hermes-agent/apps/desktop
brooklyn! d65b513f23
feat(desktop): hover-reveal collapsed sidebars as fixed overlays (#41670)
* feat(desktop): hover-reveal collapsed chat sidebar as a fixed overlay

When the sessions sidebar is collapsed, hovering the left edge now floats
it back in as a fixed overlay over the main content instead of just being
hidden. The collapsed grid track stays at 0px so the panel never reserves
space — it slides over whatever's underneath and retracts on pointer-leave.

- PaneShell: new hoverReveal prop. When a pane is collapsed + hoverReveal,
  render an edge hot-zone + a side-anchored floating panel (absolute, full
  height, honors any persisted resize width) that slides in on hover/focus.
- ChatSidebar: force the (otherwise opacity-0 when collapsed) sidebar fully
  visible + interactive while the overlay is revealed, via an
  in-data-[pane-hover-reveal=open] variant.
- desktop-controller: opt the chat-sidebar pane into hoverReveal.

* feat(desktop): lower window minWidth 900→400

Lets the window shrink to a narrow rail (e.g. for the collapsed
hover-reveal sidebar) instead of being floored at 900px.

* fix(desktop): render full sidebar content in hover-reveal overlay

The hover-reveal overlay showed only the nav rail — session rows, search,
pinned/recents were gated behind `sidebarOpen` (false while collapsed), so
they never mounted in the floated panel.

Add a $sidebarRevealed store the PaneShell overlay drives via a new
onHoverRevealChange callback, and gate ChatSidebar's content on
`sidebarOpen || sidebarRevealed` (contentVisible) instead of raw open
state. The overlay now shows the complete sidebar.

* fix(desktop): drop shadow on hover-reveal sidebar overlay

* feat(desktop): hover-reveal the file-browser sidebar too

The reveal mechanism already lives in the shared Pane primitive — the
right rail just opts in with hoverReveal. Its content renders
unconditionally, so (unlike the chat sidebar) it needs no extra
content-visibility gating.

* clean(desktop): tighten hover-reveal pane code

KISS pass — flatten the translate ternary, derive a single `revealed`,
inline the edge style, drop the redundant set-guard, and trim comments to
the house one-liner style. No behavior change.

* fix(desktop): stop hiding sidebar nav labels on narrow windows

The nav labels (New session, Skills, …) and the ⌘N hint were gated on a
viewport breakpoint (max-[46.25rem]:hidden), so shrinking the window hid
them even when the sidebar itself was wide — including in the hover-reveal
overlay. Drop the gate; the label already truncates (min-w-0 flex-1) so it
ellipsizes gracefully in a narrow rail, and contentVisible already hides it
when collapsed to the icon rail.

* feat(desktop): auto-collapse both sidebars below 600px into hover-reveal

Add a Pane `forceCollapsed` prop — collapses the track without writing to
the store (so the saved open state restores when the window widens) while
keeping hoverReveal alive (unlike `disabled`, which suppresses it).

desktop-controller watches (max-width: 600px) and force-collapses the chat
sidebar + file browser, so on a narrow window both rails get out of the way
and the hover-reveal overlay becomes the way in.

* feat(desktop): hover-intent + refined easing for sidebar reveal

- Gate the reveal on pointer velocity: the full-height edge hot-zone now
  only arms on a slow, deliberate pass (<=0.55 px/ms). Fast sweeps toward
  the titlebar/statusbar — or off the window — blow past the threshold and
  never trigger, so the wide hit area stops being a nuisance.
- Swap the slide easing to cubic-bezier(0.32,0.72,0,1) at 260ms (snappy-out,
  soft-land) for a more serious-app feel.

* fix(desktop): don't reveal sidebar during window resize

Resizing the window parks the cursor on the screen edge and fires slow
pointermoves over the hot-zone, reading as deliberate intent. Guard the
reveal on (a) e.buttons !== 0 — any button-held drag, incl. edge-resize —
and (b) a 250ms cooldown after any window resize event.

