> The intelligence release — background task auto-notifications, free MiMo v2 Pro on Nous Portal, live model switching across all platforms, self-optimized GPT/Codex guidance, native Google AI Studio, smart inactivity timeouts, approval buttons, MCP OAuth 2.1, and 209 merged PRs with 82 resolved issues.
- **Background Process Auto-Notifications (`notify_on_complete`)** — Background tasks can now automatically notify the agent when they finish. Start a long-running process (AI model training, test suites, deployments, builds) and the agent gets notified on completion — no polling needed. The agent can keep working on other things and pick up results when they land. ([#5779](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5779))
- **Free Xiaomi MiMo v2 Pro on Nous Portal** — Nous Portal now supports the free-tier Xiaomi MiMo v2 Pro model for auxiliary tasks (compression, vision, summarization), with free-tier model gating and pricing display in model selection. ([#6018](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/6018), [#5880](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5880))
- **Live Model Switching (`/model` Command)** — Switch models and providers mid-session from CLI, Telegram, Discord, Slack, or any gateway platform. Aggregator-aware resolution keeps you on OpenRouter/Nous when possible, with automatic cross-provider fallback when needed. Interactive model pickers on Telegram and Discord with inline buttons. ([#5181](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5181), [#5742](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5742))
- **Self-Optimized GPT/Codex Tool-Use Guidance** — The agent diagnosed and patched 5 failure modes in GPT and Codex tool calling through automated behavioral benchmarking, dramatically improving reliability on OpenAI models. Includes execution discipline guidance and thinking-only prefill continuation for structured reasoning. ([#6120](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/6120), [#5414](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5414), [#5931](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5931))
- **Google AI Studio (Gemini) Native Provider** — Direct access to Gemini models through Google's AI Studio API. Includes automatic models.dev registry integration for real-time context length detection across any provider. ([#5577](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5577))
- **Inactivity-Based Agent Timeouts** — Gateway and cron timeouts now track actual tool activity instead of wall-clock time. Long-running tasks that are actively working will never be killed — only truly idle agents time out. ([#5389](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5389), [#5440](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5440))
- **Approval Buttons on Slack & Telegram** — Dangerous command approval via native platform buttons instead of typing `/approve`. Slack gets thread context preservation; Telegram gets emoji reactions for approval status. ([#5890](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5890), [#5975](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5975))
- **MCP OAuth 2.1 PKCE + OSV Malware Scanning** — Full standards-compliant OAuth for MCP server authentication, plus automatic malware scanning of MCP extension packages via the OSV vulnerability database. ([#5420](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5420), [#5305](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5305))
- **Centralized Logging & Config Validation** — Structured logging to `~/.hermes/logs/` (agent.log + errors.log) with the `hermes logs` command for tailing and filtering. Config structure validation catches malformed YAML at startup before it causes cryptic failures. ([#5430](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5430), [#5426](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5426))
- **Plugin System Expansion** — Plugins can now register CLI subcommands, receive request-scoped API hooks with correlation IDs, prompt for required env vars during install, and hook into session lifecycle events (finalize/reset). ([#5295](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5295), [#5427](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5427), [#5470](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5470), [#6129](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/6129))
- **Matrix Tier 1 & Platform Hardening** — Matrix gets reactions, read receipts, rich formatting, and room management. Discord adds channel controls and ignored channels. Signal gets full MEDIA: tag delivery. Mattermost gets file attachments. Comprehensive reliability fixes across all platforms. ([#5275](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5275), [#5975](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5975), [#5602](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5602))
- **Security Hardening Pass** — Consolidated SSRF protections, timing attack mitigations, tar traversal prevention, credential leakage guards, cron path traversal hardening, and cross-session isolation. Terminal workdir sanitization across all backends. ([#5944](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5944), [#5613](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5613), [#5629](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5629))
---
## 🏗️ Core Agent & Architecture
### Provider & Model Support
- **Native Google AI Studio (Gemini) provider** with models.dev integration for automatic context length detection ([#5577](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5577))
- **`/model` command — full provider+model system overhaul** — live switching across CLI and all gateway platforms with aggregator-aware resolution ([#5181](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5181))
- **Interactive model picker for Telegram and Discord** — inline button-based model selection ([#5742](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5742))
- **Nous Portal free-tier model gating** with pricing display in model selection ([#5880](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5880))
- **Model pricing display** for OpenRouter and Nous Portal providers ([#5416](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5416))
- **xAI (Grok) prompt caching** via `x-grok-conv-id` header ([#5604](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5604))
- **Grok added to tool-use enforcement models** for direct xAI usage ([#5595](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5595))
- **Non-agentic model warning** — warns users when loading Hermes LLM models not designed for tool use ([#5378](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5378))
- **Ollama Cloud auth, /model switch persistence**, and alias tab completion ([#5269](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5269))
- **Preserve dots in OpenCode Go model names** (minimax-m2.7, glm-4.5, kimi-k2.5) ([#5597](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5597))
- **MiniMax models 404 fix** — strip /v1 from Anthropic base URL for OpenCode Go ([#4918](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/4918))
- **Provider credential reset windows** honored in pooled failover ([#5188](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5188))
- **OAuth token sync** between credential pool and credentials file ([#4981](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/4981))
- **Stale OAuth credentials** no longer block OpenRouter users on auto-detect ([#5746](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5746))
- **Codex pool entry sync** from `~/.codex/auth.json` on exhaustion — @GratefulDave ([#5610](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5610))
- **Auxiliary client payment fallback** — retry with next provider on 402 ([#5599](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5599))
- **Auxiliary client resolves named custom providers** and 'main' alias ([#5978](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5978))
- **Use mimo-v2-pro** for non-vision auxiliary tasks on Nous free tier ([#6018](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/6018))
- **Vision auto-detection** tries main provider first ([#6041](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/6041))
