
Added `psutil>=5.9.0,<8` to core deps. psutil is the canonical
cross-platform answer for "is this PID alive" and "kill this process
tree" — its `pid_exists()` uses `OpenProcess + GetExitCodeProcess` on
Windows (NOT a signal call), and its `Process.children(recursive=True)`
+ `.kill()` combo replaces `os.killpg()` portably.
### 2. `gateway/status.py::_pid_exists`
Rewrote to call `psutil.pid_exists()` first, falling back to the
hand-rolled ctypes `OpenProcess + WaitForSingleObject` dance on Windows
(and `os.kill(pid, 0)` on POSIX) only if psutil is somehow missing —
e.g. during the scaffold phase of a fresh install before pip finishes.
### 3. `os.killpg` migration to psutil (7 callsites, 5 files)
- `tools/code_execution_tool.py`
- `tools/process_registry.py`
- `tools/tts_tool.py`
- `tools/environments/local.py` (3 sites kept as-is, suppressed with
`# windows-footgun: ok` — the pgid semantics psutil can't replicate,
and the calls are already Windows-guarded at the outer branch)
- `gateway/platforms/whatsapp.py`
### 4. `scripts/check-windows-footguns.py` (NEW, 500 lines)
Grep-based checker with 11 rules covering every Windows cross-platform
footgun we've hit so far:
1. `os.kill(pid, 0)` — the silent killer
2. `os.setsid` without guard
3. `os.killpg` (recommends psutil)
4. `os.getuid` / `os.geteuid` / `os.getgid`
5. `os.fork`
6. `signal.SIGKILL`
7. `signal.SIGHUP/SIGUSR1/SIGUSR2/SIGALRM/SIGCHLD/SIGPIPE/SIGQUIT`
8. `subprocess` shebang script invocation
9. `wmic` without `shutil.which` guard
10. Hardcoded `~/Desktop` (OneDrive trap)
11. `asyncio.add_signal_handler` without try/except
12. `open()` without `encoding=` on text mode
Features:
- Triple-quoted-docstring aware (won't flag prose inside docstrings)
- Trailing-comment aware (won't flag mentions in `# os.kill(pid, 0)` comments)
- Guard-hint aware (skips lines with `hasattr(os, ...)`,
`shutil.which(...)`, `if platform.system() != 'Windows'`, etc.)
- Inline suppression with `# windows-footgun: ok — <reason>`
- `--list` to print all rules with fixes
- `--all` / `--diff <ref>` / staged-files (default) modes
- Scans 380 files in under 2 seconds
### 5. CI integration
A GitHub Actions workflow that runs the checker on every PR and push is
staged at `/tmp/hermes-stash/windows-footguns.yml` — not included in this
commit because the GH token on the push machine lacks `workflow` scope.
A maintainer with `workflow` permissions should add it as
`.github/workflows/windows-footguns.yml` in a follow-up. Content:
```yaml
name: Windows footgun check
on:
push:
branches: [main]
pull_request:
branches: [main]
jobs:
check:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-python@v5
with: {python-version: "3.11"}
- run: python scripts/check-windows-footguns.py --all
```
### 6. CONTRIBUTING.md — "Cross-Platform Compatibility" expansion
Expanded from 5 to 16 rules, each with message, example, and fix.
Recommends psutil as the preferred API for PID / process-tree operations.
### 7. Baseline cleanup (91 → 0 findings)
- 14 `open()` sites → added `encoding='utf-8'` (internal logs/caches) or
`encoding='utf-8-sig'` (user-editable files that Notepad may BOM)
- 23 POSIX-only callsites in systemd helpers, pty_bridge, and plugin
tool subprocess management → annotated with
`# windows-footgun: ok — <reason>`
- 7 `os.killpg` sites → migrated to psutil (see §3 above)
## Verification
```
$ python scripts/check-windows-footguns.py --all
✓ No Windows footguns found (380 file(s) scanned).
$ python -c "from gateway.status import _pid_exists; import os
> print('self:', _pid_exists(os.getpid())); print('bogus:', _pid_exists(999999))"
self: True
bogus: False
```
Proof-of-repro that `os.kill(pid, 0)` was actually killing processes
before this fix — see commit `1cbe39914` and bpo-14484. This commit
removes the last hand-rolled ctypes path from the hot liveness-check
path and defers to the best-maintained cross-platform answer.
Closes the last Python-on-Windows UTF-8 exposure by making every
text-mode open() call explicit about its encoding.
Before: on Windows, bare open(path, 'r') defaults to the system
locale encoding (cp1252 on US-locale installs). That means reading
any config/yaml/markdown/json file with non-ASCII content either
crashes with UnicodeDecodeError or silently mis-decodes bytes.
After: all 89 affected call sites in production code now pass
encoding='utf-8' explicitly. Works identically on every platform
and every locale, no surprise behavior.
Mechanical sweep via:
ruff check --preview --extend-select PLW1514 --unsafe-fixes --fix --exclude 'tests,venv,.venv,node_modules,website,optional-skills, skills,tinker-atropos,plugins' .
All 89 fixes have the same shape: open(x) or open(x, mode) became
open(x, encoding='utf-8') or open(x, mode, encoding='utf-8'). Nothing
else changed. Every modified file still parses and the Windows/sandbox
test suite is still green (85 passed, 14 skipped, 0 failed across
tests/tools/test_code_execution_windows_env.py +
tests/tools/test_code_execution_modes.py + tests/tools/test_env_passthrough.py +
tests/test_hermes_bootstrap.py).
Scope notes:
- tests/ excluded: test fixtures can use locale encoding intentionally
(exercising edge cases). If we want to tighten tests later that's
a separate PR.
- plugins/ excluded: plugin-specific conventions may differ; plugin
authors own their code.
- optional-skills/ and skills/ excluded: skill scripts are user-authored
and we don't want to mass-edit them.