* feat(desktop): hoverIntent-style poll gate + inert contents during slide

Replace the single-sample velocity check (too eager — fired on any one slow
move, incl. resize drift) with a port of Brian Cherne's hoverIntent: poll
the pointer every 90ms and only arm once it has *settled* (moved <5px between
two consecutive polls inside the edge zone). Fly-bys, pass-throughs, and
resize drift never produce two close samples in a row, so they don't trigger.

Also keep the revealed panel's CONTENTS pointer-events-none until the slide-in
transition finishes (onTransitionEnd → settled), so you can't misclick a
session row mid-animation. Resets on retract.

* fix(desktop): no cursor/hit-test leak before reveal settles

The edge hot-zone showed cursor:pointer the instant the pointer touched it —
before the panel was armed or in view. And contents were inert but the panel
itself still hit-tested, so the cursor could flip mid-slide. Fix: hot-zone is
cursor-default (it's invisible), and the whole panel is pointer-events-none
until revealed && settled, so the cursor never changes or lands on a row
before the slide-in finishes.

* fix(desktop): geometry-driven close so revealed panel always retracts

The revealed panel relied on its own onPointerLeave to close — but a panel
that slid in under a still cursor (or whose contents were inert during the
slide) never fires enter/leave, so it got stuck open (esp. the file browser).
onTransitionEnd also bubbled from the file-tree's own row transitions,
tripping the settled flag wrongly.

Replace with a document-level pointermove watcher that closes once the cursor
leaves the panel's bounding rect + a 24px grace — independent of pointer-events
state or what the contents do. Gate interactivity on a simple slide-duration
timer (interactive) instead of the fragile transitionEnd, so the cursor still
can't flip or land on a row before the panel is in view.

* feat(desktop): make sidebar toggle shortcuts reveal when force-collapsed

mod+b / mod+j were no-ops on a narrow (force-collapsed) window — they
flipped the store but the pane ignores it. Now the toggle handlers also
dispatch PANE_TOGGLE_REVEAL_EVENT; a force-collapsed Pane listens (only while
overlayActive) and flips its hover-reveal, so the shortcut floats the rail in
(and back out) at this responsive breakpoint.

* refactor(desktop): name the 600px sidebar collapse breakpoint

Hoist the inline '(max-width: 600px)' literal into
SIDEBAR_COLLAPSE_BREAKPOINT_PX + SIDEBAR_COLLAPSE_MEDIA_QUERY in
layout-constants, so the responsive collapse point is a single named source
of truth instead of a magic string in the controller.

* tweak(desktop): sidebar auto-collapse breakpoint 600px -> 768px

768 is the standard md breakpoint and a more honest 'no room to dock' point.

* tweak(desktop): halve sidebar reveal slide duration 260ms -> 130ms

* Revert "tweak(desktop): halve sidebar reveal slide duration 260ms -> 130ms"

This reverts commit 6009a13200.

* perf(desktop): pre-mount hover-reveal contents to kill slide-in stall

The reveal mounted the (heavy, virtualized) sidebar contents in the same
frame the slide started, so the browser stalled painting the transform until
the mount finished — a ~100-200ms beat before the panel moved, very visible
on the instant keyboard toggle (hover masked it via the 90ms intent poll).

Report overlayActive (collapsed-overlay mode) rather than the live reveal
state to the mount consumer, so contents stay mounted off-screen while
collapsed and reveal is a pure transform. Visibility is still driven
separately by the data-pane-hover-reveal attr + the slide transform.

* fix(desktop): make reveal hotkey spammable

Two throttles on the reveal toggle:
- The handler fired both the reveal event AND toggleSidebarOpen() per press;
  the store write hits localStorage synchronously every keystroke + recomputes
  the grid, janking rapid presses. When collapsed, only dispatch the reveal
  event (the store toggle was a no-op anyway).
- The geometry close-watcher slammed a keyboard-opened panel shut on the first
  stray pointermove (trackpad jitter), fighting hotkey spam. Keyboard reveals
  now ignore geometry until the cursor actually enters the panel, then the
  mouse takes over.