- **Provider re-ordering and Quick Install** — @austinpickett ([#4664](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/4664))
- **Nous OAuth access_token** no longer used as inference API key — @SHL0MS ([#5564](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5564))
- **HERMES_PORTAL_BASE_URL env var** respected during Nous login — @benbarclay ([#5745](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5745))
- **Env var overrides** for Nous portal/inference URLs ([#5419](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5419))
- **Z.AI endpoint auto-detect** via probe and cache ([#5763](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5763))
- **MiniMax context lengths, model catalog, thinking guard, aux model, and config base_url** corrections ([#6082](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/6082))
- **Community provider/model resolution fixes** — salvaged 4 community PRs + MiniMax aux URL ([#5983](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5983))
### Agent Loop & Conversation
- **Self-optimized GPT/Codex tool-use guidance** via automated behavioral benchmarking — agent self-diagnosed and patched 5 failure modes ([#6120](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/6120))
- **GPT/Codex execution discipline guidance** in system prompts ([#5414](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5414))
- **Thinking-only prefill continuation** for structured reasoning responses ([#5931](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5931))
- **Accept reasoning-only responses** without retries — set content to "(empty)" instead of infinite retry ([#5278](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5278))
- **Jittered retry backoff** — exponential backoff with jitter for API retries ([#6048](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/6048))
- **Smart thinking block signature management** — preserve and manage Anthropic thinking signatures across turns ([#6112](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/6112))
- **Coerce tool call arguments** to match JSON Schema types — fixes models that send strings instead of numbers/booleans ([#5265](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5265))
- **Save oversized tool results to file** instead of destructive truncation ([#5210](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5210))
- **Sandbox-aware tool result persistence** ([#6085](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/6085))
- **Streaming fallback** improved after edit failures ([#6110](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/6110))
- **Sanitize tool_calls for all strict APIs** (Fireworks, Mistral, etc.) — @lumethegreat ([#5183](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5183))
### Memory & Sessions
- **Supermemory memory provider** — new memory plugin with multi-container, search_mode, identity template, and env var override ([#5737](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5737), [#5933](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5933))
- **Shared thread sessions** by default — multi-user thread support across gateway platforms ([#5391](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5391))
- **Subagent sessions linked to parent** and hidden from session list ([#5309](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5309))
- **Profile-scoped memory isolation** and clone support ([#4845](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/4845))
- **Thread gateway user_id to memory plugins** for per-user scoping ([#5895](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5895))
- **CJK input, E2EE, and reconnect** fixes ([#5665](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5665))
### Signal
- **Full MEDIA: tag delivery** — send_image_file, send_voice, and send_video implemented ([#5602](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5602))
### Mattermost
- **File attachments** — set message type to DOCUMENT when post has file attachments — @nericervin ([#5609](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5609))
- **Native Windows image paste** support ([#5917](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5917))
- **--yolo and other flags** no longer silently dropped when placed before 'chat' subcommand ([#5145](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5145))
### Setup & Configuration
- **Config structure validation** — detect malformed YAML at startup with actionable error messages ([#5426](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5426))
- **Centralized logging** to `~/.hermes/logs/` — agent.log (INFO+), errors.log (WARNING+) with `hermes logs` command ([#5430](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5430))
- **Docs links added** to setup wizard sections ([#5283](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5283))
- **Execute_code on remote backends** — code execution now works on Docker, SSH, Modal, and other remote terminal backends ([#5088](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5088))
- **Exit code context** for common CLI tools in terminal results — helps agent understand what went wrong ([#5144](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5144))
- **Progressive subdirectory hint discovery** — agent learns project structure as it navigates ([#5291](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5291))
- **notify_on_complete for background processes** — get notified when long-running tasks finish ([#5779](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5779))
- **Skill config interface** — skills can declare required config.yaml settings, prompted during setup, injected at load time ([#5635](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5635))
- **Plugin CLI registration system** — plugins register their own CLI subcommands without touching main.py ([#5295](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5295))
- **Request-scoped API hooks** with tool call correlation IDs for plugins ([#5427](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5427))
- **Session lifecycle hooks** — on_session_finalize and on_session_reset for CLI + gateway ([#6129](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/6129))
- **Prompt for required env vars** during plugin install — @kshitijk4poor ([#5470](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5470))
- **Plugin name validation** — reject names that resolve to plugins root ([#5368](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5368))
- **pre_llm_call plugin context** moved to user message to preserve prompt cache ([#5146](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5146))
### New & Updated Skills
- **popular-web-designs** — 54 production website design systems ([#5194](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5194))
- **Profile-scoped Google Workspace OAuth tokens** protected ([#4910](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/4910))
### Reliability
- **Aggressive worktree and branch cleanup** to prevent accumulation ([#6134](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/6134))
- **O(n²) catastrophic backtracking** in redact regex fixed — 100x improvement on large outputs ([#4962](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/4962))
- **Runtime stability fixes** across core, web, delegate, and browser tools ([#4843](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/4843))
- **API server streaming fix** + conversation history support ([#5977](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5977))
- **OpenViking API endpoint paths** and response parsing corrected ([#5078](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5078))
---
## 🐛 Notable Bug Fixes
- **9 community bugfixes salvaged** — gateway, cron, deps, macOS launchd in one batch ([#5288](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5288))
- **Batch core bug fixes** — model config, session reset, alias fallback, launchctl, delegation, atomic writes ([#5630](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/5630))
- **Stale test skips removed**, regex backtracking, file search bug, and test flakiness ([#4969](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/4969))
