The cleanup-fix in the previous commit handles the graceful-exit leak: a
Hermes process that runs ``atexit`` will now actually wait on the docker
stop/rm worker thread, so containers either survive (persist mode) or are
fully removed (opt-out mode) by the time the interpreter exits.
But ``atexit`` doesn't fire on SIGKILL, OOM-kill, or terminal-window
close. Containers from those exits stay parked with no surviving Python
process to reuse or remove them, so they accumulate until the operator
intervenes with ``docker rm -f``. The cleanup-fix doesn't help this class
— there's no live cleanup() to fix.
This commit adds the safety net: a startup orphan reaper that runs once
per Hermes process and removes long-Exited hermes-labeled containers
that the prior commit couldn't reach.
Implementation:
* New ``reap_orphan_containers()`` in ``tools/environments/docker.py``.
Filters: ``label=hermes-agent=1`` + ``status=exited`` + (optional)
``label=hermes-profile=<current>``. Per-container ``docker inspect``
parses ``State.FinishedAt`` (with nanosecond-precision trimming for
Python's microsecond-bound ``fromisoformat``); containers older than
the threshold get ``docker rm -f``'d. The ``status=exited`` filter is
load-bearing — a running container may belong to a sibling Hermes
process whose reuse path will pick it up; killing it would crash the
sibling mid-command. Single-container failures are logged and the
sweep continues to the next candidate.
* New ``_maybe_reap_docker_orphans()`` helper in
``tools/terminal_tool.py``. Wired into ``_create_environment()`` for
``env_type == "docker"``. Gated by:
- ``terminal.docker_orphan_reaper: true`` (default; opt-out for
operators running multiple Hermes processes in the same profile
who don't trust the conservative defaults)
- ``_docker_orphan_reaper_ran`` module flag with double-checked
locking — parallel subagents and RL rollouts don't trigger N
concurrent docker ps storms
- Age threshold = ``2 × TERMINAL_LIFETIME_SECONDS`` with a 60s floor
(so ``TERMINAL_LIFETIME_SECONDS=0`` doesn't race the user's own
setup)
- Profile scoping — a research profile NEVER reaps the default
profile's stragglers
- Exception swallow — a janitor failure must never block container
creation
* New config ``terminal.docker_orphan_reaper`` wired through all four
config-bridge sites (cli.py, gateway/run.py, hermes_cli/config.py,
tests/conftest.py) and pinned by
``test_docker_orphan_reaper_is_bridged_everywhere``.
Coverage:
* 9 new unit tests in test_docker_environment.py — happy path, recent-
container sparing, profile scoping, unparseable-timestamp safety,
docker-ps-failure handling, partial-failure continuation, nanosecond
timestamp parsing, zero-value FinishedAt rejection.
* 6 new integration tests in test_docker_orphan_reaper_integration.py
— once-per-process gate, disable-flag respected, lifetime doubling
with 60s floor, current-profile filter wiring, exception swallow.
* 1 new bridge-invariant regression test.
Closes#20561 (combined with the two prior commits on this branch).
The Docker backend docs claim "Single persistent container — ONE long-
lived container shared across sessions, /new, /reset, and delegate_task
subagents. Stopped/removed on shutdown." In practice the code only
honored that contract within a single Python process via the in-memory
\`_active_environments[task_id]\` cache. Every \`hermes chat\` invocation
spawned a fresh \`hermes-<hex>\` container; older containers piled up in
\`Exited\` state and accumulated until manual \`docker rm\` (issue #20561).
Three root causes, all addressed by this commit:
1. No cross-process container discovery.
2. \`cleanup()\` used fire-and-forget \`subprocess.Popen("... &", shell=True)\`
which raced with parent-process exit — when Python exited promptly the
detached shell child got killed mid-\`docker stop\`, leaving stopped
containers behind.
3. The \`docker rm\` step in cleanup was gated on \`not self._persistent\`
(the bind-mount-persistence flag). Default config sets
\`container_persistent: true\`, so the default happy path skipped \`rm\`
entirely — even when the user explicitly didn't want cross-process
reuse, containers leaked.
Fix:
* Add \`DockerEnvironment.__init__(persist_across_processes=True)\`. When
true, init probes
\`docker ps -a --filter label=hermes-agent=1
--filter label=hermes-task-id=<task>
--filter label=hermes-profile=<profile>\`
and reuses a matching container (running → attach; stopped →
\`docker start\` → attach; \`docker start\` failure → fall through to a
fresh \`docker run\`). Multiple matches prefer the running one, with the
stragglers left for the orphan reaper (next commit) to clean up.
