PR #30136 review surfaced two issues, both rooted in the same audit gap:
docker integration tests were running as root, not the unprivileged
`hermes` user (UID 10000) that the runtime actually uses via
`s6-setuidgid hermes`. Anything that probed PID-1 state or wrote to
the s6 control surface worked as root in the tests but was inert in
production.
Fixes:
1. `_s6_running()` previously called `Path("/proc/1/exe").resolve()`,
which is root-only readable. For UID 10000 the symlink yields
PermissionError, `resolve()` silently returns the unresolved path,
and `exe.name == "exe"` — so detection always returned False, the
service-manager runtime-registration path was inert, and every
`hermes profile create` / `hermes -p X gateway start` silently
skipped the s6 hook. Replace with `/proc/1/comm` (world-readable)
+ `/run/s6/basedir` (s6-overlay-specific) — both required, fail
closed.
2. `02-reconcile-profiles` now also chowns `/run/service/.s6-svscan/`
{control,lock} to hermes so `s6-svscanctl -a/-an` works without
root. Previously the directory chown stopped at `/run/service`
and the FIFO inside stayed root-owned, so `register_profile_gateway`
from hermes failed at the rescan-trigger step with EACCES — the
wrapper in profiles.py caught the exception and printed a swallowed
warning, so profile creation appeared to succeed while the slot
was rolled back.
Audit changes to flush this class of bug next time:
- Add `docker_exec` / `docker_exec_sh` helpers to `tests/docker/conftest.py`
that default to `-u hermes`. The module docstring explains why and
flags `user="root"` as opt-in only for tests that explicitly need
root (none currently do).
- Refactor every `docker exec` call in tests/docker/ through the new
helpers (test_dashboard.py, test_zombie_reaping.py, test_profile_gateway.py,
test_container_restart.py, test_s6_profile_gateway_integration.py).
- Add 5 unit tests covering `_s6_running` under various probe states
(both signals present; comm wrong; basedir missing; PermissionError
on /proc/1/comm; missing /proc — non-Linux). The PermissionError
test is the explicit regression guard for the original bug.
Known follow-up: the per-service `supervise/control` FIFO inside each
`/run/service/gateway-<profile>/supervise/` is created root-owned by
s6-supervise (which runs as root because s6-svscan is PID 1). `s6-svc
-u/-d/-t` from the hermes user will get EACCES on those. The audit
under `-u hermes` will reveal this in lifecycle tests — surfacing the
issue cleanly so it can be fixed in a focused follow-up (likely via a
small SUID helper or a polling chown loop in cont-init.d). The
detection + svscanctl fixes here are independent and complete on
their own.
The s6-overlay migration replaced every runtime use of gosu with
s6-setuidgid (in stage2-hook.sh, main-wrapper.sh, per-service run
scripts, and cont-init.d hooks), but the gosu binary itself was still
being copied into the image from tianon/gosu, and several comments
across the repo still pointed to it.
Image changes:
- Drop the FROM tianon/gosu:1.19-trixie AS gosu_source stage
- Drop the COPY --from=gosu_source /gosu /usr/local/bin/ layer
- Net: one fewer base-image pull, ~12-15 MB layer eliminated
Documentation/comment refresh (no behavior change):
- Dockerfile: update root-user rationale comment + cont-init.d comment
- docker/main-wrapper.sh: drop "pre-s6 contract (gosu drop)" reference
- docker-compose.yml: update UID/GID remap comment
- .hadolint.yaml: update DL3002 ignore rationale
- website/docs/user-guide/docker.md: privilege-drop helper is s6-setuidgid now
- hermes_cli/config.py: docker_run_as_host_user docstring
tools/environments/docker.py runs *arbitrary user images* via the
terminal backend, not the bundled Hermes image. It still needs SETUID/
SETGID caps so user images that use gosu/su/s6-setuidgid all work.
Renamed the cap-list constant _GOSU_CAP_ARGS → _PRIVDROP_CAP_ARGS and
updated comments to list s6-setuidgid alongside the others as examples.
