Nous Portal multiplexes multiple upstream providers (DeepSeek, Kimi,
MiMo, Hermes) behind one endpoint. Before this fix, any 429 on any of
those models recorded a cross-session file breaker that blocked EVERY
model on Nous for the cooldown window -- even though the caller's
own RPM/RPH/TPM/TPH buckets were healthy. Users hit a DeepSeek V4 Pro
capacity error, restarted, switched to Kimi 2.6, and still got
'Nous Portal rate limit active -- resets in 46m 53s'.
Nous already emits the full x-ratelimit-* header suite on every
response (captured by rate_limit_tracker into agent._rate_limit_state).
We now gate the breaker on that data: trip it only when either the
429's own headers or the last-known-good state show a bucket with
remaining == 0 AND a reset window >= 60s. Upstream-capacity 429s
(healthy buckets everywhere, but upstream out of capacity) fall
through to normal retry/fallback and the breaker is never written.
Note: the in-memory 'restart TUI/gateway to clear' workaround
circulated in Discord does NOT work -- the breaker is file-backed at
~/.hermes/rate_limits/nous.json. The workaround for users still
affected by a bad state file is to delete it.
Reported in Discord by CrazyDok1 and KYSIV (Apr 2026).
When Nous returns a 429, the retry amplification chain burns up to 9
API requests per conversation turn (3 SDK retries × 3 Hermes retries),
each counting against RPH and deepening the rate limit. With multiple
concurrent sessions (cron + gateway + auxiliary), this creates a spiral
where retries keep the limit tapped indefinitely.
New module: agent/nous_rate_guard.py
- Shared file-based rate limit state (~/.hermes/rate_limits/nous.json)
- Parses reset time from x-ratelimit-reset-requests-1h, x-ratelimit-
reset-requests, retry-after headers, or error context
- Falls back to 5-minute default cooldown if no header data
- Atomic writes (tempfile + rename) for cross-process safety
- Auto-cleanup of expired state files
run_agent.py changes:
- Top-of-retry-loop guard: when another session already recorded Nous
as rate-limited, skip the API call entirely. Try fallback provider
first, then return a clear message with the reset time.
- On 429 from Nous: record rate limit state and skip further retries
(sets retry_count = max_retries to trigger fallback path)
- On success from Nous: clear the rate limit state so other sessions
know they can resume
auxiliary_client.py changes:
- _try_nous() checks rate guard before attempting Nous in the auxiliary
fallback chain. When rate-limited, returns (None, None) so the chain
skips to the next provider instead of piling more requests onto Nous.
This eliminates three sources of amplification:
1. Hermes-level retries (saves 6 of 9 calls per turn)
2. Cross-session retries (cron + gateway all skip Nous)
3. Auxiliary fallback to Nous (compression/session_search skip too)
Includes 24 tests covering the rate guard module, header parsing,
state lifecycle, and auxiliary client integration.
