`hermes uninstall` was POSIX-only. On Windows it would leave four classes
of installer debris behind that the user had to scrub manually:
1. Scheduled Task and/or Startup-folder .cmd entry that installer.ps1
dropped for `hermes gateway install`. Left running at next logon
even after uninstall, pointing at deleted code paths.
2. User-scope PATH entries for the Hermes venv, PortableGit (cmd, bin,
usr\bin), and bundled Node, all written to HKCU\Environment\Path.
3. User-scope env vars HERMES_HOME and HERMES_GIT_BASH_PATH, same
registry key.
4. PortableGit and Node copies under %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes\ (~200MB),
plus gateway-service/ scratch dir.
Fixes:
- `uninstall_gateway_service()` gets a Windows branch that calls into
`gateway_windows.stop()` + `gateway_windows.uninstall()`, which already
know how to remove both schtasks entries and Startup-folder .cmd files
and how to stop any running detached pythonw gateway.
- `remove_path_from_windows_registry(hermes_home)` reads HKCU\Environment
via winreg, strips any PATH entry whose path-prefix matches the
installer-owned markers (\hermes-agent, \git, \node, \venv under the
current HERMES_HOME), and writes the cleaned value back. Preserves
REG_EXPAND_SZ vs REG_SZ so unexpanded %VARS% in the user's PATH
survive. No PowerShell subprocess, no fragile `reg query` parsing.
- `remove_hermes_env_vars_windows()` deletes HERMES_HOME and
HERMES_GIT_BASH_PATH from the same key.
- `remove_portable_tooling_windows(hermes_home)` rmtree's
`hermes_home/git`, `hermes_home/node`, `hermes_home/gateway-service`
— they're installer artifacts, not user data, so they get removed in
BOTH "keep data" and "full uninstall" modes.
Wired these into `run_uninstall()` guarded by `_is_windows()` so
POSIX paths are untouched. Also fixed the closing "Reload your shell"
footer to point Windows users at opening a new terminal (PATH changes
don't propagate into the current PowerShell session) with the
PowerShell install one-liner instead of bash's curl-pipe.
Verified on Delta-1 (Windows 10) via preview script: correctly
identifies 4 Hermes-installed PATH entries out of 13 total to remove,
leaves Python/LM Studio/ripgrep/ffmpeg/winget entries alone.
## Why
Hermes supports Linux, macOS, and native Windows, but the codebase grew up
POSIX-first and has accumulated patterns that silently break (or worse,
silently kill!) on Windows:
- `os.kill(pid, 0)` as a liveness probe — on Windows this maps to
CTRL_C_EVENT and broadcasts Ctrl+C to the target's entire console
process group (bpo-14484, open since 2012).
- `os.killpg` — doesn't exist on Windows at all (AttributeError).
- `os.setsid` / `os.getuid` / `os.geteuid` — same.
- `signal.SIGKILL` / `signal.SIGHUP` / `signal.SIGUSR1` — module-attr
errors at runtime on Windows.
- `open(path)` / `open(path, "r")` without explicit encoding= — inherits
the platform default, which is cp1252/mbcs on Windows (UTF-8 on POSIX),
causing mojibake round-tripping between hosts.
- `wmic` — removed from Windows 10 21H1+.
This commit does three things:
1. Makes `psutil` a core dependency and migrates critical callsites to it.
2. Adds a grep-based CI gate (`scripts/check-windows-footguns.py`) that
blocks new instances of any of the above patterns.
3. Fixes every existing instance in the codebase so the baseline is clean.
## What changed
### 1. psutil as a core dependency (pyproject.toml)
Added `psutil>=5.9.0,<8` to core deps. psutil is the canonical
cross-platform answer for "is this PID alive" and "kill this process
tree" — its `pid_exists()` uses `OpenProcess + GetExitCodeProcess` on
Windows (NOT a signal call), and its `Process.children(recursive=True)`
+ `.kill()` combo replaces `os.killpg()` portably.
### 2. `gateway/status.py::_pid_exists`
Rewrote to call `psutil.pid_exists()` first, falling back to the
hand-rolled ctypes `OpenProcess + WaitForSingleObject` dance on Windows
(and `os.kill(pid, 0)` on POSIX) only if psutil is somehow missing —
e.g. during the scaffold phase of a fresh install before pip finishes.
