The assistant message action bar used `hideWhenRunning`, which unmounts it
whenever the thread is streaming. Since the bar reserves vertical space in
each completed assistant message's footer (it's invisible-until-hover via
opacity, not via mount), unmounting it collapsed every prior turn by the
bar's height — then remounting on resolve grew them back, shifting the whole
conversation (visible as "padding appears above the last user message").
Drop hideWhenRunning so the footer height is constant; the bar stays
invisible during streaming via its existing opacity/pointer-events gating.
The streaming caret (::after on the running message's last child) was an
in-flow inline-block adding ~0.78em of inline width, which could wrap the
last line mid-stream; when the caret is removed on completion the line
un-wraps and reflows — the visible post-response layout shift. Net-zero its
inline advance with a compensating negative margin so it paints at the text
end without consuming layout width.
- runGit() hardcoded spawn('git'), which ENOENTs on fresh installer-driven
Windows installs (git is PortableGit under %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes\git, never
on PATH) — so "Check for updates" failed with "Couldn't check for updates".
Add resolveGitBinary() mirroring findGitBash (PortableGit → Git-for-Windows
→ PATH) and use it in runGit.
- PageSearchShell rendered a full-width search input in the titlebar row, so
on Windows its right edge slid under the fixed top-right tools + native
window controls. Reserve that footprint via --titlebar-tools-* vars.
The first-launch install overlay showed a static "Installing" with no
motion, so long steps (notably the repo clone) looked frozen. Stamp each
stage's start time on the running transition and tick once a second so the
active step shows live elapsed (e.g. "Installing · 1:23"), plus elapsed on
the overall current-step line. Completed steps keep their final duration.
- Feature Nous Portal as the primary onboarding card (Recommended tag,
app logo, single pitch line); collapse other OAuth providers behind an
"Other providers" disclosure whose open/closed state persists.
- Surface OpenRouter as a one-click API-key option inside the disclosure;
move "I have an API key" to a quiet bottom-right link.
- Treat "no provider configured" as a normal onboarding state, not a red
error banner (provider-setup-errors copy match).
- Fix setup.runtime_check: it reported ready when the resolved runtime had
an empty credential or only implicit Bedrock/IAM, so fresh installs never
saw onboarding. Now requires a usable credential.
- Auto-wire Windows fonts for WSL2 users so the renderer renders real
Segoe UI instead of the DejaVu fallback; make WSL detection env-independent
via the /proc kernel marker.
The 'Update from your terminal' card (shown to CLI installs with no staged
updater) hardcoded bare `hermes update` — which defaults to main and would
switch a bb/gui (or any non-main) checkout off-branch. Same bug we fixed for
the GUI button, leaked into the card's copy text.
Resolve the checkout's current branch and show `hermes update --branch
<current>` for non-main checkouts; keep it bare for main so the card stays
clean. Best-effort: bare fallback if branch detection fails. Matches the
GUI button + installer --update contract; bare terminal/bot/TUI update
paths still default to main, unchanged.
A user who installed via the CLI (irm|iex / install.sh) then ran
`hermes desktop` has no staged hermes-setup.exe, so clicking Update
in-app hit resolveUpdaterBinary()=null and showed a misleading error
('re-run the Hermes installer') with a Try-again button that could
never succeed — a dead loop for a perfectly valid install.
Treat the no-updater case as an intentional outcome, not a failure:
- main.cjs applyUpdates returns { ok:true, manual:true, command:'hermes update' }
(no throw, no 'error' stage) when no updater binary exists.
- New 'manual' update stage + apply-state.command thread the command to the UI.
- updates-overlay ManualView: a polished terminal-native card with the
exact command and a copy button, framed as the correct path for a CLI
user rather than an error.
GUI-installer users are unaffected — hermes-setup.exe present => seamless
auto-update runs as before. Zero new process orchestration; can't fail
the update demo.
The unpacked Hermes.exe showed the stock Electron icon + name in the
taskbar because build.win.signAndEditExecutable=false disables BOTH
electron-builder's signing AND its rcedit metadata/icon stamping. That
flag is load-bearing: enabling it re-triggers signtool -> winCodeSign,
whose macOS symlinks crash 7-Zip on non-admin Windows (unfixable dead end).
Decouple identity-stamping from signing entirely: after npm run pack,
run rcedit ourselves on the produced exe.
- Add rcedit as a direct devDependency of apps/desktop (the transitive
electron-winstaller copy is fragile).
- apps/desktop/scripts/set-exe-identity.cjs: Node helper that calls
rcedit's named export to set icon + ProductName/FileDescription/
CompanyName. Node builds argv natively — avoids the PowerShell->exe
->JSON double-escaping that broke the app-builder rcedit path.
- install.ps1 Set-DesktopExeIdentity invokes the script after the build,
before shortcuts. Best-effort: failure keeps the stock icon, never
fails the install. rcedit is a pure PE editor — no signtool, no
winCodeSign, no symlinks.
Verified locally: stamping a copy of the built Hermes.exe embeds the
32x32 icon and sets ProductName=Hermes.
Also fix update-path success-screen flash: in update mode the installer
hands off + exits in ~600ms, so don't route to the 'launch Hermes'
success view (it flashed before the window closed).
Converge update on the same principle as bootstrap: one driver owns all
repo mutation. The desktop becomes a pure consumer that hands off to
Hermes-Setup.exe --update instead of re-implementing git/pip in Electron.
- hermes desktop --build-only: build without launching, so the installer
owns the post-update launch (CLI keeps build logic single-sourced).
- Installer AppMode {Install,Update} from argv; get_mode exposed to the UI.
- Installer self-copies to HERMES_HOME/hermes-setup.exe on install success
(no-op guard during --update re-invocation to avoid the locked-exe copy).
- Installer --update flow (update.rs): wait for the desktop to release the
venv shim, run 'hermes update --yes --gateway' (branch on exit 0/2/other),
then 'hermes desktop --build-only', then launch the rebuilt desktop. Reuses
the bootstrap event channel + progress UI via a synthetic two-stage manifest.
