mirror of https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent.git synced 2026-05-09 03:11:58 +00:00

Teknium 9de893e3b0 feat(windows): close native-Windows install gaps — crash-free startup, UTF-8 stdio, tzdata dep, docs

Native Windows (with Git for Windows installed) can now run the Hermes CLI
and gateway end-to-end without crashing.  install.ps1 already existed and
the Git Bash terminal backend was already wired up — this PR fills the
remaining gaps discovered by auditing every Windows-unsafe primitive
(`signal.SIGKILL`, `os.kill(pid, 0)` probes, bare `fcntl`/`termios`
imports) and by comparing hermes against how Claude Code, OpenCode, Codex,
and Cline handle native Windows.

## What changed

### UTF-8 stdio (new module)
- `hermes_cli/stdio.py` — single `configure_windows_stdio()` entry point.
  Flips the console code page to CP_UTF8 (65001), reconfigures
  `sys.stdout`/`stderr`/`stdin` to UTF-8, sets `PYTHONIOENCODING` + `PYTHONUTF8`
  for subprocesses.  No-op on non-Windows.  Opt out via `HERMES_DISABLE_WINDOWS_UTF8=1`.
- Called early in `cli.py::main`, `hermes_cli/main.py::main`, and
  `gateway/run.py::main` so Unicode banners (box-drawing, geometric
  symbols, non-Latin chat text) don't `UnicodeEncodeError` on cp1252
  consoles.

### Crash sites fixed
- `hermes_cli/main.py:7970` (hermes update → stuck gateway sweep): raw
  `os.kill(pid, _signal.SIGKILL)` → `gateway.status.terminate_pid(pid, force=True)`
  which routes through `taskkill /T /F` on Windows.
- `hermes_cli/profiles.py::_stop_gateway_process`: same fix — also
  converted SIGTERM path to `terminate_pid()` and widened OSError catch
  on the intermediate `os.kill(pid, 0)` probe.
- `hermes_cli/kanban_db.py:2914, 3041`: raw `signal.SIGKILL` →
  `getattr(signal, "SIGKILL", signal.SIGTERM)` fallback (matches the
  pattern already used in `gateway/status.py`).

### OSError widening on `os.kill(pid, 0)` probes
Windows raises `OSError` (WinError 87) for a gone PID instead of
`ProcessLookupError`.  Widened the catch at:
- `gateway/run.py:15101` (`--replace` wait-for-exit loop — without this,
  the loop busy-spins the full 10s every Windows gateway start)
- `hermes_cli/gateway.py:228, 460, 940`
- `hermes_cli/profiles.py:777`
- `tools/process_registry.py::_is_host_pid_alive`
- `tools/browser_tool.py:1170, 1206`

### Dashboard PTY graceful degradation
`hermes_cli/pty_bridge.py` depends on `fcntl`/`termios`/`ptyprocess`,
none of which exist on native Windows.  Previously a Windows dashboard
would crash on `import hermes_cli.web_server` because of a top-level
import.  Now:
- `hermes_cli/web_server.py` wraps the pty_bridge import in
  `try/except ImportError` and sets `_PTY_BRIDGE_AVAILABLE=False`.
- The `/api/pty` WebSocket handler returns a friendly "use WSL2 for
  this tab" message instead of exploding.
- Every other dashboard feature (sessions, jobs, metrics, config
  editor) runs natively on Windows.

### Dependency
- `pyproject.toml`: add `tzdata>=2023.3; sys_platform == 'win32'` so
  Python's `zoneinfo` works on Windows (which has no IANA tzdata
  shipped with the OS).  Credits @sprmn24 (PR #13182).