The matching test (test_security_args_include_setuid_setgid_for_gosu_drop
→ test_security_args_include_setuid_setgid_for_privdrop) was renamed
and its docstring updated; behavior is unchanged.
Verification:
- hadolint clean against .hadolint.yaml
- shellcheck clean against all docker/ shell scripts
- Image rebuilt successfully (sha 1a090924ccea)
- Docker harness: 19 passed in 41.87s (every Phase 0 test + Phase 4
per-profile-gateway lifecycle + container-restart reconciliation)
- tests/tools/test_docker_environment.py: 23 passed (rename did not
break test discovery; pre-existing unrelated mock warning)
The plan document (docs/plans/2026-05-07-s6-overlay-dynamic-subagent-gateways.md)
intentionally retains its historical references to gosu — it describes
the pre-s6 entrypoint as background for understanding the migration.
Phase 4 of the s6-overlay supervision plan. Activates the Phase 3
S6ServiceManager by hooking it into the profile lifecycle and the
`hermes gateway start/stop/restart` dispatcher, and adds a cont-
init.d-time reconciliation pass that survives `docker restart`.
Task 4.0 — container-boot reconciliation:
/run/service/ is tmpfs, so every `docker restart` wipes every
per-profile gateway slot. /etc/cont-init.d/02-reconcile-profiles
invokes hermes_cli.container_boot.reconcile_profile_gateways() on
every boot, which walks $HERMES_HOME/profiles/<name>/, reads each
gateway_state.json, recreates the s6 service slot, and auto-starts
only those whose last state was 'running'. Other states
(stopped, starting, startup_failed, missing) register the slot
in the down state — avoiding crash-loops across restarts for a
gateway that was broken last boot. Per-profile outcome is recorded
to $HERMES_HOME/logs/container-boot.log.
Implementation: hermes_cli/container_boot.py + 12 unit tests.
Profile-marker is SOUL.md, not config.yaml, because `hermes profile
create` only seeds SOUL.md by default (config.yaml comes from
`hermes setup`).
Task 4.1 / 4.2 — profile create/delete hooks:
hermes_cli/profiles.py::create_profile now calls
_maybe_register_gateway_service(<canon>) at the end, which routes
through ServiceManager.register_profile_gateway when running on s6
and no-ops on host backends. delete_profile mirrors with
_maybe_unregister_gateway_service. _allocate_gateway_port produces
a deterministic SHA-256-derived port in [9200, 9800).
Task 4.3 — gateway dispatch + remove rejection arms:
_dispatch_via_service_manager_if_s6(action) intercepts
start/stop/restart at the top of each subcommand and routes them
through S6ServiceManager.{start,stop,restart}. The pre-Phase-4
`elif is_container():` rejection arms are kept as fallback for
pre-s6 containers / unsupported runtimes, but only ever fire when
detect_service_manager() != 's6'. install/uninstall under s6
print informational guidance pointing users at profile create/delete.
Removed the two xfail(strict=True) markers from
tests/docker/test_profile_gateway.py — both tests now pass strictly.
Task 4.4 — status reporting:
get_gateway_runtime_snapshot() reports
Manager: 's6 (container supervisor)' inside an s6 container instead
of 'docker (foreground)'.
Plan-vs-reality drift fixed in this commit:
- Plan's S6ServiceManager._render_run_script used
`gateway start --foreground --port {port}` — invented args; the
real CLI is `gateway run`. Switched accordingly. port arg
retained for API parity but now documented as 'currently ignored'.
- Plan's reconciler keyed on config.yaml; switched to SOUL.md
(config.yaml is created by hermes setup, not by hermes profile
create, so the original gate caught nothing).
- The plan's _dispatch helper used _profile_arg() which returns
'--profile <name>' (i.e. with the flag prefix). Switched to
_profile_suffix() which returns the bare name.
- Architecture B's docker exec doesn't get /command on PATH or
the venv on PATH; Dockerfile's runtime PATH now includes
/opt/hermes/.venv/bin so 'docker exec <c> hermes ...' works
without sourcing the venv.
- stage2-hook now chowns $HERMES_HOME/profiles to hermes on every
boot, not just on the UID-remap path. Without this, files created
by docker-exec-as-root accumulate and the next reconciler run
fails with PermissionError reading SOUL.md.
