* feat(image_gen): upgrade Recraft V3 → V4 Pro, Nano Banana → Pro
Upstream asked for these two upgrades ASAP — the old entries show
stale models when newer, higher-quality versions are available on FAL.
Recraft V3 → Recraft V4 Pro
ID: fal-ai/recraft-v3 → fal-ai/recraft/v4/pro/text-to-image
Price: $0.04/image → $0.25/image (6x — V4 Pro is premium tier)
Schema: V4 dropped the required `style` enum entirely; defaults
handle taste now. Added `colors` and `background_color`
to supports for brand-palette control. `seed` is not
supported by V4 per the API docs.
Nano Banana → Nano Banana Pro
ID: fal-ai/nano-banana → fal-ai/nano-banana-pro
Price: $0.08/image → $0.15/image (1K); $0.30 at 4K
Schema: Aspect ratio family unchanged. Added `resolution`
(1K/2K/4K, default 1K for billing predictability),
`enable_web_search` (real-time info grounding, +$0.015),
and `limit_generations` (force exactly 1 image).
Architecture: Gemini 2.5 Flash → Gemini 3 Pro Image. Quality
and reasoning depth improved; slower (~6s → ~8s).
Migration: users who had the old IDs in `image_gen.model` will
fall through the existing 'unknown model → default' warning path
in `_resolve_fal_model()` and get the Klein 9B default on the next
run. Re-run `hermes tools` → Image Generation to pick the new
version. No silent cost-upgrade aliasing — the 2-6x price jump
on these tiers warrants explicit user re-selection.
Portal note: both new model IDs need to be allowlisted on the
Nous fal-queue-gateway alongside the previous 7 additions, or
users on Nous Subscription will see the 'managed gateway rejected
model' error we added previously (which is clear and
self-remediating, just noisy).
* docs: wrap '<1s' in backticks to unblock MDX compilation
Docusaurus's MDX parser treats unquoted '<' as the start of JSX, and
'<1s' fails because '1' isn't a valid tag-name start character. This
was broken on main since PR #11265 (never noticed because
docs-site-checks was failing on OTHER issues at the time and we
admin-merged through it).
Wrapping in backticks also gives the cell monospace styling which
reads more cleanly alongside the inline-code model ID in the same row.
The other '<1s' occurrence (line 52) is inside a fenced code block
and is already safe — code fences bypass MDX parsing.
* feat(image_gen): multi-model FAL support with picker in hermes tools
Adds 8 FAL text-to-image models selectable via `hermes tools` →
Image Generation → (FAL.ai | Nous Subscription) → model picker.
Models supported:
- fal-ai/flux-2/klein/9b (new default, <1s, $0.006/MP)
- fal-ai/flux-2-pro (previous default, kept backward-compat upscaling)
- fal-ai/z-image/turbo (Tongyi-MAI, bilingual EN/CN)
- fal-ai/nano-banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image)
- fal-ai/gpt-image-1.5 (with quality tier: low/medium/high)
- fal-ai/ideogram/v3 (best typography)
- fal-ai/recraft-v3 (vector, brand styles)
- fal-ai/qwen-image (LLM-based)
Architecture:
- FAL_MODELS catalog declares per-model size family, defaults, supports
whitelist, and upscale flag. Three size families handled uniformly:
image_size_preset (flux family), aspect_ratio (nano-banana), and
gpt_literal (gpt-image-1.5).
- _build_fal_payload() translates unified inputs (prompt + aspect_ratio)
into model-specific payloads, merges defaults, applies caller overrides,
wires GPT quality_setting, then filters to the supports whitelist — so
models never receive rejected keys.
- IMAGEGEN_BACKENDS registry in tools_config prepares for future imagegen
providers (Replicate, Stability, etc.); each provider entry tags itself
with imagegen_backend: 'fal' to select the right catalog.
- Upscaler (Clarity) defaults off for new models (preserves <1s value
prop), on for flux-2-pro (backward-compat). Per-model via FAL_MODELS.
Config:
image_gen.model = fal-ai/flux-2/klein/9b (new)
image_gen.quality_setting = medium (new, GPT only)
image_gen.use_gateway = bool (existing)
Agent-facing schema unchanged (prompt + aspect_ratio only) — model
choice is a user-level config decision, not an agent-level arg.