- Desktop applyUpdates() gutted (~105 lines of git/stash/pull/pyproject/pip
removed) -> thin handoff: spawn updater, app.quit() to free the shim.
Detection (checkUpdates, commit changelog, behind-count) kept intact.
- install.ps1 creates Start Menu + Desktop shortcuts to the packed Hermes.exe
(never bare 'hermes desktop', which would rebuild every launch).
After reading app-builder-lib/winPackager.js line 216 + 231 directly:
signAndEditExecutable is the ACTUAL hardcoded gate that short-circuits
both signApp() (which signs Hermes.exe + every shouldSignFile match
including bundled prebuilds) AND createTransformerForExtraFiles().
None of signtoolOptions.sign / sign:null / sign:<custom-fn> gate the
winCodeSign download — that happens before they're consulted.
What we lose: rcedit also runs through signAndEditResources, so
disabling this drops PE metadata (file properties showing 'Hermes' /
'Nous Research' / file description). Cost is real but bounded:
* Hermes.exe filename, icon, asar contents, app identity intact
* Task Manager shows 'Hermes.exe' (the filename) not 'Hermes' (PE
description) — minor downgrade
* Start menu, taskbar, window title all work normally
* SmartScreen will warn once (unsigned, same as before)
When the cert lands, flip signAndEditExecutable back to default true,
both signing AND rcedit return, PE metadata is restored.
Removes the no-op sign function (build-noop-sign.cjs) since
signAndEditExecutable=false prevents signtool from being invoked at
all — the custom hook never gets called either.
VM run 6 still hit the symlink crash even with signtoolOptions.sign=null.
electron-builder 26.8.1 treats null as 'use the default signtool path'
rather than 'skip signing', so the winCodeSign fetch + extraction still
fired for the bundled prebuild re-sign.
The Electron docs (electronjs.org/docs/latest/tutorial/code-signing)
make it clear signing is OPTIONAL and unsigned apps work fine — users
just see SmartScreen on first launch. The electron-builder mechanism
for 'don't actually sign anything' is to supply a custom sign function
(via signtoolOptions.sign: '<path-to-cjs-module>') that resolves
without invoking signtool.
build-noop-sign.cjs is that module — a 5-line async function that
returns undefined. electron-builder calls it for every binary it would
have signed, gets back a resolved promise, and considers each binary
'signed.' No signtool spawn, no winCodeSign fetch, no symlink crash.
When Nous's cert arrives, replace this file with a real signing hook
(@electron/windows-sign-based or a direct signtool invocation). The
architecture's signing-ready and the cutover is a one-file edit.
VM run 5 diagnosis: the pre-extract from 3b29e65c1 ran (extracted 83
files, 24MB) but produced ZERO files at the expected sentinel path
'/winCodeSign-2.6.0/windows-10/x64/signtool.exe'.
Cause: the .7z archive's root entries are 'windows-10/', 'darwin/',
'linux/', etc. — not 'winCodeSign-2.6.0/<arch>'. Extracting with
'-o$cacheRoot' put files at $cacheRoot/windows-10/..., NOT at
$cacheRoot/winCodeSign-2.6.0/windows-10/.... I had the directory
nesting wrong from the start.
And then we observed: electron-builder downloads winCodeSign-2.6.0.7z
under a random numeric filename ('384387955.7z') regardless of what's
already extracted in the parent dir. The cache key isn't the dirname;
it's content-addressed. So the pre-extract approach was doomed even
if the path nesting had been right.
Actual fix: signtoolOptions.sign=null in apps/desktop/package.json's
win build config. electron-builder honors this and skips the bundled-
prebuild signing entirely — no signtool invocation, no winCodeSign
fetch, no symlink-privilege crash. The previous failures all stemmed
from electron-builder pre-signing node-pty's bundled .exes
(winpty-agent.exe, OpenConsole.exe) which are already author-signed
upstream; re-signing with our nonexistent cert was overwriting good
sigs with nothing useful anyway.
Cost: when we DO get a real cert later, we'll add it back with the
sign function pointing at the cert chain. Until then, all-null is
the correct config and unblocks every non-admin Windows user.
Removed Initialize-ElectronBuilderCache (the dead pre-extract).
Removed the call site. Kept the CSC_IDENTITY_AUTO_DISCOVERY env
vars as belt-and-suspenders against a future electron-builder
change that might revive cert auto-discovery.
Streamdown's per-Block parse cost grows with the live tail's length and
is unavoidable inside the block-memo pattern (industry standard, see
findings doc). The fix is to stop having that work block the main thread.
`<DeferStreamingText>` is a 12-line wrapper that reads message-part state
via `useMessagePartText`, runs it through `useDeferredValue`, and
re-publishes via assistant-ui's `<TextMessagePartProvider>`. The inner
`<StreamdownTextPrimitive>` reads the deferred value through the normal
`useMessagePartText` hook — no fork, no internal-path imports, fully on
assistant-ui's public API. React's concurrent scheduler then:
- abandons in-flight deferred renders when a newer token arrives, so
intermediate states get skipped under fast streams
- deprioritises the markdown render when the main thread has urgent
work (typing, scroll), so input stays responsive even while a
100ms parse is queued
Streamdown already uses `useTransition` for its block-array setState;
this lifts the deferral up to the consumer boundary so it covers the
whole pipeline (preprocess → split → repair → parse → render).
A/B on the 34 MB session, 300 tokens at 50 tok/sec, markdown chunks
(four trials each, with the 33ms flush throttle on for both):
| | avgFps | p99 frame | LTs/5s | max LT | typing-while-stream p95 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pre | 54.3 | 41 ms | 1.7 | 110 ms | ~17 ms |
| post | 58.5 | 31 ms | 2.0 | 117 ms | 14-18 ms |
Longtask count + max LT unchanged — useDeferredValue doesn't reduce
CPU, only its priority. The avgFps lift and p99 frame drop are the
proof that the existing CPU is no longer blocking 60 fps cadence. One
clean run logged MUTATIONS=0 — React skipped every intermediate text
state and only committed the final one (textbook deferred-value
behaviour).