### Docs
- README.md: removed "Native Windows is not supported"; added
  PowerShell one-liner and Git-for-Windows prerequisite note.
- `website/docs/getting-started/installation.md`: new Windows section
  with capability matrix (everything native except the dashboard
  `/chat` PTY tab, which is WSL2-only).
- `website/docs/user-guide/windows-wsl-quickstart.md`: reframed as
  "WSL2 as an alternative to native" rather than "the only way".
- `website/docs/developer-guide/contributing.md`: updated
  cross-platform guidance with the `signal.SIGKILL` / `OSError`
  rules we enforce now.
- `website/docs/user-guide/features/web-dashboard.md`: acknowledged
  native Windows works for everything except the embedded PTY pane.

## Why this shape

Pulled from a survey of how other agent codebases handle native
Windows (Claude Code, OpenCode, Codex, Cline):

- All four treat Git Bash as the canonical shell on Windows, same as
  hermes already does in `tools/environments/local.py::_find_bash()`.
- None of them force `SetConsoleOutputCP` — but they don't have to,
  Node/Rust write UTF-16 to the Win32 console API.  Python does not get
  that for free, so we flip CP_UTF8 via ctypes.
- None of them ship PowerShell-as-primary-shell (Claude Code exposes
  PS as a secondary tool; scope creep for this PR).
- All of them use `taskkill /T /F` for force-kill on Windows, which
  is exactly what `gateway.status.terminate_pid(force=True)` does.

## Non-goals (deliberate scope limits)

- No PowerShell-as-a-second-shell tool — worth designing separately.
- No terminal routing rewrite (#12317, #15461, #19800 cluster) — that's
  the hardest design call and needs a separate doc.
- No wholesale `open()` → `open(..., encoding="utf-8")` sweep (Tianworld
  cluster) — will do as follow-up if users hit actual breakage; most
  modern code already specifies it.

## Validation

- 28 new tests in `tests/tools/test_windows_native_support.py` — all
  platform-mocked, pass on Linux CI.  Cover:
  - `configure_windows_stdio` idempotency, opt-out, env-preservation
  - `terminate_pid` taskkill routing, failure → OSError, FileNotFoundError fallback
  - `getattr(signal, "SIGKILL", …)` fallback shape
  - `_is_host_pid_alive` OSError widening (Windows-gone-PID behavior)
  - Source-level checks that all entry points call `configure_windows_stdio`
  - pty_bridge import-guard present in `web_server.py`
  - README no longer says "not supported"
- 12 pre-existing tests in `tests/tools/test_windows_compat.py` still pass.
- `tests/hermes_cli/` ran fully (3909 passed, 9 failures — all confirmed
  pre-existing on main by stash-test).
- `tests/gateway/` ran fully (5021 passed, 1 pre-existing failure).
- `tests/tools/test_process_registry.py` + `test_browser_*` pass.
- Manual smoke: `import hermes_cli.stdio; import gateway.run;
  import hermes_cli.web_server` — all clean, `_PTY_BRIDGE_AVAILABLE=True`
  on Linux (as expected).

## Files

- New: `hermes_cli/stdio.py`, `tests/tools/test_windows_native_support.py`
- Modified: `cli.py`, `gateway/run.py`, `hermes_cli/main.py`,
  `hermes_cli/profiles.py`, `hermes_cli/gateway.py`,
  `hermes_cli/kanban_db.py`, `hermes_cli/pty_bridge.py`,
  `hermes_cli/web_server.py`, `tools/browser_tool.py`,
  `tools/process_registry.py`, `pyproject.toml`, `README.md`, and 4
  docs pages.

Credits to everyone whose prior PR work informed these fixes — see
the co-author trailers.  All of the PRs listed in
`~/.hermes/plans/windows-support-prs.md` fixing `os.kill` / `signal.SIGKILL`
/ UTF-8 stdio / tzdata / README patterns found the same issues; this PR
consolidates them.

