The MCP serve event bridge polls two files to decide whether there is new
conversation activity to surface to MCP clients: the gateway sessions.json
index and state.db. Its skip-when-unchanged guard was self-defeating — it
refreshed self._sessions_json_mtime with the current value *before*
comparing against it, so the sessions.json term was always true and the
guard collapsed to a state.db-only check.
The impact is silent message loss on the event stream. The gateway commonly
persists a message to state.db on one tick and registers the owning
conversation in sessions.json a moment later. On that later tick only
sessions.json has changed, so the broken guard takes the early return and
never processes the freshly-registered chat. Its messages are withheld from
every connected MCP client (events_poll / events_wait) until state.db
happens to change again — which, for an otherwise-idle conversation, may be
never. A polling bridge that quietly swallows new conversations is exactly
the failure mode this watcher exists to prevent.
The fix is minimal and low-risk: capture the previously-seen sessions.json
mtime before the cache refresh and compare against that, so the guard skips
only when NEITHER file changed since the last poll. The hot-path mtime
optimization is fully preserved (a genuinely idle tick still short-circuits),
and all existing EventBridge polling tests continue to pass unchanged.
## What does this PR do?
Fixes a logic error in `EventBridge._poll_once` (`mcp_serve.py`) where the
"nothing changed, skip this poll" guard compared `sj_mtime` against
`self._sessions_json_mtime` *after* that attribute had already been
overwritten with `sj_mtime`. The comparison was therefore always true,
reducing the intended "skip only if both files are unchanged" check to a
state.db-only check and discarding any tick in which only sessions.json
changed. The guard now compares against the mtime observed on the previous
poll, restoring the intended behavior.
## Related Issue
N/A
## Type of Change
- [x] 🐛 Bug fix (non-breaking change that fixes an issue)
- [ ] ✨ New feature (non-breaking change that adds functionality)
- [ ] 🔒 Security fix
- [ ] 📝 Documentation update
- [ ] ✅ Tests (adding or improving test coverage)
- [ ] ♻️ Refactor (no behavior change)
- [ ] 🎯 New skill (bundled or hub)
## Changes Made
- `mcp_serve.py`: in `EventBridge._poll_once`, snapshot
`prev_sessions_json_mtime = self._sessions_json_mtime` before refreshing the
cached index, and use it in the skip guard
(`sj_mtime == prev_sessions_json_mtime`) so a sessions.json-only change no
longer triggers the early return. Added a comment explaining the seam.
- `tests/test_mcp_serve.py`: added
`TestEventBridgePollE2E::test_poll_picks_up_new_conversation_when_only_sessions_json_changed`,
a regression test that reproduces the boundary state (state.db unchanged,
sessions.json newly updated) and asserts the new conversation's message is
emitted.
## How to Test
1. Reproduce the failure on the old code: with the guard comparing against
`self._sessions_json_mtime`, the new test fails — the freshly-registered
conversation yields `0` events instead of `1`.
2. Apply the fix and run `pytest tests/test_mcp_serve.py -q` — all 46 tests
pass (40 skipped require the optional `mcp` SDK), including the three
pre-existing `TestEventBridgePollE2E` polling tests and the new regression
guard.
3. `ruff check mcp_serve.py tests/test_mcp_serve.py` and
`python scripts/check-windows-footguns.py mcp_serve.py` both report clean.
## Checklist
### Code
- [x] I've read the [Contributing Guide](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md)
- [x] My commit messages follow [Conventional Commits](https://www.conventionalcommits.org/) (`fix(scope):`, `feat(scope):`, etc.)