The actually-reduce-CPU path is replacing the parser with a state
machine like Flowdown — left for a future PR; see
`apps/desktop/scripts/profile-typing-lag.md` for the full investigation.
`scheduleDeltaFlush` previously coalesced via `requestAnimationFrame`
only. The "at most one flush per frame" guarantee that gives you is fine
for fast streams (>~80 tok/sec) where multiple tokens arrive within a
single frame, but breaks down at typical LLM token rates (30-80 tok/sec)
where each token arrives slower than the rAF cadence and triggers its
own React commit + Streamdown markdown re-parse.
Track `lastFlushAt` and require at least 33 ms between two flushes.
React 18+ auto-batching probabilistically already collapsed some of
these, but the floor makes it deterministic.
A/B on the 34 MB session, 300 tokens at 50 tok/sec (markdown chunks):
| | avgFps | p99 frame | LTs / 5 s | max LT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| no floor (current rAF) | 54.0 | 38 ms | 2.0 | 145 ms |
| 33 ms floor (this PR) | 54.3 | 41 ms | 1.7 | 110 ms |
`inter-mutation` p50 also tightens from 22-28 ms to a clean 33 ms,
which is the expected signature of a deterministic floor. Doesn't fully
solve the user's perceived hitches — Streamdown's per-Block parse cost
when the last block grows past ~2 k chars is still the elephant — but
it consistently shaves the worst-case longtask and makes the streaming
cadence visibly steadier.
Also threads a matching `flushMinMs` option through the synthetic
stream driver in `perf-probe.tsx` + `scripts/measure-synthetic-stream.mjs`
so the harness can A/B both regimes without spending LLM credits.
See `scripts/profile-typing-lag.md` for the full investigation.
The inline `plugins={{ math: mathPlugin, ...(isStreaming ? {} : { code }) }}`
on `<StreamdownTextPrimitive>` constructed a new object literal on every
parent render. That broke `<Streamdown>`'s outer memo and forced its
internal `rehypePlugins` / `remarkPlugins` array useMemos to rebuild,
which propagates a new identity into every `<Block>` and defeats Block's
memoization for stable historical blocks.
After memoizing on `[isStreaming]` (the only real dimension of variance),
CPU profile during a 5 s synthetic stream on the 34 MB session shows
`parser` self-time dropping out of the top 10, `compile` cut roughly in
half, and `bn$1` / `m$1` (micromark internals) leaving the top entries.
Doesn't move the visible longtask count on its own — Streamdown's
per-Block parse cost still dominates whenever the last block's content
changes — but it removes a class of unnecessary re-parses for historical
blocks during streaming. See `scripts/profile-typing-lag.md` for the
full investigation.
FadeText is used 110+ times inside `tool-fallback.tsx` on a tool-heavy
thread. During streaming each parent re-render previously triggered the
component's `useEffect([children])`, which forced a `scrollWidth` layout
read even when the title text was unchanged. The `useResizeObserver` was
already covering the genuine resize case, so that effect was strictly
redundant work.
Drops the effect and wraps the component in `React.memo` with a custom
comparator that field-compares `className`, `fadeWidth`, and `style`,
plus identity-compares `children` (scalar fast-path; correct for JSX
nodes too since a new node should force a re-render).
Verified via temporary render counter on the 34 MB
`session_20260514_215353_fe0ac8` thread (110 FadeText instances): a
2 s synthetic stream went from ~11k FadeText render calls to 122 —
roughly one render per truly-new instance instead of one per parent
commit per instance.
Doesn't move the longtask needle on its own (Streamdown's markdown
re-parse dwarfs it) but eliminates a steady CPU floor and a class of
forced layouts during streaming. Profile-typing-lag.md documents the
full investigation, including the remaining Streamdown cost as the
real source of the perceived "5 fps moment" hitches.
Drops the React `<Profiler>` approach (no-op because Vite is currently
serving the production React build) in favor of an externally-observable
measurement stack: rAF frame intervals, `PerformanceObserver({entryTypes:
['longtask']})`, and a `MutationObserver` on the live streaming message.
Adds a synthetic stream driver — `window.__PERF_DRIVE__.stream({...})` —
that pushes tokens through the live `$messages` atom at a controlled rate,
so the assistant-ui runtime, incremental repository, and Streamdown
markdown pipeline see the same workload they'd see during a real LLM
stream, without the LLM cost.
The driver lives in `src/app/chat/perf-probe.tsx`; `main.tsx` side-imports
it under `import.meta.env.MODE !== 'production'` so it tree-shakes out of
prod builds. (Using `MODE` rather than `DEV` because our Vite setup
currently reports `DEV=false` even under `vite dev` — see the dev-build
note in `profile-typing-lag.md`.)
Scripts:
- measure-synthetic-stream.mjs drive synthetic + record frame/longtask/mutation
- profile-synth-stream.mjs CPU profile + top self-time during synthetic
- measure-real-stream.mjs same harness, real LLM stream
- profile-real-stream.mjs CPU profile bracketing the real stream window
- eval.mjs / reload.mjs small CDP helpers
A real-LLM measurement on Cloud Shadows (gpt-4o-mini, 39 s window) showed
12 longtasks in the same 75-127 ms range the synthetic predicted, so the
synthetic is a faithful proxy.
Replace composerPlainText() call inside refreshTrigger's no-trigger
fast-bail with a textContent check. textContent is a browser-native
flat traversal; composerPlainText walks recursively with chip-aware
logic. We only need to know if @ or / appears; either way the trigger
char will be in textContent because chips contain @ in their refText.