- website/ and tinker-atropos/ excluded: vendored / generated content.
46 files touched, 89 +/- lines (symmetric replacement). No behavior
change on POSIX or on Windows when the file is ASCII; bug fix on
Windows when the file contains non-ASCII.
Third Windows-specific sandbox bug (after WinError 10106 and the UTF-8
file-write bug): user scripts that print non-ASCII to stdout crash with
UnicodeEncodeError: 'charmap' codec can't encode character '\u2192'
in position N: character maps to <undefined>
Root cause: Python's sys.stdout on Windows is bound to the console code
page (cp1252 on US-locale installs) when the process is attached to a
pipe without PYTHONIOENCODING set. LLM-generated scripts routinely
print em-dashes, arrows, accented chars, and emoji — all of which cp1252
can't encode.
Fix: spawn the sandbox child with:
PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8 # sys.stdin/stdout/stderr all UTF-8
PYTHONUTF8=1 # PEP 540 UTF-8 mode — open() defaults to UTF-8 too
PYTHONUTF8 is the belt-and-suspenders half: LLM scripts that call
open(path, 'w') without encoding= in user code will now produce UTF-8
files by default, matching what the sandbox already does for its own
staging files.
The parent side already decodes child stdout/stderr as UTF-8 with
errors='replace' (lines 1345-1347) so the end-to-end chain is clean.
On POSIX these values usually match the locale default already, so
setting them is harmless belt-and-suspenders for C/POSIX-locale
containers and minimal base images.
Tests added (4) — total file now at 28 passed, 1 skipped on Windows:
- test_popen_env_sets_pythonioencoding_utf8 (source grep)
- test_popen_env_sets_pythonutf8_mode (source grep)
- test_live_child_can_print_non_ascii (cross-platform live test)
- test_windows_child_without_utf8_env_would_fail (Windows negative
control — actually reproduces the bug without our env overrides,
proving the fix is load-bearing on this system)
Second Windows-specific sandbox bug (WinError 10106 was the first):
after the env-scrub fix let the child start, it immediately failed to
import hermes_tools with:
SyntaxError: (unicode error) 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0x97
in position 154: invalid start byte
Root cause: _execute_local wrote the generated hermes_tools.py stub and
the user's script.py via open(path, 'w') without encoding=. On Windows
the default text-mode encoding is cp1252 (system locale), which encodes
em-dashes (used in the stub's docstrings) as 0x97. Python then decodes
source files as UTF-8 (PEP 3120) on import, chokes on 0x97, and the
sandbox dies before any tool call.
Fix: pass encoding='utf-8' to all four file opens in the code_execution
path — the two staging writes in _execute_local (hermes_tools.py +
script.py) and the two RPC file-transport reads/writes in the generated
remote stub. JSON is ASCII-safe for most payloads but tool results
(terminal output, web_extract content) routinely carry non-ASCII.
Tests added (4):
- test_stub_and_script_writes_specify_utf8 — source grep guard
- test_file_rpc_stub_uses_utf8 — generated remote stub check
- test_stub_source_roundtrips_through_utf8 — concrete round-trip
- test_windows_default_encoding_would_have_failed — negative control
(skips on modern Python builds where default is already UTF-8
compatible, but retained for platforms where the regression could
return)
24/25 tests pass on Windows 3.11 (negative control skips because this
Python build handles em-dashes via cp1252 subset — the fix is still
correct, just the corruption path isn't always triggerable).
The sandbox's env scrubbing was dropping SYSTEMROOT, WINDIR, COMSPEC,
APPDATA, etc. On Windows this broke the child process before any RPC
could happen:
OSError: [WinError 10106] The requested service provider could not
be loaded or initialized
Python's socket module uses SYSTEMROOT to locate mswsock.dll during
Winsock initialization. Without it, socket.socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM)
fails — and the existing loopback-TCP fallback for Windows couldn't work.
Fix: add a small Windows-only allowlist (_WINDOWS_ESSENTIAL_ENV_VARS)
matched by exact uppercase name, after the existing secret-substring
block. The secret block still runs first, so the allowlist cannot be
used to exfiltrate credentials. Also extract the env scrubber into a
testable helper (_scrub_child_env) that takes is_windows as a parameter,
so the logic can be unit-tested on any OS.
Live Winsock smoke test verifies that a child spawned with the scrubbed
env can now create an AF_INET socket on a real Windows host; the test
is guarded by sys.platform == 'win32' so POSIX CI stays green.
teknium1 noticed execute_code was missing from his enabled tools on Windows.
Root cause: tools/code_execution_tool.py set ``SANDBOX_AVAILABLE =
sys.platform != \"win32\"`` as a module-level constant, originally because
the RPC transport required AF_UNIX. We added loopback TCP fallback for
the sandbox in commit eeb723fff (and covered it in the Windows TCP tests),
but forgot to lift the availability gate. So execute_code was still
invisible via the check_fn path on Windows.
- SANDBOX_AVAILABLE is now True unconditionally (it's still checked — a
future platform could flip it off via monkeypatch/env if needed).
- Error message when disabled no longer mentions Windows specifically,
just says 'sandbox is unavailable in this environment'.
- test_windows_returns_error updated: patches SANDBOX_AVAILABLE=False
directly (which was always its real intent) and asserts on 'unavailable'
instead of 'Windows'.
Tests: 171 code-execution + windows-compat tests pass, no regressions.
Second pass on native Windows support, driven by a systematic audit across
five areas: POSIX-only primitives (signal.SIGKILL/SIGHUP/SIGPIPE, os.WNOHANG,
os.setsid), path translation bugs (/c/Users → C:\Users), subprocess patterns
(npm.cmd batch shims, start_new_session no-op on Windows), subsystem health
(cron, gateway daemon, update flow), and module-level import guards.