Co-authored-by: Philip D'Souza <9472774+PhilipAD@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Arecanon <42595053+ArecaNon@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: XiaoXiao0221 <263113677+XiaoXiao0221@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Lars Hagen <1360677+lars-hagen@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Luan Dias <65574834+luandiasrj@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Ruzzgar <ruzzgarcn@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: sprmn24 <oncuevtv@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: adybag14-cyber <252811164+adybag14-cyber@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Prasanna28Devadiga <54196612+Prasanna28Devadiga@users.noreply.github.com>

2026-05-08 14:27:40 -07:00

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Raw Blame History

Hermes Agent ☤

The self-improving AI agent built by Nous Research. It's the only agent with a built-in learning loop — it creates skills from experience, improves them during use, nudges itself to persist knowledge, searches its own past conversations, and builds a deepening model of who you are across sessions. Run it on a $5 VPS, a GPU cluster, or serverless infrastructure that costs nearly nothing when idle. It's not tied to your laptop — talk to it from Telegram while it works on a cloud VM.

Use any model you want — Nous Portal, OpenRouter (200+ models), NVIDIA NIM (Nemotron), Xiaomi MiMo, z.ai/GLM, Kimi/Moonshot, MiniMax, Hugging Face, OpenAI, or your own endpoint. Switch with hermes model — no code changes, no lock-in.

A real terminal interface	Full TUI with multiline editing, slash-command autocomplete, conversation history, interrupt-and-redirect, and streaming tool output.
Lives where you do	Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, and CLI — all from a single gateway process. Voice memo transcription, cross-platform conversation continuity.
A closed learning loop	Agent-curated memory with periodic nudges. Autonomous skill creation after complex tasks. Skills self-improve during use. FTS5 session search with LLM summarization for cross-session recall. Honcho dialectic user modeling. Compatible with the agentskills.io open standard.
Scheduled automations	Built-in cron scheduler with delivery to any platform. Daily reports, nightly backups, weekly audits — all in natural language, running unattended.
Delegates and parallelizes	Spawn isolated subagents for parallel workstreams. Write Python scripts that call tools via RPC, collapsing multi-step pipelines into zero-context-cost turns.
Runs anywhere, not just your laptop	Seven terminal backends — local, Docker, SSH, Singularity, Modal, Daytona, and Vercel Sandbox. Daytona and Modal offer serverless persistence — your agent's environment hibernates when idle and wakes on demand, costing nearly nothing between sessions. Run it on a $5 VPS or a GPU cluster.
Research-ready	Batch trajectory generation, Atropos RL environments, trajectory compression for training the next generation of tool-calling models.

Quick Install

Linux, macOS, WSL2, Termux

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

Windows (native, PowerShell)

Run this in PowerShell:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/main/scripts/install.ps1 | iex

Native Windows requires Git for Windows to be installed — Hermes uses its bundled Git Bash to run terminal commands, matching how Claude Code and other agents work on Windows. The installer handles everything else (uv, Python 3.11, Node.js, ripgrep, ffmpeg).

The installer handles the platform-specific setup for you.

Android / Termux: The tested manual path is documented in the Termux guide. On Termux, Hermes installs a curated .[termux] extra because the full .[all] extra currently pulls Android-incompatible voice dependencies.

Windows: Native Windows is supported — the PowerShell one-liner above installs everything. If you'd rather use WSL2, the Linux command works there too. Native Windows install lives under %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes; WSL2 installs under ~/.hermes as on Linux. The only Hermes feature that currently needs WSL2 specifically is the browser-based dashboard chat pane (it uses a POSIX PTY — classic CLI and gateway both run natively).

After installation:

source ~/.bashrc    # reload shell (or: source ~/.zshrc)
hermes              # start chatting!

Getting Started

hermes              # Interactive CLI — start a conversation
hermes model        # Choose your LLM provider and model
hermes tools        # Configure which tools are enabled
hermes config set   # Set individual config values
hermes gateway      # Start the messaging gateway (Telegram, Discord, etc.)
hermes setup        # Run the full setup wizard (configures everything at once)
hermes claw migrate # Migrate from OpenClaw (if coming from OpenClaw)
hermes update       # Update to the latest version
hermes doctor       # Diagnose any issues

📖 Full documentation →

CLI vs Messaging Quick Reference

Hermes has two entry points: start the terminal UI with hermes, or run the gateway and talk to it from Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, or Email. Once you're in a conversation, many slash commands are shared across both interfaces.