* fix(desktop): inset reveal hot-zone past the OS window-resize gutter

The hot-zone sat flush at the window edge (left-0/right-0), overlapping the
OS resize grab strip — reaching to drag-resize naturally slows the cursor
there, which hoverIntent reads as settled and reveals before the resize drag
even starts. Inset the hot-zone 8px so the outermost edge stays a pure
resize/drag region and only an intentful move just inside it arms a reveal.

* fix(desktop): keep reveal hot-zone at edge, gate arming past resize gutter

Insetting the hot-zone made it unreachable when moving fast. Instead, anchor
the zone flush at the edge (w-4, always captures the pointer) but only ARM the
reveal when the cursor settles >=8px in from the edge — so a resize-reach that
parks on the outermost OS grab strip never triggers, while a deliberate move
into the zone still does. Keeps polling while in the gutter so moving inward
still arms.

* refactor(desktop): rebuild hover-reveal as pure CSS, delete the JS state machine

The hand-rolled pointer state machine (hoverIntent poll, refs, timers, document
pointermove geometry-close, interactive gate, resize cooldowns, keyboard-held
suppression) was fragile and side/instance-specific — hover broke on the right
rail, keyboard toggles triggered phantom animations, resize popped it open.

Replace all of it with the native primitive: CSS group-hover drives the slide
transform; a transition-delay on enter (instant on leave) is the hover-intent
gate (a fast pass-by doesn't dwell long enough to open); a thin edge trigger
inset past the OS resize grab strip arms it; and a single `forced` bool
(data-forced, toggled by the keyboard event) pins it open. Side-agnostic by
construction — group-hover doesn't care which edge or which pane.

Net: ~200 lines of imperative pointer logic → ~40 lines of declarative CSS.

* fix(desktop): don't animate hover-reveal panel across viewport on side flip

Flipping panes changed the off-screen transform from -translateX (off the
left) to +translateX (off the right). transition-transform interpolated
between them, passing through translate-x-0 (fully on-screen) mid-way — so the
hidden panel visibly slid across the window to reach its new hiding spot.
Key the panel on side so it remounts off-screen on the new edge with no
transition to play.

* clean(desktop): tighten hover-reveal markup

KISS pass on the CSS-driven reveal: reuse the existing `side` instead of a
local `left`, move the static duration/ease to inline style (drop two
single-use CSS vars + their arbitrary-value classes, keep only the
state-dependent enter-delay var), and trim comments to the house one-liner
density. No behavior change.

* fix(desktop): inset titlebar past traffic lights when sidebar is force-collapsed

The titlebar content inset (clearing the macOS traffic lights) keyed off the
stored sidebarOpen/fileBrowserOpen, but below the collapse breakpoint both
rails are force-collapsed so the left edge is uncovered while the store still
says open — content (the intro wordmark) overflowed under the lights. Gate
leftEdgePaneOpen on !narrowViewport using the shared SIDEBAR_COLLAPSE_MEDIA_QUERY.

Also rename the now-misleading reveal plumbing to match what it actually does:
onHoverRevealChange -> onOverlayActiveChange, $sidebarRevealed ->
$sidebarOverlayMounted (+ setter/consumer). It reports/stores collapsed-overlay
mode (mount gate), not live reveal state.

* feat(desktop): small --nous-shadow lift on revealed hover-reveal panels

Add a --nous-shadow token (white-based on light, black-based on dark) and apply
it to the floating sidebar panel only while revealed (group-hover / data-forced)
so it reads as lifted off the surface. No shadow on the off-screen panel.

