Three fixes for the May 2026 xAI OAuth (SuperGrok / X Premium) rollout
failures:
- _run_codex_stream: when openai SDK raises RuntimeError("Expected to
have received `response.created` before `<type>`"), retry once then
fall back to responses.create(stream=True) — same path used for
missing-response.completed postlude. Fallback surfaces the real
provider error with body+status_code intact. Also fixes#8133
(response.in_progress prelude on custom relays) and #14634
(codex.rate_limits prelude on codex-lb).
- _summarize_api_error: when error body matches xAI's entitlement
shape, append a one-line hint pointing to https://grok.com and
/model. Once-only, applies to both auxiliary warnings and
main-loop error surfacing.
- _chat_messages_to_responses_input: new is_xai_responses kwarg
drops replayed codex_reasoning_items (encrypted_content) before
they reach xAI. Also drops reasoning.encrypted_content from the
xAI include array. Native Codex behavior unchanged. Grok still
reasons natively each turn; coherence rides on visible message
text alone.
Closes#8133, #14634.
The xAI prompt_cache_key block carried two long comment paragraphs
that either restated setdefault semantics, narrated the SDK
type-validation mechanism, or recapped the historical motivation for
the extra_body indirection — all already covered by the test
docstring at test_xai_responses_sends_cache_key_via_extra_body
(which links to the xAI docs). Also restored the truncated link in
the body-injection comment.
No behavior change.
Adds a new authentication provider that lets SuperGrok subscribers sign
in to Hermes with their xAI account via the standard OAuth 2.0 PKCE
loopback flow, instead of pasting a raw API key from console.x.ai.
Highlights
----------
* OAuth 2.0 PKCE loopback login against accounts.x.ai with discovery,
state/nonce, and a strict CORS-origin allowlist on the callback.
* Authorize URL carries `plan=generic` (required for non-allowlisted
loopback clients) and `referrer=hermes-agent` for best-effort
attribution in xAI's OAuth server logs.
* Token storage in `auth.json` with file-locked atomic writes; JWT
`exp`-based expiry detection with skew; refresh-token rotation
synced both ways between the singleton store and the credential
pool so multi-process / multi-profile setups don't tear each other's
refresh tokens.
* Reactive 401 retry: on a 401 from the xAI Responses API, the agent
refreshes the token, swaps it back into `self.api_key`, and retries
the call once. Guarded against silent account swaps when the active
key was sourced from a different (manual) pool entry.
* Auxiliary tasks (curator, vision, embeddings, etc.) route through a
dedicated xAI Responses-mode auxiliary client instead of falling back
to OpenRouter billing.
* Direct HTTP tools (`tools/xai_http.py`, transcription, TTS, image-gen
plugin) resolve credentials through a unified runtime → singleton →
env-var fallback chain so xai-oauth users get them for free.
* `hermes auth add xai-oauth` and `hermes auth remove xai-oauth N` are
wired through the standard auth-commands surface; remove cleans up
the singleton loopback_pkce entry so it doesn't silently reinstate.
* `hermes model` provider picker shows
"xAI Grok OAuth (SuperGrok Subscription)" and the model-flow falls
back to pool credentials when the singleton is missing.
Hardening
---------
* Discovery and refresh responses validate the returned
`token_endpoint` host against the same `*.x.ai` allowlist as the
authorization endpoint, blocking MITM persistence of a hostile
endpoint.
* Discovery / refresh / token-exchange `response.json()` calls are
wrapped to raise typed `AuthError` on malformed bodies (captive
portals, proxy error pages) instead of leaking JSONDecodeError
tracebacks.
* `prompt_cache_key` is routed through `extra_body` on the codex
transport (sending it as a top-level kwarg trips xAI's SDK with a
TypeError).
* Credential-pool sync-back preserves `active_provider` so refreshing
an OAuth entry doesn't silently flip the active provider out from
under the running agent.
Testing
-------
* New `tests/hermes_cli/test_auth_xai_oauth_provider.py` (~63 tests)
covers JWT expiry, OAuth URL params (plan + referrer), CORS origins,
redirect URI validation, singleton↔pool sync, concurrency races,
refresh error paths, runtime resolution, and malformed-JSON guards.
* Extended `test_credential_pool.py`, `test_codex_transport.py`, and
`test_run_agent_codex_responses.py` cover the pool sync-back,
`extra_body` routing, and 401 reactive refresh paths.
* 165 tests passing on this branch via `scripts/run_tests.sh`.
xAI's Responses API returns HTTP 400 ("Model X does not support
parameter reasoningEffort") for grok-4, grok-4-0709, grok-4-fast-*,
grok-4-1-fast-*, grok-3, grok-4.20-0309-*, and grok-code-fast-1 — even
though those models reason natively. Hermes was unconditionally sending
`reasoning: {effort: 'medium'}` to xAI for every Grok model, breaking
direct `--provider xai` for the entire grok-4 line.
Add a substring allowlist predicate (verified live against api.x.ai
2026-05-10) covering the only Grok families that accept the effort dial:
grok-3-mini*, grok-4.20-multi-agent*, grok-4.3*. The Responses transport
omits the `reasoning` key entirely for everything else while still
including `reasoning.encrypted_content` so we capture native reasoning
tokens.
Verified end-to-end: `hermes chat -q hi --provider xai --model grok-4-0709`
went from HTTP 400 to a successful reply.
The is_xai_responses branch only sent include=[reasoning.encrypted_content]
without forwarding the resolved reasoning_effort. Other Responses providers
(OpenAI, GitHub) already get effort forwarded — this aligns the xAI path.
Without this, agent.reasoning_effort is silently dropped on the xAI direct
path, making Hermes unable to control reasoning depth on grok-4.x via
api.x.ai. Tests added to TestCodexBuildKwargs cover effort passthrough,
disabled state, and minimal-clamp parity with non-xAI.
Add ResponsesApiTransport wrapping codex_responses_adapter.py behind the
ProviderTransport ABC. Auto-registered via _discover_transports().
Wire ALL Codex transport methods to production paths in run_agent.py:
- build_kwargs: main _build_api_kwargs codex branch (50 lines extracted)
- normalize_response: main loop + flush + summary + retry (4 sites)
- convert_tools: memory flush tool override
- convert_messages: called internally via build_kwargs
- validate_response: response validation gate
- preflight_kwargs: request sanitization (2 sites)
Remove 7 dead legacy wrappers from AIAgent (_responses_tools,
_chat_messages_to_responses_input, _normalize_codex_response,
_preflight_codex_api_kwargs, _preflight_codex_input_items,
_extract_responses_message_text, _extract_responses_reasoning_text).
Keep 3 ID manipulation methods still used by _build_assistant_message.
Update 18 test call sites across 3 test files to call adapter functions
directly instead of through deleted AIAgent wrappers.
24 new tests. 343 codex/responses/transport tests pass (0 failures).
PR 4 of the provider transport refactor.