* Rewrite \`cleanup()\`. Uses \`subprocess.run(..., timeout=30)\` on a
daemon \`threading.Thread\`, not the racy \`Popen(... &)\`. The
\`_persistent\` guard is dropped on the \`rm\` step — \`rm\` now runs
whenever \`persist_across_processes\` is false, regardless of the
bind-mount-persistence setting. The leak class is gone in all
combinations.
* Add \`wait_for_cleanup(timeout)\`. \`tools/terminal_tool.py\`'s atexit
hook calls this on every active env, blocking up to 15s for the
cleanup thread before interpreter exit. Without this, \`hermes /quit\`
raced the daemon-thread teardown and dropped the stop/rm work.
* New config \`terminal.docker_persist_across_processes\` (default
\`true\` — restores the documented contract). Set \`false\` for hard
per-process isolation. Wired through all four config-bridge sites
(cli.py env_mappings, gateway/run.py _terminal_env_map,
hermes_cli/config.py _config_to_env_sync, tests/conftest.py env-strip
list); regression-pinned by
\`test_docker_persist_across_processes_is_bridged_everywhere\` matching
the existing pattern for docker_run_as_host_user / docker_env.
Reuse intentionally does NOT compare image / mounts / resources — only
the labels. Operators changing those settings should set
\`docker_persist_across_processes: false\` (or \`docker rm -f\` the
labeled container) to force a fresh start. This keeps the probe cheap
and the failure mode obvious.
Coverage: 12 new unit tests in tests/tools/test_docker_environment.py
covering reuse paths (running, stopped, fallback, opt-out, duplicate
preference) and cleanup behavior (persist-mode no-rm, opt-out always-rm,
no-Popen, wait_for_cleanup semantics, partial-init safety). Plus one
config-bridge regression pin.
Refs #20561
Problem: terminal.docker_env set in config.yaml was silently ignored.
Docker containers never received the user-specified env vars.
Root cause: docker_env was missing from all three config→env bridging
maps (cli.py env_mappings, gateway/run.py _terminal_env_map,
hermes_cli/config.py _config_to_env_sync) and from the terminal_tool
_get_env_config() reader. _create_environment() consumed the key from
container_config correctly, but it was always {} because TERMINAL_DOCKER_ENV
was never set.
Also extend the list-serialisation branches in cli.py and gateway/run.py
to handle dict values via json.dumps (lists already used json.dumps;
plain str() on a dict produces undecodable output).
Fix:
- cli.py: add "docker_env": "TERMINAL_DOCKER_ENV" to env_mappings;
serialise dict values with json.dumps alongside existing list path
- gateway/run.py: same additions to _terminal_env_map and serialisation
- hermes_cli/config.py: add "terminal.docker_env": "TERMINAL_DOCKER_ENV"
to _config_to_env_sync so `hermes config set terminal.docker_env …`
persists to .env correctly
- tools/terminal_tool.py: add docker_env key to _get_env_config() reading
TERMINAL_DOCKER_ENV via _parse_env_var with default "{}"
Tests: add test_docker_env_is_bridged_everywhere to
tests/tools/test_terminal_config_env_sync.py — stash-verified: fails on
origin/main, passes with fix.
Fixes#20537
Add opt-in terminal.docker_run_as_host_user config flag that passes
--user $(id -u):$(id -g) to the Docker backend so files written into
bind-mounted directories (/workspace, /root, docker_volumes entries) are
owned by the host user instead of root.
When enabled on POSIX platforms, also drops SETUID/SETGID caps since the
container no longer needs gosu/su to switch users. Falls back cleanly on
platforms without os.getuid (e.g. native Windows Docker) with a warning.
Wired through all three config.yaml -> TERMINAL_* env-var bridges:
- cli.py env_mappings (CLI + TUI startup)
- gateway/run.py _terminal_env_map (gateway / messaging platforms)
- hermes_cli/config.py _config_to_env_sync (`hermes config set`)
Also fixes docker_mount_cwd_to_workspace silently failing in gateway
mode -- it was missing from gateway/run.py's _terminal_env_map.
Adds tests/tools/test_terminal_config_env_sync.py to guard against
future drift between the three bridges (same bug class shipped twice
in one month).
Bundled Hermes image won't work with this flag since its entrypoint
expects to start as root for the usermod/gosu hermes flow; works with
the default nikolaik/python-nodejs image and plain Debian/Ubuntu.
