The host-allowlist hardening (#30611) plus the refresh heal (#49735) left
the documented NOUS_INFERENCE_BASE_URL dev/staging escape hatch unreachable
for OAuth sessions, despite three code comments asserting it still works.
Root cause — resolution precedence in resolve_nous_runtime_credentials:
inference_base_url = (
_optional_base_url(state.get("inference_base_url")) # stored — wins
or os.getenv("NOUS_INFERENCE_BASE_URL") # env — unreachable
or DEFAULT_NOUS_INFERENCE_URL
)
A staging OAuth login persists its inference_base_url, but the allowlist
rejects the staging host and the refresh heal rewrites the stored value to
the production default. The stored (now prod) value is then read BEFORE the
env var, so the override never takes effect — every request 401s against
prod or is pinned to prod, and setting the env var does nothing.
Fix: the user-set env override is the most-trusted source, so consult it
FIRST for the URL used to build the client / returned to callers — while
keeping the PERSISTED value the validated, network-provenance one (the
override is a runtime overlay, never written to auth.json, so unsetting it
cleanly reverts to prod). Applied at both chokepoints:
- resolve_nous_runtime_credentials (no-refresh read path AND refresh path)
- the nous_portal proxy adapter, which re-validates the resolver's returned
base_url against the prod allowlist as defense-in-depth and would
otherwise reject a legitimate staging override at the forward boundary.
New _nous_inference_env_override() / split of stored-vs-effective URL keep
the threat model intact: Portal-returned URLs are still allowlist-validated
at every network site, and the env path stays ungated (trusted OS user).
Also folds in the no-refresh read-path heal (supersedes the approach in
the open #50265): a poisoned stored staging host now heals to the prod
default on read even when no refresh fires.
Tests: TestEnvOverrideWins (env wins on read + refresh paths; override never
persisted; poisoned stored heals) and TestProxyAdapterEnvOverride. Verified
the 4 behavioral tests fail against pre-fix code and pass with the fix; full
inference-validation + nous-provider suites green (85 passed). E2E-validated
against a real temp HERMES_HOME exercising the real resolver + proxy adapter:
resolver→staging, persisted→prod, proxy→staging, unset→reverts to prod.
After the legacy session-key path was removed, two parameters became dead
surface on the Nous runtime-resolution chain:
- min_key_ttl_seconds: del'd inside refresh_nous_oauth_pure and pass-through /
telemetry-only in refresh_nous_oauth_from_state, _try_import_shared_nous_state,
_nous_device_code_login, and resolve_nous_runtime_credentials. It controlled the
now-deleted agent-key mint TTL and drives no behavior.
- inference_auth_mode: with the legacy mode gone, AUTO and FRESH are behaviorally
identical; the value only fed _normalize_nous_inference_auth_mode validation and
oauth trace output, never a branch.
Removing inference_auth_mode orphaned its whole supporting cluster
(NOUS_INFERENCE_AUTH_MODE_AUTO/FRESH, NOUS_INFERENCE_AUTH_MODES,
_normalize_nous_inference_auth_mode), and dropping min_key_ttl_seconds orphaned
DEFAULT_AGENT_KEY_MIN_TTL_SECONDS — all deleted here.
Updated every caller (run_agent, auxiliary_client, credential_pool, proxy adapter,
runtime_provider, web_server, main, auth_commands, setup) and pruned the matching
test kwargs. Deleted two tests that exercised the removed surface
(test_legacy_auth_mode_is_rejected, test_try_refresh_..._accepts_explicit_auth_mode).
No behavior change: net -134 LOC of dead code.
get_retry_credential only triggered on 401; a 429 Too Many Requests from
xAI was silently streamed back with no key rotation or back-off signal.
- server.py: widen retry gate from == 401 to in {401, 429}
- xai.py: on 429, skip token refresh and call mark_exhausted_and_rotate
to stamp the 1-hour cooldown on the rate-limited key and return the
next available credential. Returns None if pool is exhausted.