Profile shows composerPlainText was ~18ms self over a 12s typing-during-
stream window, called from refreshTrigger on every keystroke. Most of
that was the precondition check (the trigger detection path is the
slow path but only runs when a trigger char is present).
Follow-up to the Enter-jump fix. The first version did a synchronous
re-pin loop inside the on-scroll handler when the browser clamped our
`scrollTop = scrollHeight` write short of the new bottom; that gave a
tight 4 px visible jump on Enter, but during streaming the
ResizeObserver fires many times per second as content grows, and each
RO callback re-entered the pin loop. CPU profile showed
`Virtualizer.getMaxScrollOffset` climbing to 22 ms self over a typing-
during-streaming window — the sync re-pin path was paying tanstack-
virtual's recompute cost ~3× per token.
Re-architect:
- RO callback coalesces to one pin per animation frame. Streaming-rate
RO bursts now cost the same as a single per-frame pin.
- The on-scroll programmatic-counter guard remains (it's what prevents
the false-disarm bug when the browser clamps a write). It no longer
does sync re-pins; the next RO/rAF will catch up.
- The useLayoutEffect on groupCount (the path that fires on user
submit / new turn arrival) ALSO schedules one rAF pin in addition to
the synchronous pin. This catches the case where React mounts the
new message in a second commit (after our layout effect ran), which
grows scrollHeight again. Two pins instead of a tight loop, paid only
once per turn change.
Net effect on the Cloud Shadows long thread:
enter-jump transient: 12–20 px for 1 frame (was 49 px permanent)
CPU during stream+type: `getMaxScrollOffset` dropped out of top-5
self-time list
typing-during-stream: p50 ~10 ms paint, p99 ~20 ms (1 frame),
occasional 40 ms+ outliers during burst
token arrivals
Also adds scripts/profile-long-stream.mjs: 20-second streaming profile
with per-500ms FPS histogram + content-length tracking, so we can see
whether streaming render cost grows with message length (it doesn't —
sustained 60 fps).
User reported: after pressing Enter on a long thread, the view jumps up
— the just-submitted message disappears below the fold. Confirmed via
apps/desktop/scripts/measure-jump.mjs:
before: distFromBottom 0 → 49.5px, sticks there permanently
after: distFromBottom 0 → ~0 (worst case 4px for one frame)
Root cause in useThreadScrollAnchor (thread-virtualizer.tsx):
1. The sticky-bottom logic disarmed on any scroll event where
`scrollTop < lastTopRef.current`. That check can't distinguish a
user scrolling up from a programmatic `pinToBottom` write that
the browser clamped short of bottom (because content also grew in
the same frame, so `scrollTop = scrollHeight` lands at
`scrollHeight - clientHeight` for the OLD scrollHeight, which is
now below the NEW scrollHeight). Result: sticky-bottom disarmed
permanently on the user's first submit.
2. There was no synchronous pin tied to React's commit phase. By the
time the ResizeObserver fired and re-pinned, the user had already
seen ~50ms of "message below the fold" — visually that reads as the
view jumping up.
Fix:
- `programmaticScrollPendingRef` counter tracks scroll events we
expect to be ours (one per `pinToBottom` write). The scroll handler
skips the disarm check when consuming a pending tick, keeps the
arm bit true, and re-pins synchronously if the browser clamped us
short of bottom. A depth cap (8) breaks runaway loops in
pathological streaming-burst layouts.
- `useLayoutEffect` on `groupCount` increase pins BEFORE the browser
paints, eliminating the visible ~50ms window between optimistic
user-message insert and the RO/scroll-event chain firing.
Verified on the long Cloud Shadows thread (7-8 turns, ~11k px tall):
all three repro runs now hold within 0–4 px of bottom across the
post-Enter transition. Submit latency unchanged (paint 77–107 ms),
streaming-typing latency unchanged.
Also adds three debug harnesses:
- measure-jump.mjs — sample thread scroll across Enter
- probe-thread.mjs — dump current thread / scroll state
- diag-jump.mjs — intercept scrollTop + RO + mutations across Enter
Re-ran the leak harness on a populated session (Phaser thread) for both
unpatched and patched builds. The original 'listener leak' was transient
warm-up cost, not a steady-state leak — both versions show 0 listener
growth/round in steady state.
The load-bearing number is forced layouts per character:
unpatched (HEAD~2): 7.02 layouts/char
patched (HEAD): 2.35 layouts/char (3× fewer)
The patches reduce per-char forced-layout work to Blink's natural floor.
Document node count and heap are flat in both builds.
The slowest user-felt path is typing into the composer while the
assistant is streaming. Profile (scripts/profile-under-stream.mjs):
FadeText measureOverflow self time: 35.8 ms → 18.1 ms (-50%)
total active CPU during 7s window: ~150 ms → ~50 ms
Two changes in src/components/ui/fade-text.tsx:
1. Drop the `useEffect([children])` that re-ran `measureOverflow`
(reads scrollWidth + clientWidth — forced layout) on every parent
re-render. `useResizeObserver` already fires the same callback on
mount and whenever the host span's box size changes; that covers
the only case where overflow state can legitimately change. The
previous explicit useEffect was a forced-layout flush on every
parent render, which during streaming meant every token tick.
2. Wrap the component in `memo` with a custom comparator that
short-circuits the entire render when scalar string `children` and
the className/fadeWidth/style props are unchanged. The hot path
was tool-fallback's title chips being re-rendered by parent
streaming updates even though their text was stable; memo+
comparator skips that.
Also adds two harness scripts under apps/desktop/scripts/:
- latency-under-stream.mjs (key→paint latency while a turn streams)
- profile-under-stream.mjs (CPU profile while a turn streams)
Updates profile-typing-lag.md with the streaming numbers and confirms
the Enter→paint submit path is already fast (≤320ms on the populated
session; the 2s "stall after Enter" the user noticed once was a
one-time cold-start, not reproducible at the UI layer).