Every change is platform-gated — POSIX (Linux/macOS) behaviour is preserved
bit-identical. Explicit "do no harm" test: test_posix_path_preserved_on_linux,
test_posix_noop, test_windows_detach_popen_kwargs_is_posix_equivalent_on_posix.
## New module
- hermes_cli/_subprocess_compat.py — shared helpers (resolve_node_command,
windows_detach_flags, windows_hide_flags, windows_detach_popen_kwargs).
All no-ops on non-Windows.
## CRITICAL fixes (would crash or silently break on Windows)
- tui_gateway/entry.py: SIGPIPE/SIGHUP referenced at module top level would
AttributeError on import on Windows, breaking `hermes --tui` entirely (it
spawns this module as a subprocess). Guard each signal.signal() call with
hasattr() and add SIGBREAK as Windows' SIGHUP equivalent.
- hermes_cli/kanban_db.py: os.waitpid(-1, os.WNOHANG) in dispatcher tick was
unguarded. os.WNOHANG doesn't exist on Windows. Gate the whole reap loop
behind `os.name != "nt"` — Windows has no zombies anyway.
- tools/code_execution_tool.py: AF_UNIX socket for execute_code RPC fails on
most Windows builds. Fall back to loopback TCP (AF_INET on 127.0.0.1:0
ephemeral port) when _IS_WINDOWS. HERMES_RPC_SOCKET env var now accepts
either a filesystem path (POSIX) or `tcp://127.0.0.1:<port>` (Windows).
Generated sandbox client parses both.
- cron/scheduler.py: `argv = ["/bin/bash", str(path)]` hardcoded. Use
shutil.which("bash") so Windows (Git Bash via MinGit) works, with a
readable error when bash is genuinely absent.
- 6 bare npm/npx spawn sites: tools_config.py x2, doctor.py, whatsapp.py
(npm install + node version probe), browser_tool.py x2. On Windows npm
is npm.cmd / npx is npx.cmd (batch shims); subprocess.Popen(["npm", ...])
fails with WinError 193. shutil.which(...) returns the absolute .cmd
path which CreateProcessW accepts because the extension routes through
cmd.exe /c. POSIX behaviour unchanged (shutil.which still returns the
same path subprocess would resolve itself).
## HIGH fixes (silent misbehaviour on Windows)
- tools/environments/local.py get_temp_dir: hardcoded /tmp returned on
Windows meant `_cwd_file = "/tmp/hermes-cwd-*.txt"`, which bash wrote
via MSYS2's virtual /tmp but native Python couldn't open. Result: cwd
tracking silently broken — `cd` in terminal tool did nothing. Windows
branch now returns `%HERMES_HOME%/cache/terminal` with forward slashes
(works in both bash and Python, guaranteed no spaces).
- tools/environments/local.py _make_run_env PATH injection: `/usr/bin not
in split(":")` heuristic mangles Windows PATH (";" separator). Gate
the injection behind `not _IS_WINDOWS`.
- hermes_cli/gateway.py launch_detached_profile_gateway_restart: outer
Popen + watcher-script Popen both used start_new_session=True, which
Windows silently ignores. Watcher stayed attached to CLI's console,
died when user closed terminal after `hermes update`, left gateway
stale. Now branches through windows_detach_popen_kwargs() helper
(CREATE_NEW_PROCESS_GROUP | DETACHED_PROCESS | CREATE_NO_WINDOW on
Windows, start_new_session=True on POSIX — identical to main).
## MEDIUM fixes
- gateway/run.py /restart and /update handlers: hardcoded bash/setsid
chain crashes on Windows when user triggers /update in-gateway. Now
has sys.platform=="win32" branch using sys.executable + a tiny
Python watcher with proper detach flags. POSIX path is unchanged.
- cli.py _git_repo_root: Git on Windows sometimes returns /c/Users/...
style paths that break subprocess.Popen(cwd=...) and Path().resolve().
Added _normalize_git_bash_path() helper that translates /c/Users,
/cygdrive/c, /mnt/c variants to native C:\Users form. POSIX no-op.
_git_repo_root() now routes every result through it.
- cli.py worktree .worktreeinclude: os.symlink on directories failed
hard on Windows (requires admin or Developer Mode). Falls back to
shutil.copytree with a warning log.
## Tests
- 29 new tests in tests/tools/test_windows_native_support.py covering:
subprocess_compat helpers, TUI entry signal guards, kanban waitpid
guard, code_execution TCP fallback source-level invariants, cron bash
resolution, npm/npx bare-spawn lint per-file, local env Windows temp
dir, PATH injection gating, git bash path normalization, symlink
fallback, gateway detached watcher flags.
- One existing test assertion adjusted in test_browser_homebrew_paths:
it compared captured Popen argv to the BARE `"npx"` literal; after the
shutil.which() change argv[0] is the absolute path. New assertion
checks the shape (two items, second is `agent-browser`) rather than
the exact first-item string. Behaviour unchanged; test was too strict.
All 56 tests pass on Linux (30 from previous commits + 26 new).
267 tests from the affected files/dirs (browser, code_exec, local_env,
process_registry, kanban_db, windows_compat) all pass — zero regressions.
tests/hermes_cli/ (3909 pass) and tests/gateway/ (5021 pass) unchanged;
all pre-existing test failures confirmed unrelated via `git stash` re-run.
## What's still deferred (LOW priority)
- Visible cmd-window flashes on short-lived console apps (~14 sites) —
cosmetic, needs a follow-up pass once we have user reports.
- agent/file_safety.py POSIX-only security deny patterns — separate
hardening task.
- tools/process_registry.py returning "/tmp" as fallback — theoretical;
reachable only when all env-var candidates fail.
The sandbox-side `_call()` in both the UDS and file-based transports was
not thread-safe, so scripts that call tools from multiple threads (e.g.