* feat(desktop): shadow-reveal lift on revealed hover-reveal panels

Mirror the --shadow-nous layered falloff into a new --shadow-reveal token whose
drop color flips per mode (white on light, black on dark) via --shadow-reveal-raw
set in :root / :root.dark. Apply the generated shadow-reveal utility to the
floated panel only while revealed (group-hover / data-forced). Leaves the shared
--shadow-nous untouched.

* feat(desktop): use tuned reveal shadow, drop per-mode token

Replace the --shadow-reveal token machinery with Brooklyn's tuned literal
(0 -18px 18px -5px #0000003b) inline per-panel via --reveal-shadow, y-offset
sign flipped for the right side. Same color both modes. Reverts styles.css to
pristine (token removed).

* fix(desktop): use the reveal shadow verbatim, don't invert it per side

Flipping the y-offset sign for the right side inverted the shadow's direction
(cast-up -> cast-down), making it read heavier — not a mirror. The mirror axis
for a left/right panel is offset-x, which is 0 here, so both sides take the
tuned value as-is: 0 -18px 18px -5px #0000003b.

* clean(desktop): hoist reveal shadow to a named const

Move the inline reveal-shadow literal to HOVER_REVEAL_SHADOW alongside the
other HOVER_REVEAL_* tuning consts; drop the now-stale per-side comment.

* fix(desktop): truncate titlebar title before the right tool cluster

The session title used a hardcoded max-w-[52vw] that's blind to where the
right-side tools start, so it ran under them at narrow widths / with pane
tools present. Bound the title container by the same vars the titlebar drag
region uses (--titlebar-content-inset + --titlebar-tools-right +
--titlebar-tools-width) so it truncates exactly at the cluster's left edge.

* fix(desktop): responsive markdown tables — floor width + nowrap headers

The wrapper had overflow-x-auto but the table was w-full with auto layout, so
instead of scrolling it crushed columns until even header words broke mid-word
(Tim/e, Nig/ht). Add a min-w-[18rem] floor so it scrolls horizontally when the
column is narrower than readable, and whitespace-nowrap on th so headers never
break mid-word. Above the floor it still wraps cells naturally.

* fix intro
2026-06-07 22:41:21 -05:00
..
assets Add Hermes desktop app (#20059) 2026-05-31 17:46:56 -05:00
electron feat(desktop): hover-reveal collapsed sidebars as fixed overlays (#41670) 2026-06-07 22:41:21 -05:00
public feat(desktop): unified overlay design system, BrandMark & onboarding redesign (#40708) 2026-06-06 16:32:47 -05:00
scripts fix(desktop): recover from corrupt cached Electron download on build 2026-06-04 07:17:33 -07:00
src feat(desktop): hover-reveal collapsed sidebars as fixed overlays (#41670) 2026-06-07 22:41:21 -05:00
.prettierrc Add Hermes desktop app (#20059) 2026-05-31 17:46:56 -05:00
components.json Add Hermes desktop app (#20059) 2026-05-31 17:46:56 -05:00
DESIGN.md docs(desktop): add DESIGN.md design-system guide + close two consistency gaps (#40823) 2026-06-06 22:13:17 +00:00
eslint.config.mjs Add Hermes desktop app (#20059) 2026-05-31 17:46:56 -05:00
index.html fix(desktop): triage batch of GUI quality-of-life fixes (#37536) 2026-06-02 16:33:22 -04:00
package.json feat: uninstall the Chat GUI without removing the agent (CLI + desktop UI) (#40355) 2026-06-06 18:22:38 -07:00
preview-demo.html Add Hermes desktop app (#20059) 2026-05-31 17:46:56 -05:00
README.md docs: remove --include-desktop install instructions (#39762) 2026-06-05 06:53:58 -07:00
tsconfig.json Add Hermes desktop app (#20059) 2026-05-31 17:46:56 -05:00
vite.config.ts fix(desktop): pin empty PostCSS config so Vite stops walking up the home tree (#40609) 2026-06-07 18:10:32 -07:00