I'd guess the felt jank in real use is fast-burst typing during a
long-form streaming reply (code blocks + markdown lists multiply the
per-token render cost). The CPU savings here scale linearly with
token volume.
Empirical work via CDP harnesses under apps/desktop/scripts/ (see
profile-typing-lag.md):
jsListeners growth (per round of 200 chars + GC):
before: +35 (verified leak — listeners stuck after 1st trigger popover use)
after: +0
Four narrow edits in src/app/chat/composer/index.tsx:
1. Drop the per-keystroke `editorRef.current.scrollHeight` read used to
decide composer expansion. Replace with `draft.length > 60` heuristic;
the existing ResizeObserver still catches edge cases. `scrollHeight`
is a forced-layout call and was firing on every char until the first
wrap.
2. Bucket measured composer height to 8px before writing
`--composer-measured-height` / `--composer-surface-measured-height`
on `documentElement`. Without this, the editor grows ~1px per char,
setProperty fires every keystroke, computed style is invalidated tree-
wide.
3. Remove the dead `$composerDraft` two-way sync. Nothing outside the
composer subscribed to that atom (verified via grep). Two useEffects
on `[draft]` were pushing draft→atom and atom→aui per keystroke for
no consumer. Also drop the per-keystroke
`reconcileComposerTerminalSelections` call; it was pruning stale
labels for `terminalContextBlocksFromDraft`, but that helper already
ignores labels not in the current submitted text, so pruning per
keystroke was just bookkeeping.
4. `refreshTrigger` fast-bails when the draft contains neither `@` nor
`/`. Previously `textBeforeCaret(editor)` ran on every input/keyup
regardless; `range.toString()` inside is O(n) over draft length.
Synthetic typing latency p50/p90/p99 is similar before vs after on a
freshly-loaded session (Blink can already handle ~30cps typing into a
contentEditable on its own); the real win is the listener leak being
gone and the global computed-style invalidations dropping ~8× when the
composer is sitting at a fixed height row.
The `Enter → stall` follow-up (see profile-typing-lag.md §"Submit /
TTFT stall") is unmeasured here — needs a throwaway session because
the harness fires a real prompt. Not blocking this commit.
First non-placeholder version so electron-builder's artifactName template
produces `Hermes-0.0.1-win-x64.exe` instead of the obviously-unreleased
`Hermes-0.0.0-...`. No release process yet; this just stops the artifact
filename from telling users "you got a debug build."
Bumped in three slots that all carry the desktop app's version:
- apps/desktop/package.json (source of truth)
- apps/desktop/package-lock.json (per-app lockfile, kept for CI parity)
- root package-lock.json's apps/desktop workspace entry
Identity-of-build for first-launch bootstrap continues to come from
build/install-stamp.json (commit SHA + builtAt), unchanged.
Pre-existing failure on bb/gui since c858484b4 swapped the node-pty
fork for upstream microsoft/node-pty 1.1.0. main.cjs intentionally
bare-requires node-pty (it's hoisted by workspace dedup in dev, and
staged to resources/native-deps via scripts/stage-native-deps.cjs +
extraResources for packaged builds, with a try/catch fallback at
line ~38). The allowlist hadn't been updated to match -- same shape
as `electron`, which was already allowed.
A user-reported failure on Windows-on-ARM: a pre-installed Python 3.13
on PATH makes findSystemPython() succeed, so resolveHermesBackend
returns a backend pointing at it -- but hermes_cli isn't in that
interpreter's site-packages. The spawn dies with ModuleNotFoundError
and the user sees a dead GUI instead of the first-launch installer.
Same shape can hit step 4 (existing `hermes` on PATH) when a stale
shim survives a partial uninstall.
Add cheap exit-code probes -- `python -c "import hermes_cli"` for
step 5, `<hermes> --version` for step 4 -- and fall through to step 6
(bootstrap-needed) on failure. install.ps1 then runs as if on a clean
box and the venv gets built.
Probes live in a standalone electron/backend-probes.cjs module so they
can be unit-tested with node --test, same pattern as bootstrap-platform.cjs
and hardening.cjs. New test file wired into test:desktop:platforms.
Adds nix/desktop.nix building the Electron renderer with buildNpmPackage
and wrapping nixpkgs' electron binary. Reuses .#default by setting
HERMES_DESKTOP_HERMES to its hermes binary, so the desktop's resolver
picks up the fully-wired nix hermes (venv, bundled skills/plugins,
runtime PATH) without reimplementing agent resolution.
- nix/desktop.nix: renderer + electron wrapper
- nix/hermes-agent.nix: finalAttrs form, exposes hermesDesktop in passthru
- nix/packages.nix: exposes .#desktop + adds to fix-lockfiles
- apps/desktop/package-lock.json: standalone hermetic lockfile
nix build .#desktop && nix run .#desktop both clean.
* desktop+gateway: harden Slack socket recovery and Windows restart dedupe
Fix Slack Socket Mode reliability by adding a watchdog/reconnect path so silent socket task drops no longer leave the adapter stuck. Harden Windows gateway lifecycle by avoiding desktop-binary path collisions, making gateway PID scans case/extension tolerant, and reusing in-flight restart actions to prevent duplicate gateway spawns.
* test(slack): add Socket Mode watchdog/reconnect behavioural coverage
Drive the new Slack Socket Mode self-healing logic through a fake AsyncSocketModeHandler so we can simulate the P0 silent-hang failure mode (task exit, transport disconnected, intentional shutdown, concurrent reconnect attempts) without touching real Slack.
* fix(slack,desktop): address Copilot review on watchdog races and path normalization
- connect(): explicitly cancel + await the prior socket watchdog before flipping _running, so an old monitor cannot exit between teardown and respawn (Copilot #1)
- _socket_watchdog_loop: wrap the body in try/except + add a done-callback that respawns on unexpected crash, so a transient bug cannot permanently disable self-healing (Copilot #2)
- normalizeExecutablePathForCompare: use the resolved path for realpathSync so non-string inputs cannot leak through (Copilot #3)
- Add tests for crash-recovery and atomic watchdog replacement across reconnects
* fix(slack): tighten connect() error path and clarify watchdog test intent
Address Copilot review round 2.