`ThreadPoolExecutor` over `terminal()`) inside a single `execute_code`
run could silently receive each other's responses.
Root cause:
* UDS transport — a single module-level `_sock` was shared across all
threads; the newline-framed protocol has no request-id; and the
server-side RPC loop handles one connection serially. With concurrent
callers, each thread would `sendall()` then race to `recv()` the next
newline-terminated response from the shared buffer, so responses got
delivered to the wrong caller.
* File transport — `_seq += 1` is a non-atomic read-modify-write, so
two threads could allocate the same sequence number and clobber each
other's request/response files.
Fix: guard `_call()` with a `threading.Lock` in the UDS case (covering
send+recv), and guard `_seq` allocation with a lock in the file case.
No protocol change.
Regression tests cover both the generated-source level (lock is present
and used) and an end-to-end concurrency test: running a sandboxed
ThreadPoolExecutor of 10 `terminal()` calls against a slow mock
dispatcher, asserting every caller sees its own tagged response. The
test fails without the fix (10/10 mismatched, matching real-world
repro) and passes with it.
Adds Vercel Sandbox as a supported Hermes terminal backend alongside
existing providers (Local, Docker, Modal, SSH, Daytona, Singularity).
Uses the Vercel Python SDK to create/manage cloud microVMs, supports
snapshot-based filesystem persistence keyed by task_id, and integrates
with the existing BaseEnvironment shell contract and FileSyncManager
for credential/skill syncing.
Based on #17127 by @scotttrinh, cherry-picked onto current main.
Add opt-in terminal.docker_run_as_host_user config flag that passes
--user $(id -u):$(id -g) to the Docker backend so files written into
bind-mounted directories (/workspace, /root, docker_volumes entries) are
owned by the host user instead of root.
When enabled on POSIX platforms, also drops SETUID/SETGID caps since the
container no longer needs gosu/su to switch users. Falls back cleanly on
platforms without os.getuid (e.g. native Windows Docker) with a warning.
Wired through all three config.yaml -> TERMINAL_* env-var bridges:
- cli.py env_mappings (CLI + TUI startup)
- gateway/run.py _terminal_env_map (gateway / messaging platforms)
- hermes_cli/config.py _config_to_env_sync (`hermes config set`)
Also fixes docker_mount_cwd_to_workspace silently failing in gateway
mode -- it was missing from gateway/run.py's _terminal_env_map.
Adds tests/tools/test_terminal_config_env_sync.py to guard against
future drift between the three bridges (same bug class shipped twice
in one month).
Bundled Hermes image won't work with this flag since its entrypoint
expects to start as root for the usermod/gosu hermes flow; works with
the default nikolaik/python-nodejs image and plain Debian/Ubuntu.
TUI session readiness was still laggy after the gateway-ready fixes. Profiling
session.create -> session.info showed the slow phase is background AIAgent
construction (~1.1s). A cProfile run of tui_gateway.server::_make_agent showed
model_tools/tool discovery importing tools.code_execution_tool, whose
module-level EXECUTE_CODE_SCHEMA calls _get_execution_mode(), which imported
cli.CLI_CONFIG.
That pulled the classic interactive CLI stack (prompt_toolkit/Rich and REPL
setup) into every agent startup path, including hermes --tui where it is not
used. Replace that with hermes_cli.config.read_raw_config(), which is cached and
reads only the raw code_execution section. Existing defaults still apply when
the key is absent.
Measurements on macOS Terminal.app:
- import run_agent: ~466ms -> ~347ms
- model_tools import: ~418ms -> ~272ms
- _make_agent: ~1452ms -> ~1239ms
- session.create -> session.info: ~1167ms -> ~999ms
- full hermes --tui ready p50: ~1655ms -> ~1537ms
Tests:
- scripts/run_tests.sh tests/tools/test_code_execution_modes.py tests/tools/test_code_execution.py
Before: delegate_task children each allocated their own terminal
sandbox keyed by child task_id. Starting extra containers (or Modal
sandboxes / Daytona workspaces) is expensive, and the subagent's work
is invisible to the parent — files written by the child in its
container don't exist in the parent's when the subagent returns.
After: a single `_resolve_container_task_id` helper maps any
tool-call task_id to "default" UNLESS an env override is registered
for it. The parent agent and all delegate_task children therefore
share one long-lived sandbox — installed packages, cwd, /workspace
files, and /tmp scratch carry over freely between them.
RL and benchmark environments (TerminalBench2, HermesSweEnv, ...)
opt in to isolation via `register_task_env_overrides(task_id, {...})`;
those task_ids survive the collapse and get their own sandbox,
preserving the per-task Docker image behavior these benchmarks rely on.
file_state / active-subagents registry / TUI events still key off the
original child task_id, so the 'subagent wrote a file the parent read'
warning and UI per-subagent panels keep working.
Tradeoff: parallel delegate_task children (tasks=[...]) now share one
bash/container. Concurrent cd, env-var mutations, and writes to the
same path will collide. If that bites a specific workflow, the
subagent can opt back into isolation via register_task_env_overrides.
Applied at four lookup sites:
- tools/terminal_tool.py terminal_tool() and get_active_env()
- tools/file_tools.py _get_file_ops() and _get_live_tracking_cwd()
- tools/code_execution_tool.py _get_or_create_environment()
Docs: website/docs/user-guide/configuration.md updated to reflect the
shared-container reality and document the RL/benchmark carve-out.
Tests: tests/tools/test_shared_container_task_id.py (9 cases).
The code execution sandbox creates a Unix domain socket in /tmp with
default permissions, allowing any local user to connect and execute
tool calls. Restrict to 0o600 after bind.
Closes#6230
Weaker models (Gemma-class) repeatedly rediscover and forget that
execute_code uses a different CWD and Python interpreter than terminal(),
causing them to flip-flop on whether user files exist and to hit import
errors on project dependencies like pandas.