'hermes login' was removed (the command now just prints a deprecation
message and exits). The bundled hermes-agent SKILL.md, in-code error
messages, the tip rotation, the proxy adapters, and the docs site
still pointed agents and users at the dead command — so models loading
the skill kept running 'hermes login --provider openai-codex' and
getting a dead-end print.
Replacements use the canonical 'hermes auth add <provider>' surface
(or bare 'hermes auth' for the interactive manager).
Files:
- skills/autonomous-ai-agents/hermes-agent/SKILL.md (+ regenerated docs page)
- hermes_cli/tips.py (tip rotation)
- agent/google_oauth.py (gemini-cli error message)
- agent/conversation_loop.py (nous re-auth troubleshooting line)
- agent/credential_sources.py (docstring)
- hermes_cli/proxy/cli.py + hermes_cli/proxy/adapters/nous_portal.py (proxy auth hints)
- tests/hermes_cli/test_proxy.py (updated assertions)
- website/docs/reference/faq.md, website/docs/user-guide/features/subscription-proxy.md
- zh-Hans i18n mirrors for the above
'hermes logout' is still a live command and is left untouched.
The 'hermes login' stub in hermes_cli/auth.py:login_command() and
the cli-commands.md 'Deprecated' rows are intentionally kept as
the discoverable deprecation surface.
The Nous Portal proxy adapter forwards minted ``agent_key`` bearer tokens
to whatever ``base_url`` ``resolve_nous_runtime_credentials()`` returns,
which is read directly from the refresh / agent-key-mint response and
persisted to ``~/.hermes/auth.json``. With no validation beyond a
trailing-slash strip, a poisoned URL (Portal-side MITM, or local write
to auth.json) gets forwarded the legitimate bearer on every subsequent
proxy request — exfiltrating the user's inference budget and opening a
response-injection channel back into the IDE / chat client.
Add ``_validate_nous_inference_url_from_network()`` in ``hermes_cli.auth``:
an https + host-allowlist check that returns None for anything outside
``inference-api.nousresearch.com``, so callers fall back to the
documented default rather than ship the bearer to an attacker.
This commit wires the validator into the proxy adapter at
``nous_portal.py``. A follow-up commit wires it into the four refresh /
mint sites in ``auth.py`` so the poisoned URL never lands in auth.json
in the first place.
The env-var override path (``NOUS_INFERENCE_BASE_URL``) bypasses
validation by design — that's the documented staging/dev escape hatch
and the env source is already trusted (the user set it themselves).
Co-authored-by: memosr <mehmet.sr35@gmail.com>
Quarantine Nous OAuth state when refresh fails with terminal invalid_grant/invalid_token errors. Clear local and shared refresh material across runtime, managed access-token, proxy, and credential-pool paths so Hermes stops retrying revoked refresh sessions.
Adds 'hermes proxy start' — a local HTTP server that lets external apps
(OpenViking, Karakeep, Open WebUI, ...) use a Hermes-managed provider
subscription as their LLM endpoint. The proxy attaches the user's real
OAuth-resolved credentials to each forwarded request, refreshing them
automatically; the client can send any bearer (it gets stripped).
Ships with one adapter — Nous Portal. The UpstreamAdapter ABC and
registry in hermes_cli/proxy/adapters/ are designed for additional
OAuth providers to plug in by name without server changes.
Commands:
hermes proxy start [--provider nous] [--host 127.0.0.1] [--port 8645]
hermes proxy status
hermes proxy providers
Allowed Portal paths: /v1/chat/completions, /v1/completions,
/v1/embeddings, /v1/models. Anything else returns 404 with a clear
error pointing at the allowed list.
aiohttp is gated like gateway/platforms/api_server.py (try-import,
clean runtime error if missing). No new core dependency.
Tests: 24 unit tests + 1 separate E2E that spawns the real subprocess
and verifies the upstream receives the right bearer with the client's
header stripped.