- [x] I searched for [existing PRs](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pulls) to make sure this isn't a duplicate
- [x] My PR contains **only** changes related to this fix/feature (no unrelated commits)
- [x] I've run `pytest tests/test_mcp_serve.py -q` and all tests pass
- [x] I've added tests for my changes (required for bug fixes, strongly encouraged for features)
- [x] I've tested on my platform: macOS 15 (Darwin)
### Documentation & Housekeeping
- [x] I've updated relevant documentation (README, `docs/`, docstrings) — or N/A
- [x] I've updated `cli-config.yaml.example` if I added/changed config keys — or N/A
- [x] I've updated `CONTRIBUTING.md` or `AGENTS.md` if I changed architecture or workflows — or N/A
- [x] I've considered cross-platform impact (Windows, macOS) per the [compatibility guide](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#cross-platform-compatibility) — or N/A
- [x] I've updated tool descriptions/schemas if I changed tool behavior — or N/A
Users who inspect ~/.hermes/sessions/sessions.json see only gateway entries
(e.g. agent:main:whatsapp:dm:...) and mistake it for the session index that
hermes sessions list / /sessions read — which is actually state.db. Issue
#49361 reported CLI sessions as 'invisible' on this premise.
- gateway/session.py: write a self-documenting _README sentinel at the top of
sessions.json explaining it's the gateway routing index and that ALL sessions
(CLI/TUI/gateway) live in state.db; skip _-prefixed keys on load so the
sentinel never round-trips into a SessionEntry.
- Harden every sessions.json reader against the sentinel: mcp_serve loader,
gateway/mirror.py, gateway/channel_directory.py all skip _-prefixed keys.
- docs/user-guide/sessions.md: warning callout naming the exact symptom.
- tests: assert prune ignores metadata sentinels; add round-trip coverage.
Replace with for all literal-tuple
membership tests. Set lookup is O(1) vs O(n) for tuple — consistent
micro-optimization across the codebase.
608 instances fixed via `ruff --fix --unsafe-fixes`, 0 remaining.
133 files, +626/-626 (net zero).
channels_list was iterating directory.items() directly, yielding
("updated_at", str) and ("platforms", dict) pairs — neither passed
the isinstance(entries_list, list) check, so the inner loop never ran
and every call returned count=0 even when channel_directory.json was
populated.
The writer (gateway/channel_directory.py) wraps the payload as
{"updated_at": ..., "platforms": {...}}; every other reader in the
codebase unwraps via directory.get("platforms", {}). This aligns
channels_list with that convention.
Also tightens the existing test_channels_with_directory test, which
bypassed the bug by asserting against _load_channel_directory() directly
instead of calling channels_list. It now calls the tool end-to-end and
a new test_channels_with_directory_platform_filter covers the filter
path. Both tests fail against the pre-fix code.
Closes#21474
Co-authored-by: chrisworksai <262485129+chrisworksai@users.noreply.github.com>
Error messages that tell users to install optional extras now use
{sys.executable} -m pip install ... instead of a bare 'pip install
hermes-agent[extra]' string. Under the curl installer, bare 'pip'
resolves to system pip, which either fails with PEP 668
externally-managed-environment or installs into the wrong Python.
Affects: hermes dashboard, hermes web server startup, mcp_serve,
hermes doctor Bedrock check, CLI voice mode, voice_mode tool runtime
error, Discord voice-channel join failure message.
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.
hermes mcp serve starts a stdio MCP server that lets any MCP client
(Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, etc.) interact with Hermes conversations.
Matches OpenClaw's 9-tool channel bridge surface:
Tools exposed:
- conversations_list: list active sessions across all platforms
- conversation_get: details on one conversation
- messages_read: read message history
- attachments_fetch: extract non-text content from messages
- events_poll: poll for new events since a cursor
- events_wait: long-poll / block until next event (near-real-time)
- messages_send: send to any platform via send_message_tool
- channels_list: browse available messaging targets
- permissions_list_open: list pending approval requests
- permissions_respond: allow/deny approvals
Architecture:
- EventBridge: background thread polls SessionDB for new messages,
maintains in-memory event queue with waiter support
- Reads sessions.json + SessionDB directly (no gateway dep for reads)
- Reuses send_message_tool for sending (same platform adapters)
- FastMCP server with stdio transport
- Zero new dependencies (uses existing mcp>=1.2.0 optional dep)
Files:
- mcp_serve.py: MCP server + EventBridge (~600 lines)
- hermes_cli/main.py: added serve sub-parser to hermes mcp
- hermes_cli/mcp_config.py: route serve action to run_mcp_server
- tests/test_mcp_serve.py: 53 tests
- docs: updated MCP page + CLI commands reference