Adds a new 'code_execution.mode' config key (default 'project') that
brings execute_code into line with terminal()'s filesystem/interpreter:
project (new default):
- cwd = session's TERMINAL_CWD (falls back to os.getcwd())
- python = active VIRTUAL_ENV/bin/python or CONDA_PREFIX/bin/python
with a Python 3.8+ version check; falls back cleanly to
sys.executable if no venv or the candidate fails
- result : 'import pandas' works, '.env' resolves, matches terminal()
strict (opt-in):
- cwd = staging tmpdir (today's behavior)
- python = sys.executable (today's behavior)
- result : maximum reproducibility and isolation; project deps
won't resolve
Security-critical invariants are identical across both modes and covered by
explicit regression tests:
- env scrubbing (strips *_API_KEY, *_TOKEN, *_SECRET, *_PASSWORD,
*_CREDENTIAL, *_PASSWD, *_AUTH substrings)
- SANDBOX_ALLOWED_TOOLS whitelist (no execute_code recursion, no
delegate_task, no MCP from inside scripts)
- resource caps (5-min timeout, 50KB stdout, 50 tool calls)
Deliberately avoids 'sandbox'/'isolated'/'cloud' language in tool
descriptions (regression from commit 39b83f34 where agents on local
backends falsely believed they were sandboxed and refused networking).
Override via env var: HERMES_EXECUTE_CODE_MODE=strict|project
Weaker models (Gemma-class) repeatedly rediscover and forget that execute_code's
working directory differs from terminal()/read_file()'s, leading to
os.path.exists('.env') returning False even though the file exists in the
session's CWD. They then bounce between 'the file exists' and 'the file is
missing' across tool calls.
Adds a 'Working directory' note to the execute_code schema description
pointing agents at absolute paths (os.path.expanduser) or terminal()/read_file()
for inspecting user files.
Carefully avoids the 'sandbox'/'isolated'/'cloud' language that commit
39b83f34 removed (it caused agents on local backends to refuse networking
tasks and save false sandbox beliefs to persistent memory). Purely factual
CWD guidance — no restriction implications.
- Extract duplicated activity-callback polling into shared
touch_activity_if_due() helper in tools/environments/base.py
- Use helper from both base.py _wait_for_process and
code_execution_tool.py local polling loop (DRY)
- Add test assertion that timeout output field contains the
timeout message and emoji (#10807)
- Add stream_consumer test for tool-boundary fallback scenario
where continuation is empty but final_text differs from
visible prefix (#10807)
When execute_code times out, the result JSON had status="timeout" and an
error field, but the output field was empty. Many models treat empty
output as "nothing happened" and produce an empty/minimal response. The
gateway stream consumer then considers the response "already sent" (from
pre-tool streaming) and silently drops it — leaving the user staring at
silence.
Three changes:
1. Include the timeout message in the output field (both local and remote
paths) so the model always has visible content to relay to the user.
2. Add periodic activity callbacks to the local execution polling loop so
the gateway's inactivity monitor knows execute_code is alive during
long runs.
3. Fix stream_consumer._send_fallback_final to not silently drop content
when the continuation appears empty but the final text differs from
what was previously streamed (e.g. after a tool boundary reset).
Fixes 12 CI test failures:
1. test_cli_new_session (4): _FakeAgent missing commit_memory_session
attribute added in the memory provider refactoring. Added MagicMock.
2. test_run_progress_topics (1): already_sent detection only checked
stream consumer flags, missing the response_previewed path from
interim_assistant_callback. Restructured guard to check both paths.
3. test_timezone (1): HERMES_TIMEZONE leaked into child processes via
_SAFE_ENV_PREFIXES matching HERMES_*. The code correctly converts
it to TZ but didn't remove the original. Added child_env.pop().
4. test_session_env (1): contextvars baseline captured from a different
context couldn't be restored after clear. Changed assertion to verify
the test's value was removed rather than comparing to a fragile baseline.
5. test_discord_slash_commands (5): already fixed on current main.
Add "HERMES_" to _SAFE_ENV_PREFIXES in code_execution_tool.py so HERMES_HOME and other Hermes env vars pass through to execute_code subprocesses. Fixes vision_analyze and other tools that rely on get_hermes_home() failing in Docker environments with non-default HERMES_HOME.
Authored by @shin4.
The terminal and execute_code tool schemas unconditionally mentioned
'cloud sandboxes' in their descriptions sent to the model. This caused
agents running on local backends to believe they were in a sandboxed
environment, refusing networking tasks and other operations. Worse,
agents sometimes saved this false belief to persistent memory, making
it persist across sessions.
Reported by multiple users (XLion, 林泽).
The check_interval parameter on terminal_tool sent periodic output
updates to the gateway chat, but these were display-only — the agent
couldn't see or act on them. This added schema bloat and introduced
a bug where notify_on_complete=True was silently dropped when
check_interval was also set (the not-check_interval guard skipped
fast-watcher registration, and the check_interval watcher dict
was missing the notify_on_complete key).
Removing check_interval entirely:
- Eliminates the notify_on_complete interaction bug
- Reduces tool schema size (one fewer parameter for the model)
- Simplifies the watcher registration path
- notify_on_complete (agent wake-on-completion) still works
- watch_patterns (output alerting) still works
- process(action='poll') covers manual status checking
Closes#7947 (root cause eliminated rather than patched).
The interrupt mechanism in tools/interrupt.py used a process-global
threading.Event. In the gateway, multiple agents run concurrently in
the same process via run_in_executor. When any agent was interrupted
(user sends a follow-up message), the global flag killed ALL agents'
running tools — terminal commands, browser ops, web requests — across
all sessions.
Changes:
- tools/interrupt.py: Replace single threading.Event with a set of
interrupted thread IDs. set_interrupt() targets a specific thread;
is_interrupted() checks the current thread. Includes a backward-
compatible _ThreadAwareEventProxy for legacy _interrupt_event usage.