Picker uses curses_radiolist (arrow keys, auto numbered-fallback on
non-TTY). Column-aligned: Model / Speed / Strengths / Price.
Docs: image-generation.md rewritten with the model table and picker
walkthrough. tools-reference, tool-gateway, overview updated to drop
the stale "FLUX 2 Pro" wording.
Tests: 42 new in tests/tools/test_image_generation.py covering catalog
integrity, all 3 size families, supports filter, default merging, GPT
quality wiring, model resolution fallback. 8 new in
tests/hermes_cli/test_tools_config.py for picker wiring (registry,
config writes, GPT quality follow-up prompt, corrupt-config repair).
* feat(image_gen): translate managed-gateway 4xx to actionable error
When the Nous Subscription managed FAL proxy rejects a model with 4xx
(likely portal-side allowlist miss or billing gate), surface a clear
message explaining:
1. The rejected model ID + HTTP status
2. Two remediation paths: set FAL_KEY for direct access, or
pick a different model via `hermes tools`
5xx, connection errors, and direct-FAL errors pass through unchanged
(those have different root causes and reasonable native messages).
Motivation: new FAL models added to this release (flux-2-klein-9b,
z-image-turbo, nano-banana, gpt-image-1.5, ideogram-v3, recraft-v3,
qwen-image) are untested against the Nous Portal proxy. If the portal
allowlists model IDs, users on Nous Subscription will hit cryptic
4xx errors without guidance on how to work around it.
Tests: 8 new cases covering status extraction across httpx/fal error
shapes and 4xx-vs-5xx-vs-ConnectionError translation policy.
Docs: brief note in image-generation.md for Nous subscribers.
Operator action (Nous Portal side): verify that fal-queue-gateway
passes through these 7 new FAL model IDs. If the proxy has an
allowlist, add them; otherwise Nous Subscription users will see the
new translated error and fall back to direct FAL.
* feat(image_gen): pin GPT-Image quality to medium (no user choice)
Previously the tools picker asked a follow-up question for GPT-Image
quality tier (low / medium / high) and persisted the answer to
`image_gen.quality_setting`. This created two problems:
1. Nous Portal billing complexity — the 22x cost spread between tiers
($0.009 low / $0.20 high) forces the gateway to meter per-tier per
user, which the portal team can't easily support at launch.
2. User footgun — anyone picking `high` by mistake burns through
credit ~6x faster than `medium`.
This commit pins quality at medium by baking it into FAL_MODELS
defaults for gpt-image-1.5 and removes all user-facing override paths:
- Removed `_resolve_gpt_quality()` runtime lookup
- Removed `honors_quality_setting` flag on the model entry
- Removed `_configure_gpt_quality_setting()` picker helper
- Removed `_GPT_QUALITY_CHOICES` constant
- Removed the follow-up prompt call in `_configure_imagegen_model()`
- Even if a user manually edits `image_gen.quality_setting` in
config.yaml, no code path reads it — always sends medium.
Tests:
- Replaced TestGptQualitySetting (6 tests) with TestGptQualityPinnedToMedium
(5 tests) — proves medium is baked in, config is ignored, flag is
removed, helper is removed, non-gpt models never get quality.
- Replaced test_picker_with_gpt_image_also_prompts_quality with
test_picker_with_gpt_image_does_not_prompt_quality — proves only 1
picker call fires when gpt-image is selected (no quality follow-up).
Docs updated: image-generation.md replaces the quality-tier table
with a short note explaining the pinning decision.
* docs(image_gen): drop stale 'wires GPT quality tier' line from internals section
Caught in a cleanup sweep after pinning quality to medium. The
"How It Works Internally" walkthrough still described the removed
quality-wiring step.
- New page: user-guide/features/tool-gateway.md covering eligibility,
setup (hermes model, hermes tools, manual config), how use_gateway
works, precedence, switching back, status checking, self-hosted
gateway env vars, and FAQ
- Added to sidebar under Features (top-level, before Core category)
- Cross-references from: overview.md, tools.md, browser.md,
image-generation.md, tts.md, providers.md, environment-variables.md
- Added Nous Tool Gateway subsection to env vars reference with
TOOL_GATEWAY_DOMAIN, TOOL_GATEWAY_SCHEME, TOOL_GATEWAY_USER_TOKEN,
and FIRECRAWL_GATEWAY_URL
