The docs were ambiguous about whether the Docker terminal backend spins up
a fresh container per command or reuses a long-lived one. It's the latter
— Hermes starts one container on first use and routes every terminal,
file, and execute_code call through docker exec into that same container
for the life of the process (across /new, /reset, and delegate_task
subagents). Working-directory changes, installed packages, and files in
/workspace persist from one tool call to the next, like a local shell.
- configuration.md: lead the Docker Backend section with the persistence
model before the YAML example; sharpen the Backend Overview table row.
- features/tools.md: expand the Docker Backend block (previously just a
2-line YAML stub) with a clear statement of the persistent-container
semantics and a pointer to the full lifecycle section.
- docker.md: tighten the 'Docker as a terminal backend' bullet and the
'Skills and credential files' paragraph to call out the single-container
model explicitly.
Adds an optional dashboard side-process to the container entrypoint,
toggled by `HERMES_DASHBOARD=1` (also accepts `true` / `yes`). When set,
the entrypoint backgrounds `hermes dashboard` before `exec`-ing the main
command so the user's chosen foreground process (gateway, chat, `sleep
infinity`, …) remains PID-of-interest for the container runtime.
docker run -d \
-v ~/.hermes:/opt/data \
-p 8642:8642 -p 9119:9119 \
-e HERMES_DASHBOARD=1 \
nousresearch/hermes-agent gateway run
Defaults chosen for the container case:
- Host: 0.0.0.0 (reachable through published port; can override to
127.0.0.1 via HERMES_DASHBOARD_HOST for sidecar/reverse-proxy setups)
- Port: 9119 (matches `hermes dashboard`)
- Auto-adds `--insecure` when binding to non-localhost, matching the
dashboard's own safety gate for exposing API keys
- HERMES_DASHBOARD_TUI is read by `hermes dashboard` directly — no
entrypoint plumbing needed
Dashboard output is prefixed with `[dashboard]` via `stdbuf`+`sed -u` so
it's easy to separate from gateway logs in `docker logs`. No supervision:
if the dashboard crashes it stays down until the container restarts
(documented in the `:::note` panel).
Other changes bundled in:
- Deprecate GATEWAY_HEALTH_URL / GATEWAY_HEALTH_TIMEOUT env vars in
hermes_cli/web_server.py with a DEPRECATED block comment and a
`.. deprecated::` note on _probe_gateway_health. The feature still
works for this release; it'll be removed alongside the move to a
first-class dashboard config key.
- Rewrite the "Running the dashboard" doc section around the new
single-container pattern. Drops the previously-documented
dashboard-as-its-own-container setup — that pattern relied on the
deprecated env vars for cross-container gateway-liveness detection,
and without them the dashboard would permanently report the gateway
as "not running".
- Collapse the two-service Compose example (gateway + dashboard
container) into a single service with HERMES_DASHBOARD=1. Removes
the now-unnecessary bridge network and `depends_on`.
- Drop the ":::warning" caveat about "Running a dashboard container
alongside the gateway is safe" — that case no longer exists.
Broad drift audit against origin/main (b52b63396).