### 3. `os.killpg` migration to psutil (7 callsites, 5 files)
- `tools/code_execution_tool.py`
- `tools/process_registry.py`
- `tools/tts_tool.py`
- `tools/environments/local.py` (3 sites kept as-is, suppressed with
`# windows-footgun: ok` — the pgid semantics psutil can't replicate,
and the calls are already Windows-guarded at the outer branch)
- `gateway/platforms/whatsapp.py`
### 4. `scripts/check-windows-footguns.py` (NEW, 500 lines)
Grep-based checker with 11 rules covering every Windows cross-platform
footgun we've hit so far:
1. `os.kill(pid, 0)` — the silent killer
2. `os.setsid` without guard
3. `os.killpg` (recommends psutil)
4. `os.getuid` / `os.geteuid` / `os.getgid`
5. `os.fork`
6. `signal.SIGKILL`
7. `signal.SIGHUP/SIGUSR1/SIGUSR2/SIGALRM/SIGCHLD/SIGPIPE/SIGQUIT`
8. `subprocess` shebang script invocation
9. `wmic` without `shutil.which` guard
10. Hardcoded `~/Desktop` (OneDrive trap)
11. `asyncio.add_signal_handler` without try/except
12. `open()` without `encoding=` on text mode
Features:
- Triple-quoted-docstring aware (won't flag prose inside docstrings)
- Trailing-comment aware (won't flag mentions in `# os.kill(pid, 0)` comments)
- Guard-hint aware (skips lines with `hasattr(os, ...)`,
`shutil.which(...)`, `if platform.system() != 'Windows'`, etc.)
- Inline suppression with `# windows-footgun: ok — <reason>`
- `--list` to print all rules with fixes
- `--all` / `--diff <ref>` / staged-files (default) modes
- Scans 380 files in under 2 seconds
### 5. CI integration
A GitHub Actions workflow that runs the checker on every PR and push is
staged at `/tmp/hermes-stash/windows-footguns.yml` — not included in this
commit because the GH token on the push machine lacks `workflow` scope.
A maintainer with `workflow` permissions should add it as
`.github/workflows/windows-footguns.yml` in a follow-up. Content:
```yaml
name: Windows footgun check
on:
push:
branches: [main]
pull_request:
branches: [main]
jobs:
check:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-python@v5
with: {python-version: "3.11"}
- run: python scripts/check-windows-footguns.py --all
```
### 6. CONTRIBUTING.md — "Cross-Platform Compatibility" expansion
Expanded from 5 to 16 rules, each with message, example, and fix.
Recommends psutil as the preferred API for PID / process-tree operations.
### 7. Baseline cleanup (91 → 0 findings)
- 14 `open()` sites → added `encoding='utf-8'` (internal logs/caches) or
`encoding='utf-8-sig'` (user-editable files that Notepad may BOM)
- 23 POSIX-only callsites in systemd helpers, pty_bridge, and plugin
tool subprocess management → annotated with
`# windows-footgun: ok — <reason>`
- 7 `os.killpg` sites → migrated to psutil (see §3 above)
## Verification
```
$ python scripts/check-windows-footguns.py --all
✓ No Windows footguns found (380 file(s) scanned).
$ python -c "from gateway.status import _pid_exists; import os
> print('self:', _pid_exists(os.getpid())); print('bogus:', _pid_exists(999999))"
self: True
bogus: False
```
Proof-of-repro that `os.kill(pid, 0)` was actually killing processes
before this fix — see commit `1cbe39914` and bpo-14484. This commit
removes the last hand-rolled ctypes path from the hot liveness-check
path and defers to the best-maintained cross-platform answer.
When `hermes uninstall` runs from the default HERMES_HOME (~/.hermes)
and other named profiles exist under ~/.hermes/profiles/, show them in
the installation overview and prompt:
Also stop and remove these N profile(s)? [y/N]
If confirmed, for each named profile we:
1. Shell out to `python -m hermes_cli.main -p <name> gateway stop/uninstall`
to stop the gateway and remove its systemd unit or launchd plist
(service names + unit paths are derived from HERMES_HOME, so we
can't cleanly switch in-process)
2. Remove the ~/.local/bin/<name> alias wrapper (outside HERMES_HOME)
3. Wipe the profile's HERMES_HOME dir
Previously `hermes uninstall` was silently profile-scoped, leaving
zombie systemd units at ~/.config/systemd/user/hermes-gateway-<profile>.service
and zombie HERMES_HOMEs under ~/.hermes/profiles/ whenever a user
uninstalled from default with other profiles configured.
Prompt only appears when uninstalling from the default root. Uninstalling
from within a named profile stays profile-scoped as before.
The uninstaller's gateway cleanup was incomplete:
- Linux only (ignored macOS launchd)
- Only checked user systemd scope (missed system services)
- Didn't kill standalone gateway processes (hermes gateway run)
- Missing DBUS env setup for headless servers
Now delegates to gateway.py's existing machinery:
1. Kill any standalone gateway processes (all platforms)
2. Linux: stop + disable + remove both user AND system systemd services
3. macOS: unload + remove launchd plist
4. Warns (instead of silently failing) when system service needs sudo
Comprehensive cleanup across 80 files based on automated (ruff, pyflakes, vulture)
and manual analysis of the entire codebase.
