## 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.
Lists the skills sitting in ~/.hermes/skills/.archive/ so users have
something to pass to `hermes curator restore`. `curator status` already
shows counts; this fills the name-discovery gap.
Archive layout is flat (`archive_skill` writes to `.archive/<skill>/`),
so the directory name IS the skill name — no frontmatter parsing
needed. Timestamped collision directories (`<skill>-<ts>`) are listed
literally; user can still pass them to `restore`.
Reshape of @EvilDrag0n's #20651, simplified: drop the frontmatter
rglob + preamble/trailer output + duplicate subcommand registration.
Co-authored-by: EvilDrag0n <lxl694522264@gmail.com>
Treat skill views and edits as activity when curator reports and applies lifecycle transitions, so recently loaded or patched skills are not displayed or transitioned as never used.\n\nAdds regression tests for activity derivation, automatic transitions, and CLI status output.
restore_skill() in tools/skill_usage.py used archive_root.iterdir(), which
only walked the top level of .archive/. Skills archived under nested layouts
(e.g. .archive/openclaw-imports/<skill>/ from older archive paths or
external imports) were invisible to both the exact-match and prefix-match
candidate scans, surfacing as a misleading "skill '<name>' not found in
archive" error even though the directory existed on disk.
Switch both candidate scans to archive_root.rglob('*') so the lookup
descends into category subdirectories.
Fixes#17942
Previous invariants only gated the primary entry points
(apply_automatic_transitions, archive_skill, CLI pin). Several paths
were unprotected:
- bump_view / bump_use / bump_patch / set_state / set_pinned wrote
usage records unconditionally, which is confusing noise in
.usage.json even though the review list filtered them out
- restore_skill did not check whether a bundled skill now shadows
the archived name
- CLI unpin was asymmetric with CLI pin — it had no gate
Fixes:
- _mutate() (the shared counter / state writer) now drops silently
when the skill is not agent-created. .usage.json never gains a
record for a bundled or hub-installed skill.
- restore_skill() refuses to restore under a name that is now
bundled or hub-installed (would shadow upstream).
- CLI unpin gate matches CLI pin.
New tests:
- 5 provenance-guard tests on skill_usage (one per mutator)
- 1 end-to-end test that hammers every mutator at a bundled skill
and a hub skill, asserts both are untouched on disk, and asserts
the sidecar stays clean
- 2 CLI tests proving pin/unpin refuse bundled skills symmetrically
64/64 tests passing (29 skill_usage + 27 curator + 8 new guards).
Adds the Curator — an auxiliary-model background task that periodically
reviews AGENT-CREATED skills and keeps the collection tidy: tracks usage,
transitions unused skills through active → stale → archived, and spawns
a forked AIAgent to consolidate overlaps and patch drift.
Default: enabled, inactivity-triggered (no cron daemon). Runs on CLI
startup and gateway boot when the last run is older than interval_hours
(default 24) AND the agent has been idle for min_idle_hours (default 2).
Invariants (all load-bearing):
- Never touches bundled or hub-installed skills (.bundled_manifest +
.hub/lock.json double-filter)
- Never auto-deletes — archive only. Archives are recoverable
via `hermes curator restore <skill>`
- Pinned skills bypass all auto-transitions
- Uses the aux client; never touches the main session's prompt cache
New files:
- tools/skill_usage.py — sidecar .usage.json telemetry, atomic writes,
provenance filter
- agent/curator.py — orchestrator: config, idle gating, state-machine
transitions (pure, no LLM), forked-agent review prompt
- hermes_cli/curator.py — `hermes curator {status,run,pause,resume,
pin,unpin,restore}` subcommand
- tests/tools/test_skill_usage.py — 29 tests
- tests/agent/test_curator.py — 25 tests
Modified files (surgical patches):
- tools/skills_tool.py — bump view_count on successful skill_view
- tools/skill_manager_tool.py — bump patch_count on skill_manage
patch/edit/write_file/remove_file; forget record on delete
- hermes_cli/config.py — add curator: section to DEFAULT_CONFIG
- hermes_cli/commands.py — add /curator CommandDef with subcommands
- hermes_cli/main.py — register `hermes curator` subparser via
register_cli() from hermes_cli.curator
- cli.py — /curator slash-command dispatch + startup hook
- gateway/run.py — gateway-boot hook (mirrors CLI)
Validation:
- 54 new tests across skill_usage + curator, all passing in 3s
- 346 tests across all touched files' neighbors green
- 2783 tests across hermes_cli/ + gateway/test_run_progress_topics.py green
- CLI smoke: `hermes curator status/pause/resume` work end-to-end
Companion to PR #16026 (class-first skill review prompt) — together
they form a loop: the review prompt stops near-duplicate skill creation
at the source, and the curator prunes/consolidates what still accumulates.
Refs #7816.