Test harness:
19 passed, 0 xfailed (the two pre-Phase-4 xfail targets flip to
passing). 78 unit tests across service_manager + container_boot +
profiles_s6_hooks + gateway_s6_dispatch. Hadolint + shellcheck
pass cleanly.
Refs: docs/plans/2026-05-07-s6-overlay-dynamic-subagent-gateways.md
BREAKING CHANGE: the container ENTRYPOINT is now /init (s6-overlay)
instead of /usr/bin/tini. Main hermes runs as the container CMD with
TTY inherited (preserving --tui), dashboard runs as a supervised s6-rc
service (HERMES_DASHBOARD=1 starts it; crashes auto-restart), and the
ground is laid for per-profile gateway supervision (Phase 3+4).
All five pre-s6 docker run invocation patterns continue to work
identically — verified by the Phase 0 docker harness:
docker run <image> → `hermes` with no args
docker run <image> chat -q "..." → `hermes chat -q ...` passthrough
docker run <image> sleep infinity → `sleep infinity` direct
docker run <image> bash → interactive bash
docker run -it <image> --tui → interactive Ink TUI
Phase 2 harness result: 12 passed, 2 xfailed (Phase 4 target). Hadolint
+ shellcheck pass cleanly.
Architecture pivot from plan v3 (documented in main-hermes/run header):
the plan called for main hermes to be an s6-supervised service, but
two real s6-overlay v3 mechanics blocked that — cont-init.d scripts
receive no arguments (CMD args are not visible to stage2-hook), and
`/run/s6/basedir/bin/halt` after writing the exit code did not
propagate the desired exit code (container exits 143). We use the
s6-overlay-native CMD pattern instead: main-wrapper.sh is the
container's main program (ENTRYPOINT prepends it so leading-dash
args like --version aren't intercepted by /init), exec's the final
program with stdin/stdout/stderr inherited, and the program's exit
code becomes the container exit code. main-hermes is now a no-op
`sleep infinity` slot kept for future supervised-gateway-container
modes. This trades "supervised restart of main hermes" for arg-
parity with the pre-s6 contract — main hermes was already unsupervised
under tini, so we lose nothing functional. Dashboard supervision is
the only new guarantee added by this phase.
Files added:
docker/main-wrapper.sh # arg routing + s6-setuidgid drop
docker/stage2-hook.sh # gosu-equivalent + chown + seed
docker/s6-rc.d/main-hermes/{type,run,dependencies.d/base}
docker/s6-rc.d/dashboard/{type,run,dependencies.d/base}
docker/s6-rc.d/user/contents.d/{main-hermes,dashboard}
Files changed:
Dockerfile: tini → s6-overlay install + ENTRYPOINT flip + service wiring
docker/entrypoint.sh: thin shim to stage2-hook.sh for back-compat
tests/docker/test_dashboard.py: add test_dashboard_restarts_after_crash
Refs: docs/plans/2026-05-07-s6-overlay-dynamic-subagent-gateways.md
* feat(config): add install-method stamping + Docker detection
Dockerfile stamps "docker", install.sh stamps "git", and cmd_postinstall
stamps "pip" into ~/.hermes/.install_method. detect_install_method() reads
the stamp first, then falls back to managed-system / container / .git
heuristics. Adds Docker upgrade guidance.
Tracking: #27826
* fix(stamp): move Docker stamp to entrypoint, install.sh stamp after print_success
The Dockerfile stamp was overwritten by the VOLUME overlay at container
start. Moving it to entrypoint.sh ensures it persists. The install.sh
stamp now writes after print_success so it only lands on full success.
The Dockerfile permissions section made /opt/hermes/.venv readable but not
writable by the hermes runtime user. Since the 2026-05-12 policy change
moved messaging packages (discord.py, telegram, slack, etc.) out of [all]
and into lazy_deps.py, the Docker image no longer ships with them
pre-installed. At first gateway boot, lazy_deps.ensure() tries to
`uv pip install` them into the venv but fails with EACCES because
site-packages is root-owned.