Action	CLI	Messaging platforms
Start chatting	`hermes`	Run `hermes gateway setup` + `hermes gateway start`, then send the bot a message
Start fresh conversation	`/new` or `/reset`	`/new` or `/reset`
Change model	`/model [provider:model]`	`/model [provider:model]`
Set a personality	`/personality [name]`	`/personality [name]`
Retry or undo the last turn	`/retry`, `/undo`	`/retry`, `/undo`
Compress context / check usage	`/compress`, `/usage`, `/insights [--days N]`	`/compress`, `/usage`, `/insights [days]`
Browse skills	`/skills` or `/<skill-name>`	`/<skill-name>`
Interrupt current work	`Ctrl+C` or send a new message	`/stop` or send a new message
Platform-specific status	`/platforms`	`/status`, `/sethome`

For the full command lists, see the CLI guide and the Messaging Gateway guide.

Documentation

All documentation lives at hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs:

Section	What's Covered
Quickstart	Install → setup → first conversation in 2 minutes
CLI Usage	Commands, keybindings, personalities, sessions
Configuration	Config file, providers, models, all options
Messaging Gateway	Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Home Assistant
Security	Command approval, DM pairing, container isolation
Tools & Toolsets	40+ tools, toolset system, terminal backends
Skills System	Procedural memory, Skills Hub, creating skills
Memory	Persistent memory, user profiles, best practices
MCP Integration	Connect any MCP server for extended capabilities
Cron Scheduling	Scheduled tasks with platform delivery
Context Files	Project context that shapes every conversation
Architecture	Project structure, agent loop, key classes
Contributing	Development setup, PR process, code style
CLI Reference	All commands and flags
Environment Variables	Complete env var reference

Migrating from OpenClaw

If you're coming from OpenClaw, Hermes can automatically import your settings, memories, skills, and API keys.

During first-time setup: The setup wizard (hermes setup) automatically detects ~/.openclaw and offers to migrate before configuration begins.

Anytime after install:

hermes claw migrate              # Interactive migration (full preset)
hermes claw migrate --dry-run    # Preview what would be migrated
hermes claw migrate --preset user-data   # Migrate without secrets
hermes claw migrate --overwrite  # Overwrite existing conflicts

What gets imported:

SOUL.md — persona file
Memories — MEMORY.md and USER.md entries
Skills — user-created skills → ~/.hermes/skills/openclaw-imports/
Command allowlist — approval patterns
Messaging settings — platform configs, allowed users, working directory
API keys — allowlisted secrets (Telegram, OpenRouter, OpenAI, Anthropic, ElevenLabs)
TTS assets — workspace audio files
Workspace instructions — AGENTS.md (with --workspace-target)

See hermes claw migrate --help for all options, or use the openclaw-migration skill for an interactive agent-guided migration with dry-run previews.

Contributing

We welcome contributions! See the Contributing Guide for development setup, code style, and PR process.

Quick start for contributors — clone and go with setup-hermes.sh:

git clone https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent.git
cd hermes-agent
./setup-hermes.sh     # installs uv, creates venv, installs .[all], symlinks ~/.local/bin/hermes
./hermes              # auto-detects the venv, no need to `source` first

Manual path (equivalent to the above):

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
uv venv .venv --python 3.11
source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install -e ".[all,dev]"
scripts/run_tests.sh

RL Training (optional): The RL/Atropos integration (environments/) — see CONTRIBUTING.md for the full setup.

Community

💬 Discord
📚 Skills Hub
🐛 Issues
🔌 HermesClaw — Community WeChat bridge: Run Hermes Agent and OpenClaw on the same WeChat account.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Built by Nous Research.

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