Changes by category:
Unused imports removed (~95 across 55 files):
- Removed genuinely unused imports from all major subsystems
- agent/, hermes_cli/, tools/, gateway/, plugins/, cron/
- Includes imports in try/except blocks that were truly unused
(vs availability checks which were left alone)
Unused variables removed (~25):
- Removed dead variables: connected, inner, channels, last_exc,
source, new_server_names, verify, pconfig, default_terminal,
result, pending_handled, temperature, loop
- Dropped unused argparse subparser assignments in hermes_cli/main.py
(12 instances of add_parser() where result was never used)
Dead code removed:
- run_agent.py: Removed dead ternary (None if False else None) and
surrounding unreachable branch in identity fallback
- run_agent.py: Removed write-only attribute _last_reported_tool
- hermes_cli/providers.py: Removed dead @property decorator on
module-level function (decorator has no effect outside a class)
- gateway/run.py: Removed unused MCP config load before reconnect
- gateway/platforms/slack.py: Removed dead SessionSource construction
Undefined name bugs fixed (would cause NameError at runtime):
- batch_runner.py: Added missing logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
- tools/environments/daytona.py: Added missing Dict and Path imports
Unnecessary global statements removed (14):
- tools/terminal_tool.py: 5 functions declared global for dicts
they only mutated via .pop()/[key]=value (no rebinding)
- tools/browser_tool.py: cleanup thread loop only reads flag
- tools/rl_training_tool.py: 4 functions only do dict mutations
- tools/mcp_oauth.py: only reads the global
- hermes_time.py: only reads cached values
Inefficient patterns fixed:
- startswith/endswith tuple form: 15 instances of
x.startswith('a') or x.startswith('b') consolidated to
x.startswith(('a', 'b'))
- len(x)==0 / len(x)>0: 13 instances replaced with pythonic
truthiness checks (not x / bool(x))
- in dict.keys(): 5 instances simplified to in dict
- Redefined unused name: removed duplicate _strip_mdv2 import in
send_message_tool.py
Other fixes:
- hermes_cli/doctor.py: Replaced undefined logger.debug() with pass
- hermes_cli/config.py: Consolidated chained .endswith() calls
Test results: 3934 passed, 17 failed (all pre-existing on main),
19 skipped. Zero regressions.
Three categories of cleanup, all zero-behavioral-change:
1. F-strings without placeholders (154 fixes across 29 files)
- Converted f'...' to '...' where no {expression} was present
- Heaviest files: run_agent.py (24), cli.py (20), honcho_integration/cli.py (34)
2. Simplify defensive patterns in run_agent.py
- Added explicit self._is_anthropic_oauth = False in __init__ (before
the api_mode branch that conditionally sets it)
- Replaced 7x getattr(self, '_is_anthropic_oauth', False) with direct
self._is_anthropic_oauth (attribute always initialized now)
- Added _is_openrouter_url() and _is_anthropic_url() helper methods
- Replaced 3 inline 'openrouter' in self._base_url_lower checks
3. Remove dead code in small files
- hermes_cli/claw.py: removed unused 'total' computation
- tools/fuzzy_match.py: removed unused strip_indent() function and
pattern_stripped variable
Full test suite: 6184 passed, 0 failures
E2E PTY: banner clean, tool calls work, zero garbled ANSI
Centralizes two widely-duplicated patterns into hermes_constants.py:
1. get_hermes_home() — Path resolution for ~/.hermes (HERMES_HOME env var)
- Was copy-pasted inline across 30+ files as:
Path(os.getenv("HERMES_HOME", Path.home() / ".hermes"))
- Now defined once in hermes_constants.py (zero-dependency module)
- hermes_cli/config.py re-exports it for backward compatibility
- Removed local wrapper functions in honcho_integration/client.py,
tools/website_policy.py, tools/tirith_security.py, hermes_cli/uninstall.py
2. parse_reasoning_effort() — Reasoning effort string validation
- Was copy-pasted in cli.py, gateway/run.py, cron/scheduler.py
- Same validation logic: check against (xhigh, high, medium, low, minimal, none)
- Now defined once in hermes_constants.py, called from all 3 locations
- Warning log for unknown values kept at call sites (context-specific)
31 files changed, net +31 lines (125 insertions, 94 deletions)
Full test suite: 6179 passed, 0 failed
Multiple Hermes installations on the same machine now get unique
systemd service names:
- Default ~/.hermes → hermes-gateway (backward compatible)
- Custom HERMES_HOME → hermes-gateway-<8-char-hash>
Changes:
- Add get_service_name() in hermes_cli/gateway.py that derives a
deterministic service name from HERMES_HOME via SHA256
- Replace all hardcoded 'hermes-gateway' systemd references with
get_service_name() across gateway.py, main.py, status.py, uninstall.py
- Add HERMES_HOME env var to both user and system systemd unit templates
so the gateway process uses the correct installation
- Update tests to use get_service_name() in assertions
- Updated the README to include a new banner image and changed the title emoji from 🦋 to ⚕.
- Modified various CLI outputs and scripts to reflect the new branding, ensuring consistency in the use of the ⚕ emoji.
- Added a new banner image asset for enhanced visual appeal during installation and setup processes.
- Introduced a new `uninstall` command in the CLI for the Hermes Agent, allowing users to remove the agent while optionally retaining configuration files for future reinstallation.
- Updated AGENTS.md and README.md to include the new uninstall functionality, enhancing user guidance on available commands and their purposes.
- Improved command-line interface with detailed help options for the uninstall process, including flags for full removal and confirmation prompts.