Hermes Desktop ☤

Download Documentation Discord License: MIT

The native desktop app for Hermes Agent — the self-improving AI agent from Nous Research. Same agent, same skills, same memory as the CLI and gateway, in a polished native window — chat with streaming tool output, side-by-side previews, a file browser, voice, and settings, no terminal required. Available for macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Chat with the full agentStreaming responses, live tool activity, structured tool summaries, and the same conversation history as every other Hermes surface.
Side-by-side previewsRender web pages, files, and tool outputs in a right-hand pane while you keep chatting.
File browserExplore and preview the working directory without leaving the app.
VoiceTalk to Hermes and hear it back.
Settings & onboardingManage providers, models, tools, and credentials from a real UI. First-run setup gets you to your first message in seconds.
Stays currentBuilt-in updates pull the latest agent and rebuild the app in place.

Install

Already have the Hermes CLI? Just run:

hermes desktop

It builds and launches the GUI against your existing install — same config, keys, sessions, and skills. On first launch Hermes walks you through picking a provider and model; nothing else to configure.

Prebuilt installers

Prebuilt installers are built and distributed via the Hermes Desktop website..


Updating

The app checks for updates in the background and offers a one-click update when one is ready. You can also update any time from the CLI:

hermes update

Requirements

The installer handles everything for you (Python 3.11+, a portable Git, ripgrep).


Development

Want to hack on the app itself? Install workspace deps from the repo root once, then run the dev server from this directory:

npm install          # from repo root — links apps/desktop, web, apps/shared
cd apps/desktop
npm run dev          # Vite renderer + Electron, which boots the Python backend

Point the app at a specific source checkout, or sandbox it away from your real config:

HERMES_DESKTOP_HERMES_ROOT=/path/to/clone npm run dev
HERMES_HOME=/tmp/throwaway npm run dev
npm run dev:fake-boot   # exercise the startup overlay with deterministic delays

Building installers

npm run dist:mac     # DMG + zip
npm run dist:win     # NSIS + MSI
npm run dist:linux   # AppImage + deb + rpm
npm run pack         # unpacked app under release/ (no installer)

Installers are built and uploaded to GitHub Releases manually. macOS/Windows signing & notarization happen automatically when the relevant credentials are present in the environment (CSC_LINK / CSC_KEY_PASSWORD / APPLE_* for macOS, WIN_CSC_* for Windows).

How it works

The packaged app ships only the Electron shell. On first launch it installs the Hermes Agent runtime into HERMES_HOME (~/.hermes, or %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes on Windows) — the same layout a CLI install uses, so the two are interchangeable. The renderer (React, in src/) talks to a hermes dashboard backend over the standard gateway APIs and reuses the embedded TUI rather than reimplementing chat. The install, backend-resolution, and self-update logic all live in electron/main.cjs.

Verification

Run before opening a PR (lint may surface pre-existing warnings but must exit cleanly):

npm run fix
npm run type-check
npm run lint
npm run test:desktop:all

Troubleshooting

Boot logs land in HERMES_HOME/logs/desktop.log (includes backend output and recent Python tracebacks) — check it first if the app reports a boot failure.

macOS / Linux:

# Force a clean first-launch setup
rm "$HOME/.hermes/hermes-agent/.hermes-bootstrap-complete"
# Rebuild a broken Python venv
rm -rf "$HOME/.hermes/hermes-agent/venv"
# Reset a stuck macOS microphone prompt (macOS only)
tccutil reset Microphone com.nousresearch.hermes

Windows (PowerShell):

# Force a clean first-launch setup
Remove-Item "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\hermes\hermes-agent\.hermes-bootstrap-complete"
# Rebuild a broken Python venv
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\hermes\hermes-agent\venv"

The default Hermes home on Windows is %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes. Set the HERMES_HOME env var if you've relocated it.


Community


License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Built by Nous Research.