- connect(): wrap _start_socket_mode_handler/_ensure_socket_watchdog in a focused try/except so any failure rolls back partially-started handler/task state and leaves _running=False, ensuring the platform lock is always released by the outer finally
- Defer _running=True until after the handler is actually started so the watchdog observes a live socket task immediately and never spins against a half-built adapter
- Rename test_watchdog_self_restarts_after_unexpected_crash to test_watchdog_cancellation_does_not_respawn (matches what it actually asserts) and add test_watchdog_unexpected_exit_respawns_via_done_callback that drives a real RuntimeError through _on_socket_watchdog_done and verifies a fresh task replaces the crashed one
* fix(web_server): serialize action spawn check+store under a threading lock
Address Copilot review round 3.
FastAPI runs sync handlers on its threadpool, so two near-simultaneous /api/gateway/restart (or /api/hermes/update) requests could both observe "no live process" in _spawn_hermes_action's poll-based dedupe and double-spawn. Add a module-level _ACTION_SPAWN_LOCK around the entire check + Popen + _ACTION_PROCS store sequence so the dedupe is atomic across threads.
* fix: address Copilot review round 4
- slack.disconnect(): mirror connect()'s defensive cleanup — catch the broad Exception path on watchdog await so handler shutdown and lock release still run if the watchdog raised before cancellation took effect
- web_server._spawn_hermes_action: wrap subprocess.Popen in try/except so a missing executable / permission error closes the log file handle, writes a failure marker, and re-raises instead of leaking a file descriptor
- gateway._scan_gateway_pids: drop the over-broad "hermes.exe --profile" / "hermes.exe -p" patterns that would match any Hermes CLI subcommand using a profile flag (e.g. `hermes.exe --profile foo dashboard`); rely on the "hermes.exe gateway" + "hermes-gateway.exe" tokens instead
- tests: tighten _fake_create_task to assert coroutine input and return a real asyncio.Task that stays pending until pytest teardown, and update the three callsites whose mocked AsyncSocketModeHandler.start_async returned a non-coroutine value
* fix(slack): reset multi-workspace state on reconnect
Address Copilot review round 5.
connect() is reentrant (gateway restart, in-process reconnect), but it was leaving _bot_user_id / _team_clients / _team_bot_user_ids populated from the previous session. A reconnect that rotated the primary token or dropped a workspace would silently keep the stale bot user id and stale workspace client maps, leading to dispatch against gone workspaces.
Clear these three pieces of state right after _stop_socket_mode_handler() and before the auth_test loop, then let the loop repopulate from the current tokens. Add test_reconnect_refreshes_multi_workspace_state to lock it in.
The previous dependency, @homebridge/node-pty-prebuilt-multiarch@0.13.1,
publishes no win32-arm64 prebuilds on its v0.13.x line, and its v0.14.x
betas (which do add an arm64 Windows build) ship no electron-vXXX-win32-
arm64 prebuilds at all -- so packaged Electron 40 builds (NMV 143) would
fail at runtime even on a successful npm install. Net effect: the
desktop's integrated terminal was unbuildable on Windows-on-ARM, in
both dev (npm install fails: 404 fetching the node-vXXX-win32-arm64
prebuilt) and packaged builds (no Electron-ABI prebuilt exists).
The homebridge fork was originally created because upstream node-pty
shipped no prebuilds at all. That hasn't been true since node-pty@1.0
(April 2024), which:
- bundles prebuilts for mac (arm64+x64) and Windows (arm64+x64) directly
inside the npm tarball -- no GitHub-Releases fetch, no missing-binary
failure mode
- uses N-API (node-addon-api) for ABI stability across Node and Electron
major versions, so the same pty.node binary loads under Node 22 (dev)
and Electron 40+ (packaged) without per-ABI rebuilds
- is what VS Code, Hyper, and Theia actually ship
API surface is identical (spawn / onData / onExit / write / resize /
kill) -- no call-site changes needed.
Specifically:
- apps/desktop/package.json: replace the @homebridge fork with
node-pty@1.1.0 (exact pin). Widen `asarUnpack` from `["**/*.node"]`
to also unpack `**/prebuilds/**`, because node-pty ships runtime-
execed helpers alongside its .node files (darwin spawn-helper has no
extension and would not be matched by `**/*.node`; conpty.dll,
OpenConsole.exe, winpty.dll, winpty-agent.exe on Windows are also
exec'd at runtime and cannot live inside asar).
- apps/desktop/electron/main.cjs: update both require() strings to
match the new package name and the new staged path under
resources/native-deps/node-pty/.
- apps/desktop/scripts/stage-native-deps.cjs: point at node_modules/
node-pty. node-pty's prebuilts live under prebuilds/<plat>-<arch>/
(not build/Release/), so update the include glob to copy that dir.
Per-arch staging keeps the resource bundle small (target arch comes
from npm_config_arch when electron-builder cross-builds, else
process.arch). Explicitly enumerate file types in the prebuilds glob
so the ~25 MB of .pdb debug symbols that prebuild-install bundles
for Windows crash analysis don't bloat the installer (29 MB -> 2.6 MB
staged on win32-arm64). Re-assert +x on the darwin spawn-helper
defensively, since a stripped mode bit would manifest as a silent
ENOENT at first pty.spawn().
- apps/desktop/scripts/test-desktop.mjs: update expectedNativeDepPaths()
and its assertion site to look at prebuilds/<plat>-<arch>/ instead of
build/Release/. Add an explicit spawn-helper-exists check on darwin
so a regression in the asarUnpack glob would fail loudly in CI rather
than at first PTY spawn.
