The "cfg.get('X', {}).get('Y', default)" pattern appears 50+ times
across tools/, gateway/, and plugins/. Each call site manually handles
the same three gotchas:
1. Missing intermediate key → empty dict → chain works
2. Non-dict value at intermediate position → AttributeError
(uncaught in most sites, so a misconfigured YAML crashes the tool)
3. cfg is None → AttributeError
Introduces cfg_get(cfg, *keys, default=None) in hermes_cli/config.py
as the canonical helper. Handles all three uniformly, returns default
only when the final key is *absent* (matches dict.get semantics —
explicit None values are preserved, falsy values like 0 / False / ''
are preserved).
Named cfg_get rather than cfg_path to avoid shadowing the existing
'cfg_path = _hermes_home / "config.yaml"' local variable that appears
in gateway/run.py, cron/scheduler.py, hermes_cli/main.py, etc.
Migrated 20 call sites as the first-batch proof-of-value:
gateway/run.py 10 sites (agent/display subtrees)
tools/browser_tool.py 3 sites
tools/vision_tools.py 2 sites
tools/browser_camofox.py 1 site
tools/approval.py 1 site
tools/skills_tool.py 1 site
tools/skill_manager_tool.py 1 site
tools/credential_files.py 1 site
tools/env_passthrough.py 1 site
The remaining ~30 sites across plugins/ and smaller tool files can be
migrated opportunistically — the helper is now available and the
pattern is established.
Fixed a latent bug along the way: tools/vision_tools.py had its
cfg_get usage at line 560 inside a function that locally re-imports
'from hermes_cli.config import load_config', but the AST-based
migration script wrote the top-level cfg_get import to a different
function scope, leaving line 560's cfg_get as a NameError silently
swallowed by the surrounding try/except. Test
test_vision_uses_configured_temperature_and_timeout caught it. Fixed
by including cfg_get in the function-local import.
Verified:
- 7880/7893 tests/tools/ + tests/gateway/ + tests/hermes_cli/test_config
tests pass; all 13 failures pre-existing on main (MCP, delegate,
session_split_brain — verified earlier in the sweep).
- All 20 migrated sites AST-verified to have cfg_get in scope (either
module-level or function-local).
- Live 'hermes chat' smoke: 2 turns + /model switch + tool calls +
/quit, zero errors. Agent correctly counted 20 cfg_get hits across
8 tool files — matching the migration.
Semantic parity verified against the original pattern across 8 edge
cases (missing keys, None values, falsy values, empty strings, string
instead of dict, None cfg, nested levels).
Automated dead code audit using vulture + coverage.py + ast-grep intersection,
confirmed by Opus deep verification pass. Every symbol verified to have zero
production callers (test imports excluded from reachability analysis).
Removes ~1,534 lines of dead production code across 46 files and ~1,382 lines
of stale test code. 3 entire files deleted (agent/builtin_memory_provider.py,
hermes_cli/checklist.py, tests/hermes_cli/test_setup_model_selection.py).
Co-authored-by: alt-glitch <balyan.sid@gmail.com>
prompt_builder.py: The `hidden_div` detection pattern uses `.*` which does not
match newlines in Python regex (re.DOTALL is not passed). An attacker can bypass
detection by splitting the style attribute across lines:
`<div style="color:red;\ndisplay: none">injected content</div>`
Replace `.*` with `[\s\S]*?` to match across line boundaries.
credential_files.py: `_load_config_files()` catches all exceptions at DEBUG level
(line 171), making YAML parse failures invisible in production logs. Users whose
credential files silently fail to mount into sandboxes have no diagnostic clue.
Promote to WARNING to match the severity pattern used by the path validation
warnings at lines 150 and 158 in the same function.
webhook.py: `_reload_dynamic_routes()` logs JSON parse failures at WARNING (line
265) but the impact — stale/corrupted dynamic routes persisting silently — warrants
ERROR level to ensure operator visibility in alerting pipelines.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Replace 10 callsites across 6 files that manually opened config.yaml,
called yaml.safe_load(), and handled missing-file/parse-error fallbacks
with the new read_raw_config() helper from hermes_cli/config.py.
Each migrated site previously had 5-8 lines of boilerplate:
config_path = get_hermes_home() / 'config.yaml'
if config_path.exists():
import yaml
with open(config_path) as f:
cfg = yaml.safe_load(f) or {}
Now reduced to:
from hermes_cli.config import read_raw_config
cfg = read_raw_config()
Migrated files:
- tools/browser_tool.py (4 sites): command_timeout, cloud_provider,
allow_private_urls, record_sessions
- tools/env_passthrough.py: terminal.env_passthrough
- tools/credential_files.py: terminal.credential_files
- tools/transcription_tools.py: stt.model
- hermes_cli/commands.py: config-gated command resolution
- hermes_cli/auth.py (2 sites): model config read + provider reset
Skipped (intentionally):
- gateway/run.py: 10+ sites with local aliases, critical path
- hermes_cli/profiles.py: profile-specific config path
- hermes_cli/doctor.py: reads raw then writes fixes back
- agent/model_metadata.py: different file (context_length_cache.yaml)
- tools/website_policy.py: custom config_path param + error types
16 callsites across 14 files were re-deriving the hermes home path
via os.environ.get('HERMES_HOME', ...) instead of using the canonical
get_hermes_home() from hermes_constants. This breaks profiles — each
profile has its own HERMES_HOME, and the inline fallback defaults to
~/.hermes regardless.