- run_agent.py: Store execution thread ID at start of run_conversation().
interrupt() and clear_interrupt() pass it to set_interrupt() so only
this agent's thread is affected.
- tools/code_execution_tool.py: Use is_interrupted() instead of
directly checking _interrupt_event.is_set().
- tools/process_registry.py: Same — use is_interrupted().
- tests: Update interrupt tests for per-thread semantics. Add new
TestPerThreadInterruptIsolation with two tests verifying cross-thread
isolation.
* feat: add watch_patterns to background processes for output monitoring
Adds a new 'watch_patterns' parameter to terminal(background=true) that
lets the agent specify strings to watch for in process output. When a
matching line appears, a notification is queued and injected as a
synthetic message — triggering a new agent turn, similar to
notify_on_complete but mid-process.
Implementation:
- ProcessSession gets watch_patterns field + rate-limit state
- _check_watch_patterns() in ProcessRegistry scans new output chunks
from all three reader threads (local, PTY, env-poller)
- Rate limited: max 8 notifications per 10s window
- Sustained overload (45s) permanently disables watching for that process
- watch_queue alongside completion_queue, same consumption pattern
- CLI drains watch_queue in both idle loop and post-turn drain
- Gateway drains after agent runs via _inject_watch_notification()
- Checkpoint persistence + crash recovery includes watch_patterns
- Blocked in execute_code sandbox (like other bg params)
- 20 new tests covering matching, rate limiting, overload kill,
checkpoint persistence, schema, and handler passthrough
Usage:
terminal(
command='npm run dev',
background=true,
watch_patterns=['ERROR', 'WARN', 'listening on port']
)
* refactor: merge watch_queue into completion_queue
Unified queue with 'type' field distinguishing 'completion',
'watch_match', and 'watch_disabled' events. Extracted
_format_process_notification() in CLI and gateway to handle
all event types in a single drain loop. Removes duplication
across both CLI drain sites and the gateway.
Isolate system tool configs (git, ssh, gh, npm) per profile by injecting
a per-profile HOME into subprocess environments only. The Python
process's own os.environ['HOME'] and Path.home() are never modified,
preserving all existing profile infrastructure.
Activation is directory-based: when {HERMES_HOME}/home/ exists on disk,
subprocesses see it as HOME. The directory is created automatically for:
- Docker: entrypoint.sh bootstraps it inside the persistent volume
- Named profiles: added to _PROFILE_DIRS in profiles.py
Injection points (all three subprocess env builders):
- tools/environments/local.py _make_run_env() — foreground terminal
- tools/environments/local.py _sanitize_subprocess_env() — background procs
- tools/code_execution_tool.py child_env — execute_code sandbox
Single source of truth: hermes_constants.get_subprocess_home()
Closes#4426
- DEFAULT_RESULT_SIZE_CHARS: 50K -> 100K (match current _LARGE_RESULT_CHARS)
- DEFAULT_PREVIEW_SIZE_CHARS: 2K -> 1.5K (match current _LARGE_RESULT_PREVIEW_CHARS)
- Per-tool overrides all set to 100K (terminal, execute_code, search_files)
- Remove pre-read byte guard (no behavioral regression vs current main)
- Revert limit signature change to int=500 (match current default)
- Restore original read_file schema description
- Update test assertions to match 100K thresholds
Comprehensive cleanup across 80 files based on automated (ruff, pyflakes, vulture)
and manual analysis of the entire codebase.
Changes by category:
Unused imports removed (~95 across 55 files):
- Removed genuinely unused imports from all major subsystems
- agent/, hermes_cli/, tools/, gateway/, plugins/, cron/
- Includes imports in try/except blocks that were truly unused
(vs availability checks which were left alone)
Unused variables removed (~25):
- Removed dead variables: connected, inner, channels, last_exc,
source, new_server_names, verify, pconfig, default_terminal,
result, pending_handled, temperature, loop
- Dropped unused argparse subparser assignments in hermes_cli/main.py
(12 instances of add_parser() where result was never used)
Dead code removed:
- run_agent.py: Removed dead ternary (None if False else None) and
surrounding unreachable branch in identity fallback
- run_agent.py: Removed write-only attribute _last_reported_tool
- hermes_cli/providers.py: Removed dead @property decorator on
module-level function (decorator has no effect outside a class)
- gateway/run.py: Removed unused MCP config load before reconnect
- gateway/platforms/slack.py: Removed dead SessionSource construction
Undefined name bugs fixed (would cause NameError at runtime):
- batch_runner.py: Added missing logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
- tools/environments/daytona.py: Added missing Dict and Path imports
Unnecessary global statements removed (14):
- tools/terminal_tool.py: 5 functions declared global for dicts
they only mutated via .pop()/[key]=value (no rebinding)
- tools/browser_tool.py: cleanup thread loop only reads flag
- tools/rl_training_tool.py: 4 functions only do dict mutations
- tools/mcp_oauth.py: only reads the global
- hermes_time.py: only reads cached values
Inefficient patterns fixed:
- startswith/endswith tuple form: 15 instances of
x.startswith('a') or x.startswith('b') consolidated to
x.startswith(('a', 'b'))
- len(x)==0 / len(x)>0: 13 instances replaced with pythonic
truthiness checks (not x / bool(x))
- in dict.keys(): 5 instances simplified to in dict
- Redefined unused name: removed duplicate _strip_mdv2 import in
send_message_tool.py
Other fixes:
- hermes_cli/doctor.py: Replaced undefined logger.debug() with pass
- hermes_cli/config.py: Consolidated chained .endswith() calls
Test results: 3934 passed, 17 failed (all pre-existing on main),
19 skipped. Zero regressions.