The result: every messaging platform adapter silently fails to load inside
Docker containers, producing only a cryptic "discord.py not installed"
warning despite the gateway being correctly configured.
Two-part fix:
1. Dockerfile: add /opt/hermes/.venv to the existing chown -R hermes:hermes
line so the default (UID 10000) case works out of the box.
2. docker/entrypoint.sh: extend the needs_chown block to also re-chown the
.venv when HERMES_UID is remapped. Without this, the build-time chown
becomes stale when someone uses the documented HERMES_UID override in
docker-compose.yml.
Fixes#21536
Related: #17674, #21543, #21755
Lets orchestrators (e.g. an account-management service provisioning a
Hermes VPS) seed an OAuth refresh credential non-interactively instead of
walking the user through `hermes setup` + the device-flow login dance.
Matches the existing first-boot-only pattern used for .env, config.yaml,
and SOUL.md.
If HERMES_AUTH_JSON_BOOTSTRAP is set and $HERMES_HOME/auth.json doesn't
already exist, write the env var's contents to auth.json with mode 600.
The `[ ! -f ... ]` guard is critical: it ensures that on container
restart the rotated refresh token Hermes wrote back to the persistent
volume is never clobbered by the now-stale value the orchestrator
originally seeded.
Generic name (not Nous-specific) so the feature is reusable by any future
orchestrator.
Adds an optional dashboard side-process to the container entrypoint,
toggled by `HERMES_DASHBOARD=1` (also accepts `true` / `yes`). When set,
the entrypoint backgrounds `hermes dashboard` before `exec`-ing the main
command so the user's chosen foreground process (gateway, chat, `sleep
infinity`, …) remains PID-of-interest for the container runtime.
docker run -d \
-v ~/.hermes:/opt/data \
-p 8642:8642 -p 9119:9119 \
-e HERMES_DASHBOARD=1 \
nousresearch/hermes-agent gateway run
Defaults chosen for the container case:
- Host: 0.0.0.0 (reachable through published port; can override to
127.0.0.1 via HERMES_DASHBOARD_HOST for sidecar/reverse-proxy setups)
- Port: 9119 (matches `hermes dashboard`)
- Auto-adds `--insecure` when binding to non-localhost, matching the
dashboard's own safety gate for exposing API keys
- HERMES_DASHBOARD_TUI is read by `hermes dashboard` directly — no
entrypoint plumbing needed
Dashboard output is prefixed with `[dashboard]` via `stdbuf`+`sed -u` so
it's easy to separate from gateway logs in `docker logs`. No supervision:
if the dashboard crashes it stays down until the container restarts
(documented in the `:::note` panel).
Other changes bundled in:
- Deprecate GATEWAY_HEALTH_URL / GATEWAY_HEALTH_TIMEOUT env vars in
hermes_cli/web_server.py with a DEPRECATED block comment and a
`.. deprecated::` note on _probe_gateway_health. The feature still
works for this release; it'll be removed alongside the move to a
first-class dashboard config key.
- Rewrite the "Running the dashboard" doc section around the new
single-container pattern. Drops the previously-documented
dashboard-as-its-own-container setup — that pattern relied on the
deprecated env vars for cross-container gateway-liveness detection,
and without them the dashboard would permanently report the gateway
as "not running".
- Collapse the two-service Compose example (gateway + dashboard
container) into a single service with HERMES_DASHBOARD=1. Removes
the now-unnecessary bridge network and `depends_on`.
- Drop the ":::warning" caveat about "Running a dashboard container
alongside the gateway is safe" — that case no longer exists.
The chown/chmod block on config.yaml was added in b24d239ce to keep the
file readable by the hermes runtime user, but it sat in the post-gosu
'running as hermes' section of the entrypoint. That meant:
1. Default `docker run <image>` — container starts as root, entrypoint
drops to hermes via gosu, then non-root hermes tries to chown the
file to hermes. Works by coincidence because the file was just
created by root during volume setup and gosu target == target owner.
2. `docker run -u $(id -u):$(id -g) <image>` (#15865) — container
starts as the caller's UID. The root block is skipped entirely, we
land in the hermes section as some arbitrary non-root user, and
chown to 'hermes' fails with 'Operation not permitted'. Script
aborts under `set -e`.
