Manual verification surfaced a second bypass class beyond the standalone
config loaders: several code paths bridge config.yaml values into os.environ
(HERMES_TIMEZONE, HERMES_REDACT_SECRETS, HERMES_MAX_ITERATIONS, TERMINAL_*,
network.force_ipv4, ...) by reading the raw user YAML, so the env the whole
process reads carried the USER's value even when an administrator pinned it —
e.g. a managed timezone was overridden because gateway/run.py wrote the user's
timezone into HERMES_TIMEZONE, and _resolve_timezone_name() checks the env var
first.
Wired the shared apply_managed_overlay() into every config→env bridge:
- gateway/run.py module-level startup bridge (timezone, redact_secrets,
max_turns, terminal, display, gateway.strict, ...)
- gateway/run.py _reload_runtime_env_preserving_config_authority (the per-turn
re-bridge that keeps config authoritative over reloaded .env — must keep
MANAGED authoritative on every turn, not just startup)
- hermes_cli/main.py early security.redact_secrets / network.force_ipv4 bridge
(runs before load_config is usable, at import time)
- hermes_cli/send_cmd.py top-level scalar config→env bridge
Verified end-to-end against a writable managed dir (12/12 checks incl. timezone,
logging, model, skin, gateway settings, write-guard) and in a clean process the
gateway per-turn bridge writes HERMES_TIMEZONE=<managed>. Adds an
order-independent regression test for the bridge overlay.
The skin bug was one instance of a class: several subsystems build their
config dict directly from config.yaml instead of routing through
hermes_cli.config.load_config (which carries the managed merge), so they
silently ignored administrator-pinned values. Audited every config.yaml
reader and fixed the behavioral-read bypasses:
- gateway/config.py load_gateway_config (messaging gateway: session_reset,
quick_commands, stt, model, ...)
- gateway/run.py _load_gateway_config (its read_raw_config fast path also
skipped the merge — read_raw_config returns raw user YAML)
- tui_gateway/server.py _load_cfg (new TUI + desktop backend: skin,
reasoning_effort, service_tier, provider_routing)
- cron/scheduler.py (scheduled-job model/reasoning/toolsets/provider_routing)
- hermes_logging.py (logging.level/max_size_mb/backup_count)
- hermes_time.py (timezone)
- hermes_cli/doctor.py (memory-provider diagnostic reads effective config)
All route through a new shared managed_scope.apply_managed_overlay() helper
that mirrors _load_config_impl (env-only expansion so a user ${VAR} can't
shadow a managed literal, root-model-string normalization, leaf-merge) and is
fail-open. cli.py's earlier inline fix is refactored onto the same helper.
Write-back paths (slash_commands, telegram/yuanbao dm_topics, profile
distribution) are deliberately left reading raw user YAML — overlaying managed
values there would persist them into the user file. The dashboard
(web_server.py) already routes through load_config and needed no change.
TUI loader caches the RAW config so _save_cfg never writes managed values to
disk. Adds test_managed_scope_overlay.py (helper) and
test_managed_scope_loaders.py (per-surface integration); mutation-checked.