* feat: notify_on_complete for background processes
When terminal(background=true, notify_on_complete=true), the system
auto-triggers a new agent turn when the process exits — no polling needed.
Changes:
- ProcessSession: add notify_on_complete field
- ProcessRegistry: add completion_queue, populate on _move_to_finished()
- Terminal tool: add notify_on_complete parameter to schema + handler
- CLI: drain completion_queue after agent turn AND during idle loop
- Gateway: enhanced _run_process_watcher injects synthetic MessageEvent
on completion, triggering a full agent turn
- Checkpoint persistence includes notify_on_complete for crash recovery
- code_execution_tool: block notify_on_complete in sandbox scripts
- 15 new tests covering queue mechanics, checkpoint round-trip, schema
* docs: update terminal tool descriptions for notify_on_complete
- background: remove 'ONLY for servers' language, describe both patterns
(long-lived processes AND long-running tasks with notify_on_complete)
- notify_on_complete: more prescriptive about when to use it
- TERMINAL_TOOL_DESCRIPTION: remove 'Do NOT use background for builds'
guidance that contradicted the new feature
* feat: execute_code runs on remote terminal backends (Docker/SSH/Modal/Daytona/Singularity)
When TERMINAL_ENV is not 'local', execute_code now ships the script to
the remote environment and runs it there via the terminal backend --
the same container/sandbox/SSH session used by terminal() and file tools.
Architecture:
- Local backend: unchanged (UDS RPC, subprocess.Popen)
- Remote backends: file-based RPC via execute_oneshot() polling
- Script writes request files, parent polls and dispatches tool calls
- Responses written atomically (tmp + rename) via base64/stdin
- execute_oneshot() bypasses persistent shell lock for concurrency
Changes:
- tools/environments/base.py: add execute_oneshot() (delegates to execute())
- tools/environments/persistent_shell.py: override execute_oneshot() to
bypass _shell_lock via _execute_oneshot(), enabling concurrent polling
- tools/code_execution_tool.py: add file-based transport to
generate_hermes_tools_module(), _execute_remote() with full env
get-or-create, file shipping, RPC poll loop, output post-processing
* fix: use _get_env_config() instead of raw TERMINAL_ENV env var
Read terminal backend type through the canonical config resolution
path (terminal_tool._get_env_config) instead of os.getenv directly.
* fix: use echo piping instead of stdin_data for base64 writes
Modal doesn't reliably deliver stdin_data to chained commands
(base64 -d > file && mv), producing 0-byte files. Switch to
echo 'base64' | base64 -d which works on all backends.
Verified E2E on both Docker and Modal.
* fix: root-level provider in config.yaml no longer overrides model.provider
load_cli_config() had a priority inversion: a stale root-level
'provider' key in config.yaml would OVERRIDE the canonical
'model.provider' set by 'hermes model'. The gateway reads
model.provider directly from YAML and worked correctly, but
'hermes chat -q' and the interactive CLI went through the merge
logic and picked up the stale root-level key.
Fix: root-level provider/base_url are now only used as a fallback
when model.provider/model.base_url is not set (never as an override).
Also added _normalize_root_model_keys() to config.py load_config()
and save_config() — migrates root-level provider/base_url into the
model section and removes the root-level keys permanently.
Reported by (≧▽≦) in Discord: opencode-go provider persisted as a
root-level key and overrode the correct model.provider=openrouter,
causing 401 errors.
* fix(security): redact secrets from execute_code sandbox output
The execute_code sandbox stripped env vars with secret-like names from
the child process (preventing os.environ access), but scripts could
still read secrets from disk (e.g. open('~/.hermes/.env')) and print
them to stdout. The raw values entered the model context unredacted.
terminal_tool and file_tools already applied redact_sensitive_text()
to their output — execute_code was the only tool that skipped this
step. Now the same redaction runs on both stdout and stderr after
ANSI stripping.
Reported via Discord (not filed on GitHub to avoid public disclosure
of the reproduction steps).
- add managed modal and gateway-backed tool integrations\n- improve CLI setup, auth, and configuration for subscriber flows\n- expand tests and docs for managed tool support
* feat: env var passthrough for skills and user config
Skills that declare required_environment_variables now have those vars
passed through to sandboxed execution environments (execute_code and
terminal). Previously, execute_code stripped all vars containing KEY,
TOKEN, SECRET, etc. and the terminal blocklist removed Hermes
infrastructure vars — both blocked skill-declared env vars.
Two passthrough sources:
1. Skill-scoped (automatic): when a skill is loaded via skill_view and
declares required_environment_variables, vars that are present in
the environment are registered in a session-scoped passthrough set.
2. Config-based (manual): terminal.env_passthrough in config.yaml lets
users explicitly allowlist vars for non-skill use cases.
Changes:
- New module: tools/env_passthrough.py — shared passthrough registry
- hermes_cli/config.py: add terminal.env_passthrough to DEFAULT_CONFIG
- tools/skills_tool.py: register available skill env vars on load
- tools/code_execution_tool.py: check passthrough before filtering
- tools/environments/local.py: check passthrough in _sanitize_subprocess_env
and _make_run_env
- 19 new tests covering all layers
* docs: add environment variable passthrough documentation
Document the env var passthrough feature across four docs pages:
- security.md: new 'Environment Variable Passthrough' section with
full explanation, comparison table, and security considerations
- code-execution.md: update security section, add passthrough subsection,
fix comparison table
- creating-skills.md: add tip about automatic sandbox passthrough
- skills.md: add note about passthrough after secure setup docs
Live-tested: launched interactive CLI, loaded a skill with
required_environment_variables, verified TEST_SKILL_SECRET_KEY was
accessible inside execute_code sandbox (value: passthrough-test-value-42).