Fixed by importing and calling get_hermes_home() at each site. For
files already inside the hermes process (agent/, hermes_cli/, tools/,
gateway/, plugins/), this is always safe. Files that run outside the
process context (mcp_serve.py, mcp_oauth.py) already had correct
try/except ImportError fallbacks and were left alone.
Skipped: hermes_constants.py (IS the implementation), env_loader.py
(bootstrap), profiles.py (intentionally manipulates the env var),
standalone scripts (optional-skills/, skills/), and tests.
The config key skills.external_dirs and core resolution (get_all_skills_dirs,
get_external_skills_dirs in agent/skill_utils.py) already existed but several
code paths still only scanned SKILLS_DIR. Now external dirs are respected
everywhere:
- skills_categories(): scan all dirs for category discovery
- _get_category_from_path(): resolve categories against any skills root
- skill_manager_tool._find_skill(): search all dirs for edit/patch/delete
- credential_files.get_skills_directory_mount(): mount all dirs into
Docker/Singularity containers (external dirs at external_skills/<idx>)
- credential_files.iter_skills_files(): list files from all dirs for
Modal/Daytona upload
- tools/environments/ssh.py: rsync all skill dirs to remote hosts
- gateway _check_unavailable_skill(): check disabled skills across all dirs
Usage in config.yaml:
skills:
external_dirs:
- ~/repos/agent-skills/hermes
- /shared/team-skills
- Add .zip to SUPPORTED_DOCUMENT_TYPES so gateway platforms (Telegram,
Slack, Discord) cache uploaded zip files instead of rejecting them.
- Add get_cache_directory_mounts() and iter_cache_files() to
credential_files.py for host-side cache directory passthrough
(documents, images, audio, screenshots).
- Docker: bind-mount cache dirs read-only alongside credentials/skills.
Changes are live (bind mount semantics).
- Modal: mount cache files at sandbox creation + resync before each
command via _sync_files() with mtime+size change detection.
- Handles backward-compat with legacy dir names (document_cache,
image_cache, audio_cache, browser_screenshots) via get_hermes_dir().
- Container paths always use the new cache/<subdir> layout regardless
of host layout.
This replaces the need for a dedicated extract_archive tool (PR #4819)
— the agent can now use standard terminal commands (unzip, tar) on
uploaded files inside remote containers.
Closes: related to PR #4819 by kshitijk4poor
_load_config_files() had the same hermes_home / item pattern without
containment checks. While config.yaml is user-controlled (lower threat
than skill frontmatter), defense in depth prevents exploitation via
config injection or copy-paste mistakes.
Skills with scripts/, templates/, and references/ subdirectories need
those files available inside sandboxed execution environments. Previously
the skills directory was missing entirely from remote backends.
Live sync — files stay current as credentials refresh and skills update:
- Docker/Singularity: bind mounts are inherently live (host changes
visible immediately)
- Modal: _sync_files() runs before each command with mtime+size caching,
pushing only changed credential and skill files (~13μs no-op overhead)
- SSH: rsync --safe-links before each command (naturally incremental)
- Daytona: _upload_if_changed() with mtime+size caching before each command
Security — symlink filtering:
- Docker/Singularity: sanitized temp copy when symlinks detected
- Modal/Daytona: iter_skills_files() skips symlinks
- SSH: rsync --safe-links skips symlinks pointing outside source tree
- Temp dir cleanup via atexit + reuse across calls
Non-root user support:
- SSH: detects remote home via echo $HOME, syncs to $HOME/.hermes/
- Daytona: detects sandbox home before sync, uploads to $HOME/.hermes/
- Docker/Modal/Singularity: run as root, /root/.hermes/ is correct
Also:
- credential_files.py: fix name/path key fallback in required_credential_files
- Singularity, SSH, Daytona: gained credential file support
- 14 tests covering symlink filtering, name/path fallback, iter_skills_files
Two related fixes for remote terminal backends (Modal/Docker):
1. NEW: Credential file mounting system
Skills declare required_credential_files in frontmatter. Files are
mounted into Docker (read-only bind mounts) and Modal (mounts at
creation + sync via exec on each command for mid-session changes).
Google Workspace skill updated with the new field.
2. FIX: Docker backend now includes env_passthrough vars
Skills that declare required_environment_variables (e.g. Notion with
NOTION_API_KEY) register vars in the env_passthrough system. The
local backend checked this, but Docker's forward_env was a separate
disconnected list. Now Docker exec merges both sources, so
skill-declared env vars are forwarded into containers automatically.
This fixes the reported issue where NOTION_API_KEY in ~/.hermes/.env
wasn't reaching the Docker container despite being registered via
the Notion skill's prerequisites.
Closes#3665