Trade-off: Linux end-users lose prebuilts and fall back to building
node-pty from source on `npm install`. Acceptable because Hermes
ships no Linux desktop builds (desktop-release.yml matrix is mac + win
only, package.json declares no `linux` target), and Linux developers
hacking on the desktop already need a C++ toolchain for the rest of
the stack.
Verified on Windows 11 ARM64 (Snapdragon):
npm install -> exit 0
node -e "require('node-pty').spawn(...)" round-trip -> OK
stage-native-deps -> 27 files, 2.6 MB
load from staged tree (simulates packaged fallback) -> ConPTY
round-trip OK
Adds a VSCode-style "focus terminal" toggle to the right sidebar's Terminal
tab that takes over the chat pane area without unmounting the shell. The
xterm host is mounted once at the layout root and CSS-overlayed onto
whichever <TerminalSlot /> is currently active, so the PTY session,
scrollback, selection, focus, and WebGL renderer survive every toggle.
Also:
- WebGL renderer (matching dashboard ChatPage) so Hermes' TUI skins paint
faithfully instead of muting through xterm's default DOM renderer
- File drag/drop from the project tree or OS into xterm — paths are
shell-quoted (zsh/bash/pwsh/cmd) and written straight into the PTY
- Solarized dark canvas with brights promoted to real accent variants
(Schoonover's UI-gray brights washed out every TUI accent)
- Strip NO_COLOR/FORCE_COLOR/COLORFGBG/TERM=dumb leaking from non-tty
parents (CI runners, Cursor's agent shell) so the embedded shell gets
truecolor regardless of how Electron was launched
- rAF-debounced ResizeObserver — running fit.fit() synchronously during
sibling pane transitions crashed the WebGL texture-atlas rebuild
Converges the Windows packaged desktop installer onto a single canonical
install topology: drop the Electron shell only (~80MB instead of ~500MB),
clone Hermes Agent at a build-time-pinned commit on first launch via
install.ps1's stage protocol, and treat the resulting git checkout at
%LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes\hermes-agent\ as the canonical install location
(same path the CLI installer uses). Future updates flow through the
existing applyUpdates() git-pull path.
Replaces the previous fat-installer architecture where the .exe bundled
a pre-staged hermes-agent source tree under resources/hermes-agent/ that
was then sync'd into ACTIVE_HERMES_ROOT at launch -- a complicated
factory-vs-active dance with several footguns (FACTORY_HERMES_ROOT
mismatch on path resolve, isGitCheckout guard regressions, pyproject
hash drift detection inside the sync loop).
Architecture overview
---------------------
Build time
apps/desktop/scripts/write-build-stamp.cjs writes
apps/desktop/build/install-stamp.json with {commit, branch, builtAt,
dirty}. Honours $GITHUB_SHA / $GITHUB_REF_NAME in CI, falls back to
`git rev-parse HEAD` locally.
apps/desktop/scripts/stage-native-deps.cjs copies the runtime subset
of @homebridge/node-pty-prebuilt-multiarch from the workspace-root
node_modules into apps/desktop/build/native-deps/. Workspace dedup
hoists this dep to the root, out of reach of electron-builder's
`files:`-restricted collector; staging gives us a deterministic
path to extraResources.
electron-builder ships both into resources/install-stamp.json and
resources/native-deps/ respectively.
Boot resolver (electron/main.cjs)
Resolver order:
1. HERMES_DESKTOP_HERMES_ROOT override
2. SOURCE_REPO_ROOT (dev mode)
3. ACTIVE_HERMES_ROOT git checkout WITH .hermes-bootstrap-complete
marker -- the post-install fast path
4. `hermes` on PATH (CLI-installed user adding the desktop)
5. pip-installed hermes_cli via system Python
6. bootstrap-needed sentinel -> hand off to runBootstrap
Deletes the entire FACTORY_HERMES_ROOT / RUNTIME_MARKER /
syncTreeExcludingVenv machinery (-200 lines). The isGitCheckout
guard that bit us in the install.ps1 PR is gone.
First-launch bootstrap (electron/bootstrap-runner.cjs)
1. Resolve install.ps1: prefer SOURCE_REPO_ROOT/scripts (dev), else
download from GitHub raw at INSTALL_STAMP.commit (cached at
HERMES_HOME\bootstrap-cache\install-<sha>.ps1).
2. Fetch the stage manifest via install.ps1 -Manifest -Commit X
-Branch Y.
3. Iterate stages: install.ps1 -Stage <name> -NonInteractive -Json
-Commit X -Branch Y per stage.
4. On all stages green: write the .hermes-bootstrap-complete
marker with {schemaVersion, pinnedCommit, pinnedBranch,
completedAt, desktopVersion}.
Per-run log to HERMES_HOME\logs\bootstrap-<ts>.log. Cancellation
via AbortSignal. Manifest cache so retries don't re-download.
Install overlay (src/components/desktop-install-overlay.tsx)
Mounted alongside the existing onboarding overlay; flexbox card
with header (static) + middle (scrollable) + footer (failure-only,
static). Subscribes to hermes:bootstrap:event IPC + resyncs from
hermes:bootstrap:get on mount/reload. Renders:
- 14-stage checklist with per-stage state icons
- Overall progress bar + current-stage spotlight
- Auto-expanded installer-output panel on failure
- "Copy output" button (full ring buffer + error to clipboard)
- "Reload and retry" wired through hermes:bootstrap:reset to
clear main.cjs's latched failure
Synthetic empty-manifest event from main.cjs flips the overlay to
'active' immediately so the slow install.ps1 download doesn't
leave the user staring at the generic Preparing splash.
Failure latching (main.cjs)
bootstrapFailure module-scope variable holds the rejection after
install.ps1 fails. startHermes() throws the latched error
immediately when set, bypassing the entire ensureRuntime +
runBootstrap chain. Without this, the renderer's ensureGatewayOpen
retries would re-run install.ps1 in a 5-10 min hot loop while the
user was still reading the failure overlay. Cleared via
hermes:bootstrap:reset on user-driven retry.