Reference pages (most user-visible drift):
- slash-commands: add /busy, /curator, /footer, /indicator, /redraw, /steer
that were missing; drop non-existent /terminal-setup; fix /q footnote
(resolves to /queue, not /quit); extend CLI-only list with all 24
CLI-only commands in the registry
- cli-commands: add dedicated sections for hermes curator / fallback /
hooks (new subcommands not previously documented); remove stale
hermes honcho standalone section (the plugin registers dynamically
via hermes memory); list curator/fallback/hooks in top-level table;
fix completion to include fish
- toolsets-reference: document the real 52-toolset count; split browser
vs browser-cdp; add discord / discord_admin / spotify / yuanbao;
correct hermes-cli tool count from 36 to 38; fix misleading claim
that hermes-homeassistant adds tools (it's identical to hermes-cli)
- tools-reference: bump tool count 55 -> 68; add 7 Spotify, 5 Yuanbao,
2 Discord toolsets; move browser_cdp/browser_dialog to their own
browser-cdp toolset section
- environment-variables: add 40+ user-facing HERMES_* vars that were
undocumented (--yolo, --accept-hooks, --ignore-*, inference model
override, agent/stream/checkpoint timeouts, OAuth trace, per-platform
batch tuning for Telegram/Discord/Matrix/Feishu/WeCom, cron knobs,
gateway restart/connect timeouts); dedupe the Cron Scheduler section;
replace stale QQ_SANDBOX with QQ_PORTAL_HOST
User-guide (top level):
- cli.md: compression preserves last 20 turns, not 4 (protect_last_n: 20)
- configuration.md: display.platforms is the canonical per-platform
override key; tool_progress_overrides is deprecated and auto-migrated
- profiles.md: model.default is the config key, not model.model
- sessions.md: CLI/TUI session IDs use 6-char hex, gateway uses 8
- checkpoints-and-rollback.md: destructive-command list now matches
_DESTRUCTIVE_PATTERNS (adds rmdir, cp, install, dd)
- docker.md: the container runs as non-root hermes (UID 10000) via
gosu; fix install command (uv pip); add missing --insecure on the
dashboard compose example (required for non-loopback bind)
- security.md: systemctl danger pattern also matches 'restart'
- index.md: built-in tool count 47 -> 68
- integrations/index.md: 6 STT providers, 8 memory providers
- integrations/providers.md: drop fictional dashscope/qwen aliases
Features:
- overview.md: 9 image models (not 8), 9 TTS providers (not 5),
8 memory providers (Supermemory was missing)
- tool-gateway.md: 9 image models
- tools.md: extend common-toolsets list with search / messaging /
spotify / discord / debugging / safe
- fallback-providers.md: add 6 real providers from PROVIDER_REGISTRY
(lmstudio, kimi-coding-cn, stepfun, alibaba-coding-plan,
tencent-tokenhub, azure-foundry)
- plugins.md: Available Hooks table now includes on_session_finalize,
on_session_reset, subagent_stop
- built-in-plugins.md: add the 7 bundled plugins the page didn't
mention (spotify, google_meet, three image_gen providers, two
dashboard examples)
- web-dashboard.md: add --insecure and --tui flags
- cron.md: hermes cron create takes positional schedule/prompt, not
flags
Messaging:
- telegram.md: TELEGRAM_WEBHOOK_SECRET is now REQUIRED when
TELEGRAM_WEBHOOK_URL is set (gateway refuses to start without it
per GHSA-3vpc-7q5r-276h). Biggest user-visible drift in the batch.
- discord.md: HERMES_DISCORD_TEXT_BATCH_SPLIT_DELAY_SECONDS default
is 2.0, not 0.1
- dingtalk.md: document DINGTALK_REQUIRE_MENTION /
FREE_RESPONSE_CHATS / MENTION_PATTERNS / HOME_CHANNEL /
ALLOW_ALL_USERS that the adapter supports
- bluebubbles.md: drop fictional BLUEBUBBLES_SEND_READ_RECEIPTS env
var; the setting lives in platforms.bluebubbles.extra only
- qqbot.md: drop dead QQ_SANDBOX; add real QQ_PORTAL_HOST and
QQ_GROUP_ALLOWED_USERS
- wecom-callback.md: replace 'hermes gateway start' (service-only)
with 'hermes gateway' for first-time setup
Developer-guide:
- architecture.md: refresh tool/toolset counts (61/52), terminal
backend count (7), line counts for run_agent.py (~13.7k), cli.py
(~11.5k), main.py (~10.4k), setup.py (~3.5k), gateway/run.py
