Second, deeper pass over tools/gateway/hermes_cli plus first pass over
the trees wave 1 missed (acp, acp_adapter, skills, computer_use, docker,
dashboard, conformance, monitoring, secret_sources, hermes_state,
providers). Same rubric as wave 1 (AGENTS.md test policy); security,
alternation/caching invariants, issue-number regressions, and E2E kept.
Real test-quality fixes found and rooted out along the way:
- tests/tools/test_command_guards.py made real auxiliary-LLM HTTPS calls
(DEFAULT_CONFIG smart-approval leaked in) — pinned approval
mode=manual via autouse fixture: 17.4s → 0.4s.
- test_model_switch_custom_providers.py / test_user_providers_model_switch.py
silently probed live provider catalogs (~2s/test) — stubbed
cached_provider_model_ids/provider_model_ids/fetch_api_models.
- test_telegram_noise_filter.py: 15-platform copy-paste matrix over
shared gateway.run logic → 3 representative platforms (55s → 3.9s).
- test_gateway_shutdown.py: stop()'s 5s interrupt-deadline loop spun on
MagicMock agents — interrupt.side_effect now clears _running_agents
(22s → 1.0s).
- test_gateway_inactivity_timeout.py poll-harness timings shrunk 3-5x
(24s → 1.1s); test_mcp_stability.py backoff/SIGTERM-grace sleeps
patched (15.4s → 2.5s); test_async_delegation.py negative-drain wait
5s → 0.5s.
- test_telegram_init_deadline.py: loop-block margin restored to 1.0s
with rationale comment — the watchdog-dump assertion needs the loop
blocked well past deadline+grace under parallel load (flaked once in
the 40-worker verification run at a 0.2s margin).
Verification: full hermetic suite via scripts/run_tests.sh —
2,438 files, 21,718 tests passed, 0 failed, 293.9s wall.
Suite totals vs original baseline: 46,820 → 19,757 test functions
(−57.8%), wall 583.5s → 293.9s (−50%), subprocess CPU 13,564s → 11,623s.
Fixes#15779. Custom-provider per-model context_length (`custom_providers[].models.<id>.context_length`) is now honored across every resolution path, not just agent startup. Also adds 256K as the top probe tier and default fallback.
## What changed
New helper `hermes_cli.config.get_custom_provider_context_length()` — single source of truth for the per-model override lookup, with trailing-slash-insensitive base-url matching.
`agent.model_metadata.get_model_context_length()` gains an optional `custom_providers=` kwarg (step 0b — runs after explicit `config_context_length` but before every other probe).
Wired through five call sites that previously either duplicated the lookup or ignored it entirely:
- `run_agent.py` startup — refactored to use the new helper (dedups legacy inline loop, keeps invalid-value warning)
- `AIAgent.switch_model()` — re-reads custom_providers from live config on every /model switch
- `hermes_cli.model_switch.resolve_display_context_length()` — new `custom_providers=` kwarg
- `gateway/run.py` /model confirmation (picker callback + text path)
- `gateway/run.py` `_format_session_info` (/info)
## Context probe tiers
`CONTEXT_PROBE_TIERS = [256_000, 128_000, 64_000, 32_000, 16_000, 8_000]` — was `[128_000, ...]`. `DEFAULT_FALLBACK_CONTEXT` follows tier[0], so unknown models now default to 256K. The stale `128000` literal in the OpenRouter metadata-miss path is replaced with `DEFAULT_FALLBACK_CONTEXT` for consistency.
## Repro (from #15779)
```yaml
custom_providers:
- name: my-custom-endpoint
base_url: https://example.invalid/v1
model: gpt-5.5
models:
gpt-5.5:
context_length: 1050000
```
`/model gpt-5.5 --provider custom:my-custom-endpoint` → previously "Context: 128,000", now "Context: 1,050,000".
## Tests
- `tests/hermes_cli/test_custom_provider_context_length.py` — new file, 19 tests covering the helper, step-0b integration, and the 256K tier invariants
- `tests/hermes_cli/test_model_switch_context_display.py` — added regression tests for #15779 through the display resolver
- `tests/gateway/test_session_info.py` — updated default-fallback assertion (128K → 256K)
- `tests/agent/test_model_metadata.py` — updated tier assertions for the new top tier