Unsupported-platform overlay (1F)
macOS / Linux packaged builds (no install.sh stage protocol yet)
emit an unsupported-platform event with a copy-pasteable install
command + docs URL. Dedicated overlay branch with "Copy command"
+ "I've run it -- retry" buttons.
install.ps1 additions (Phase 1F.3 + 1F.5)
-----------------------------------------
New -Commit and -Tag string params. Precedence Commit > Tag >
Branch. Honoured by all three code paths (update / fresh clone /
ZIP fallback), with archive URL selection that handles each
ref-type variant. Detached-HEAD checkouts intentionally -- they're
pins, not branches the user pulls into.
EAP=Continue wrap around the new pin-step git invocations. `git
fetch origin <commit>` writes the routine 'From <url>' info line to
stderr; under the script's global EAP=Stop that terminates the
script even though fetch+checkout succeed. Matches the established
pattern in Install-Uv, Test-Python, _Run-NpmInstall.
Backend fix (hermes_cli/web_server.py)
--------------------------------------
CORS allow_origin_regex now accepts Origin: 'null'. Packaged
Electron loads index.html via file://; Chromium sets the WebSocket
upgrade Origin header to the opaque origin 'null', which the old
regex rejected with HTTP 403 before gateway_ws() ever ran. This
failure mode was masked in the older FACTORY_HERMES_ROOT
architecture because the resolver often found an existing hermes
on PATH with different binding behavior.
Security maintained: localhost-only bind keeps cross-machine pages
out; per-process session token still gates every authenticated
/api/ endpoint regardless of Origin.
Desktop QoL
-----------
DevTools is now enabled in packaged builds (F12 / Cmd+Opt+I).
Field-debugging trade-off: tiny attack surface increase versus
a much better support story when CSP / WS / theme issues surface.
NSIS prereq-check page deleted (-767 lines). The standard
Welcome -> License -> Directory -> InstallFiles -> Finish wizard
now installs without custom Python/Git/ripgrep detection -- those
prereqs are install.ps1's job at first launch.
Test infrastructure (Phase 1G)
------------------------------
apps/desktop/scripts/test-desktop.mjs rewritten as a cross-platform
bundle validator (was darwin-only and asserted on dead factory-
payload paths):
NEGATIVE: hermes_cli/main.py is NOT shipped (regression guard)
POSITIVE: install-stamp.json carries a real commit + branch
POSITIVE: node-pty native deps shipped under resources/native-deps
POSITIVE: renderer dist/index.html reachable (asar or unpacked)
New nsis mode and npm run test:desktop:nsis script.
Validated end-to-end on clean Win10 VM
--------------------------------------
Confirmed: NSIS installer drops Electron shell, app launches,
install overlay shows progress, install.ps1 clones the pinned
commit, 14 stages run to completion, marker written, backend
spawns, WebSocket connects, onboarding overlay asks for API key,
main UI loads, integrated terminal works.
Failures handled: bootstrap stays failed (no hot-loop retry),
"Copy output" gives actionable transcript, "Reload and retry"
explicitly re-runs install.ps1.
What's deferred
---------------
- MSIX wrapping (Phase 2): same Electron .exe under MSIX manifest
with runFullTrust, signed and submitted to Microsoft Store.
- install.sh stage protocol parity (Phase 2): once shipped, the
unsupported-platform overlay becomes drive-it-yourself and
macOS/Linux packaged installers gain feature parity with Windows.
Replaces `use-stick-to-bottom` and per-row session rendering with
`@tanstack/react-virtual`, matching what Cursor uses.
Chat thread (`thread-virtualizer.tsx`):
- Natural-flow virtualization (padding spacers, not absolute items) so
`position: sticky` on the human bubble still resolves cleanly against
the scroller.
- Custom at-bottom anchor: pins when armed, disarms on user-driven
upward scroll, re-arms at bottom, jumps on session switch +
`thread.runStart`.
- Loading indicator and `--thread-last-message-clearance` move to a
real `[data-slot=aui_composer-clearance]` node; drops the brittle
`:nth-last-child(1 of …)` rule that can't fire reliably under
virtualization.
Sidebar (`virtual-session-list.tsx`):
- Flat agents list virtualizes at >=25 rows; pinned and
workspace-grouped paths stay direct-render.
- `SortableContext` keeps all IDs; only the window mounts; dnd-kit's
`setNodeRef` is merged with `virtualizer.measureElement` so rows
participate in both DnD hit-testing and TanStack measurement.
Drops `use-stick-to-bottom`. Streaming test gets a global
`offsetWidth/offsetHeight` stub so the virtualizer's viewport sizing
works in jsdom; the scroll-up-doesn't-pull-back invariant still passes.
xterm's default ANSI 16 is tuned for dark and reads candy-bright on the
light glass surface (vivid cyans/greens). Ship the canonical Solarized
palette (Schoonover) for both modes — same 16 accents either way, only
fg/cursor swap between `base00/01` (light) and `base0/1` (dark), so a
prompt's colors look uniform across a Shift+X toggle.
Background stays transparent in both modes — Solarized's cream/slate
backgrounds would fight the glass.
- Wire right-click on session rows to open the same actions menu;
suppresses the OS-native context menu so Windows stops looking awful.
- Share dropdown + context menu items via useSessionActions() driving
a single declarative ItemSpec[]; render polymorphic over MenuItem.
- New shadcn ContextMenu primitive mirroring DropdownMenu styling.
- Restore drag-and-drop reordering for Agents (lost during the cwd
cleanup) and add reordering of workspace groups via a right-side
grab handle. Pinned reorder unchanged.
- Generic orderByIds<T> replaces the duplicated session/group orderers;
useSortableBindings() hook collapses the two Sortable wrappers.
- cursor-pointer on every actionable element; cursor-grab on handles.
- KISS pass: baseName() helper, AGE_TICKS table, single WORKSPACE_PAGE
constant, flatter SidebarSessionsSection render.
