hermes-agent/website
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
..
docs feat(windows): close native-Windows install gaps — crash-free startup, UTF-8 stdio, tzdata dep, docs 2026-05-08 14:27:40 -07:00
i18n/zh-Hans/docusaurus-plugin-content-docs/current/user-guide docs(i18n): add zh-Hans Tool Gateway, image gen, and Windows WSL guide 2026-05-05 14:14:03 -07:00
scripts docs(skills): explain restoring bundled skills 2026-05-05 13:46:20 -07:00
src docs(website): add User Stories and Use Cases collage page (#18282) 2026-04-30 23:56:59 -07:00
static feat(models): add paid tencent/hy3-preview route on OpenRouter (#21077) 2026-05-07 06:34:48 -07:00
.gitignore docs: publish llms.txt and llms-full.txt for agent-friendly ingestion (#18276) 2026-04-30 23:17:14 -07:00
docusaurus.config.ts docs(i18n): add zh-Hans Tool Gateway, image gen, and Windows WSL guide 2026-05-05 14:14:03 -07:00
package-lock.json docs: stabilize website diagrams 2026-03-14 22:49:57 -07:00
package.json feat(profile): shareable profile distributions via git (#20831) 2026-05-08 10:04:32 -07:00
README.md docs: replace ASCII diagrams with Mermaid/lists, add linting note 2026-03-21 17:58:30 -07:00
sidebars.ts docs(teams-pipeline): cron renewal recipe, sidebar wiring, skill rewrite 2026-05-08 12:41:41 -07:00
tsconfig.json feat: add documentation website (Docusaurus) 2026-03-05 05:24:55 -08:00

Website

This website is built using Docusaurus, a modern static website generator.

Installation

yarn

Local Development

yarn start

This command starts a local development server and opens up a browser window. Most changes are reflected live without having to restart the server.

Build

yarn build

This command generates static content into the build directory and can be served using any static contents hosting service.

Deployment

Using SSH:

USE_SSH=true yarn deploy

Not using SSH:

GIT_USER=<Your GitHub username> yarn deploy

If you are using GitHub pages for hosting, this command is a convenient way to build the website and push to the gh-pages branch.

Diagram Linting

CI runs ascii-guard to lint docs for ASCII box diagrams. Use Mermaid (````mermaid`) or plain lists/tables instead of ASCII boxes to avoid CI failures.