(~12.2k), mcp_tool.py (~3.1k); add yuanbao adapter, bump platform
adapter count 18 -> 20
- agent-loop.md: run_agent.py line count 10.7k -> 13.7k
- tools-runtime.md: add vercel_sandbox backend
- adding-tools.md: remove stale 'Discovery import added to
model_tools.py' checklist item (registry auto-discovery)
- adding-platform-adapters.md: mark send_typing / get_chat_info as
concrete base methods; only connect/disconnect/send are abstract
- acp-internals.md: ACP sessions now persist to SessionDB
(~/.hermes/state.db); acp.run_agent call uses
use_unstable_protocol=True
- cron-internals.md: gateway runs scheduler in a dedicated background
thread via _start_cron_ticker, not on a maintenance cycle; locking
is cross-process via fcntl.flock (Unix) / msvcrt.locking (Windows)
- gateway-internals.md: gateway/run.py ~12k lines
- provider-runtime.md: cron DOES support fallback (run_job reads
fallback_providers from config)
- session-storage.md: SCHEMA_VERSION = 11 (not 9); add migrations
10 and 11 (trigram FTS, inline-mode FTS5 re-index); add
api_call_count column to Sessions DDL; document messages_fts_trigram
and state_meta in the architecture tree
- context-compression-and-caching.md: remove the obsolete 'context
pressure warnings' section (warnings were removed for causing
models to give up early)
- context-engine-plugin.md: compress() signature now includes
focus_topic param
- extending-the-cli.md: _build_tui_layout_children signature now
includes model_picker_widget; add to default layout
Also fixed three pre-existing broken links/anchors the build warned
about (docker.md -> api-server.md, yuanbao.md -> cron-jobs.md and
tips#background-tasks, nix-setup.md -> #container-aware-cli).
Regenerated per-skill pages via website/scripts/generate-skill-docs.py
so catalog tables and sidebar are consistent with current SKILL.md
frontmatter.
docusaurus build: clean, no broken links or anchors.
The previous commit on this branch went through a layer that redacted
strings matching API-key patterns. Restore the original placeholder
values (sk-ant-..., ${ANTHROPIC_API_KEY}, etc.) that were already in
main so the diff is scoped strictly to the new Multi-profile support
section.
Clarifies that Hermes' built-in multi-profile feature is not recommended
when running under Docker. Recommends instead running one container per
profile, each bind-mounting its own host data directory as /opt/data.
Includes docker run examples, a rationale list (isolation, independent
lifecycle, port separation, concurrent-write safety), and a Compose
snippet showing two profile services side by side.
- Running in gateway mode: expose port 8642 for the API server and
health endpoint, with a note on when it's needed.
- New 'Running the dashboard' section: docker run command with
GATEWAY_HEALTH_URL and env var reference table.
- Docker Compose example: updated to include both gateway and dashboard
services with internal network connectivity (hermes-net), so the
dashboard probes the gateway via http://hermes:8642.
- Concurrent access warning: clarified that running a read-only
dashboard alongside the gateway is safe.
The docker container needs the explicit 'setup' subcommand to launch
the setup wizard. Without it, the container starts in default mode.
Co-authored-by: Omar <omar2535@users.noreply.github.com>
Cherry-picked from PR #4896 (also submitted independently as PR #5532).
Adds a complete Docker packaging for Hermes Agent:
- Dockerfile based on debian:13.4 with all deps
- Entrypoint that bootstraps .env, config.yaml, SOUL.md on first run
- CI workflow to build, test, and push to DockerHub
- Documentation for interactive, gateway, and upgrade workflows
Closes#850, #913.
Changes vs original PR:
- Removed pre-created legacy cache/platform dirs from entrypoint
(image_cache, audio_cache, pairing, whatsapp/session) — these are
now created on demand by the application using the consolidated
layout from get_hermes_dir()
- Moved docs from docs/docker.md to website/docs/user-guide/docker.md
and added to Docusaurus sidebar
Co-authored-by: benbarclay <benbarclay@users.noreply.github.com>