Complete cleanup after dropping the mini-swe-agent submodule (PR #2804):
- Remove MSWEA_SILENT_STARTUP and MSWEA_GLOBAL_CONFIG_DIR env var
settings from cli.py, run_agent.py, hermes_cli/main.py, doctor.py
- Remove mini-swe-agent health check from hermes doctor
- Remove 'minisweagent' from logger suppression lists
- Remove litellm/typer/platformdirs from requirements.txt
- Remove mini-swe-agent install steps from install.ps1 (Windows)
- Remove mini-swe-agent install steps from website docs
- Update all stale comments/docstrings referencing mini-swe-agent
in terminal_tool.py, tools/__init__.py, code_execution_tool.py,
environments/README.md, environments/agent_loop.py
- Remove mini_swe_runner from pyproject.toml py-modules
(still exists as standalone script for RL training use)
- Shrink test_minisweagent_path.py to empty stub
The orphaned mini-swe-agent/ directory on disk needs manual removal:
rm -rf mini-swe-agent/
Root cause: terminal_tool, execute_code, and process_registry returned raw
subprocess output with ANSI escape sequences intact. The model saw these
in tool results and copied them into file writes.
Previous fix (PR #2532) stripped ANSI at the write point in file_tools.py,
but this was a band-aid — regex on file content risks corrupting legitimate
content, and doesn't prevent ANSI from wasting tokens in the model context.
Source-level fix:
- New tools/ansi_strip.py with comprehensive ECMA-48 regex covering CSI
(incl. private-mode, colon-separated, intermediate bytes), OSC (both
terminators), DCS/SOS/PM/APC strings, Fp/Fe/Fs/nF escapes, 8-bit C1
- terminal_tool.py: strip output before returning to model
- code_execution_tool.py: strip stdout/stderr before returning
- process_registry.py: strip output in poll/read_log/wait
- file_tools.py: remove _strip_ansi band-aid (no longer needed)
Verified: `ls --color=always` output returned as clean text to model,
file written from that output contains zero ESC bytes.
Two fixes:
1. Use a single open(os.devnull) handle for both stdout and stderr
suppression, preventing a file handle leak if the second open() fails.
2. Set server_sock = None after closing it in the try block to prevent
the finally block from closing it again (causing an OSError).
Closes#2136
Co-authored-by: dieutx <dangtc94@gmail.com>
* fix(tools): improve error logging in code_execution_tool
* fix: harden execute_code cleanup and reduce logging noise
Follow-up to cherry-picked PR #1588 (aydnOktay):
- Initialize server_sock = None before try block to prevent NameError
if exception occurs before socket creation (line 413 is inside the try)
- Guard server_sock.close() with None check
- Narrow cleanup exception handlers to OSError (the actual error type)
- Remove exc_info=True from cleanup debug logs — benign teardown
failures don't need stack traces, the message is sufficient
- Remove redundant try/except around shutil.rmtree(ignore_errors=True)
- Silence sock_path unlink with pass — expected when already cleaned up
---------
Co-authored-by: aydnOktay <xaydinoktay@gmail.com>
- 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 execute_code sandbox spawns a child process with cwd set to a
temporary directory, but never adds the hermes-agent project root to
PYTHONPATH. This makes project-root modules like minisweagent_path
unreachable from sandboxed scripts, causing ImportError when the
agent runs self-diagnostic or analysis code via execute_code.
Fix by prepending the hermes-agent root directory to PYTHONPATH in
the child process environment.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Replaces head-only stdout capture with a two-buffer approach (40% head,
60% tail rolling window) so scripts that print() their final results
at the end never lose them. Adds truncation notice between sections.
Cherry-picked from PR #755, conflict resolved (test file additions).
3 new tests for short output, head+tail preservation, and notice format.
Follow-up to PR #705 (merged from 0xbyt4). Addresses several issues:
1. CONSECUTIVE-ONLY TRACKING: Redesigned the read/search tracker to only
warn/block on truly consecutive identical calls. Any other tool call
in between (write, patch, terminal, etc.) resets the counter via
notify_other_tool_call(), called from handle_function_call() in
model_tools.py. This prevents false blocks in read→edit→verify flows.
2. THRESHOLD ADJUSTMENT: Warn on 3rd consecutive (was 2nd), block on
4th+ consecutive (was 3rd+). Gives the model more room before
intervening.
3. TUPLE UNPACKING BUG: Fixed get_read_files_summary() which crashed on
search keys (5-tuple) when trying to unpack as 3-tuple. Now uses a
separate read_history set that only tracks file reads.
4. WEB_EXTRACT DOCSTRING: Reverted incorrect removal of 'title' from
web_extract return docs in code_execution_tool.py — the field IS
returned by web_tools.py.
5. TESTS: Rewrote test_read_loop_detection.py (35 tests) to cover
consecutive-only behavior, notify_other_tool_call, interleaved
read/search, and summary-unaffected-by-searches.
Completes the fix started in 8318a51 — handle_function_call() accepted
enabled_tools but run_agent.py never passed it. Now both call sites in
_execute_tool_calls() pass self.valid_tool_names, so each agent session
uses its own tool list instead of the process-global
_last_resolved_tool_names (which subagents can overwrite).
Also simplifies the redundant ternary in code_execution_tool.py:
sandbox_tools is already computed correctly (intersection with session
tools, or full SANDBOX_ALLOWED_TOOLS as fallback), so the conditional
was dead logic.
Inspired by PR #663 (JasonOA888). Closes#662.
Tests: 2857 passed.
build_execute_code_schema(set()) produced "from hermes_tools import , ..."
in the code property description — invalid Python syntax shown to the model.
This triggers when a user enables only the code_execution toolset without
any of the sandbox-allowed tools (e.g. `hermes tools code_execution`),
because SANDBOX_ALLOWED_TOOLS & {"execute_code"} = empty set.
Also adds 29 unit tests covering build_execute_code_schema, environment
variable filtering, execute_code edge cases, and interrupt handling.