Move the chown/chmod into the root block (before the gosu exec) where
it actually has privilege, and guard with `2>/dev/null || true` so
rootless Podman (where even in-container root lacks host-side chown
rights) doesn't abort either.
Closes#15865
- Remove 'USER hermes' from Dockerfile so entrypoint runs as root and can
usermod/groupmod before gosu drop. Add chmod -R a+rX /opt/hermes so any
remapped UID can read the install directory.
- Fix entrypoint chown logic: always chown -R when HERMES_UID is remapped
from default 10000, not just when top-level dir ownership mismatches.
- Add docker-compose.yml with gateway + dashboard services.
- Add .hermes to .gitignore.
Commit 8254b820 ("--init for zombie reaping + sleep infinity for
idle-based lifetime") made the Docker terminal backend launch
sandbox containers with `sleep infinity` as the command, so the
lifetime is controlled by an external idle reaper instead of a
fixed timeout.
But `docker/entrypoint.sh` unconditionally wraps its args with
`hermes`:
exec hermes "$@"
Result: `hermes sleep infinity` → argparse rejects `sleep` as a
subcommand and the container exits immediately with code 2:
hermes: error: argument command: invalid choice: 'sleep'
(choose from chat, model, gateway, setup, ...)
Every sandbox container launched by the docker backend dies at
startup, breaking terminal/file tool execution end-to-end.
Fix: dispatch at the tail of the entrypoint. If the first arg is
an executable on PATH (sleep, bash, sh, etc.) run it raw; otherwise
preserve the legacy `hermes <subcommand>` wrapping behavior. Both
invocation styles below keep working:
docker run <image> -> hermes (interactive)
docker run <image> chat -q "hi" -> hermes chat -q "hi"
docker run <image> sleep infinity -> sleep infinity
docker run <image> bash -> bash
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
- find_docker() now checks HERMES_DOCKER_BINARY env var first, then
docker on PATH, then podman on PATH, then macOS known locations
- Entrypoint respects HERMES_HOME env var (was hardcoded to /opt/data)
- Entrypoint uses groupmod -o to tolerate non-unique GIDs (fixes macOS
GID 20 conflict with Debian's dialout group)
- Entrypoint makes chown best-effort so rootless Podman continues
instead of failing with 'Operation not permitted'
- 5 new tests covering env var override, podman fallback, precedence
Based on work by alanjds (PR #3996) and malaiwah (PR #8115).
Closes#4084.
- Add gosu for runtime privilege dropping from root to hermes user
- Support HERMES_UID/HERMES_GID env vars for host mount permission matching
- Switch to debian:13.4-slim base image
- Use uv venv instead of pip install --break-system-packages
- Pin uv and gosu multi-stage images with SHA256 digests
- Set PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH to /opt/hermes/.playwright so build-time
chromium install survives the /opt/data volume mount
- Keep procps for container debugging
Based on work by m0n5t3r in PR #5811. Stripped to hardening-only
changes (non-root, virtualenv, slim base); matrix deps, fonts, xvfb,
and entrypoint playwright download deferred to follow-up.
The profile system expects these directories but they weren't
being created on container startup. Adds them to the mkdir list
alongside the existing dirs.
Co-authored-by: Tranquil-Flow <tranquil_flow@protonmail.com>
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
Adds a complete Docker packaging for Hermes Agent:
- Dockerfile based on debian:13.4 with all deps
- Entrypoint that bootstraps .env, config.yaml, SOUL.md on first run
- CI workflow to build, test, and push to DockerHub
- Documentation for interactive, gateway, and upgrade workflows
Closes#850, #913.
Changes vs original PR:
- Removed pre-created legacy cache/platform dirs from entrypoint
(image_cache, audio_cache, pairing, whatsapp/session) — these are
now created on demand by the application using the consolidated
layout from get_hermes_dir()
- Moved docs from docs/docker.md to website/docs/user-guide/docker.md
and added to Docusaurus sidebar
Co-authored-by: benbarclay <benbarclay@users.noreply.github.com>
