Closes#4759, closes#4381.
Mutating actions (patch, edit, write_file, remove_file, delete) used to
refuse skills that lived under `skills.external_dirs` with 'Skill X is in
an external directory and cannot be modified. Copy it to your local skills
directory first.' Faced with that error, the agent would fall back to
action='create', which always writes under ~/.hermes/skills/ — producing
a silent duplicate of the external skill in the local store.
Fix: drop the read-only gate. `skills.external_dirs` is configured by the
user; if they pointed it at a directory, they already said 'these are my
skills, treat them the same.' Filesystem permissions handle the genuine
read-only case (write fails, agent sees the error).
- New _containing_skills_root() resolves whichever dir actually contains
the skill; _delete_skill uses it to bound empty-category cleanup so an
external root is never rmdir'd.
- _create_skill behavior is unchanged: new skills still land in local
SKILLS_DIR only. Fewer moving parts.
- Seven new TestExternalSkillMutations tests covering patch/edit/write_file/
remove_file/delete/create against a mocked two-root layout + a category
rmdir-safety check.
The "cfg.get('X', {}).get('Y', default)" pattern appears 50+ times
across tools/, gateway/, and plugins/. Each call site manually handles
the same three gotchas:
1. Missing intermediate key → empty dict → chain works
2. Non-dict value at intermediate position → AttributeError
(uncaught in most sites, so a misconfigured YAML crashes the tool)
3. cfg is None → AttributeError
Introduces cfg_get(cfg, *keys, default=None) in hermes_cli/config.py
as the canonical helper. Handles all three uniformly, returns default
only when the final key is *absent* (matches dict.get semantics —
explicit None values are preserved, falsy values like 0 / False / ''
are preserved).
Named cfg_get rather than cfg_path to avoid shadowing the existing
'cfg_path = _hermes_home / "config.yaml"' local variable that appears
in gateway/run.py, cron/scheduler.py, hermes_cli/main.py, etc.
Migrated 20 call sites as the first-batch proof-of-value:
gateway/run.py 10 sites (agent/display subtrees)
tools/browser_tool.py 3 sites
tools/vision_tools.py 2 sites
tools/browser_camofox.py 1 site
tools/approval.py 1 site
tools/skills_tool.py 1 site
tools/skill_manager_tool.py 1 site
tools/credential_files.py 1 site
tools/env_passthrough.py 1 site
The remaining ~30 sites across plugins/ and smaller tool files can be
migrated opportunistically — the helper is now available and the
pattern is established.
Fixed a latent bug along the way: tools/vision_tools.py had its
cfg_get usage at line 560 inside a function that locally re-imports
'from hermes_cli.config import load_config', but the AST-based
migration script wrote the top-level cfg_get import to a different
function scope, leaving line 560's cfg_get as a NameError silently
swallowed by the surrounding try/except. Test
test_vision_uses_configured_temperature_and_timeout caught it. Fixed
by including cfg_get in the function-local import.
Verified:
- 7880/7893 tests/tools/ + tests/gateway/ + tests/hermes_cli/test_config
tests pass; all 13 failures pre-existing on main (MCP, delegate,
session_split_brain — verified earlier in the sweep).
- All 20 migrated sites AST-verified to have cfg_get in scope (either
module-level or function-local).
- Live 'hermes chat' smoke: 2 turns + /model switch + tool calls +
/quit, zero errors. Agent correctly counted 20 cfg_get hits across
8 tool files — matching the migration.
Semantic parity verified against the original pattern across 8 edge
cases (missing keys, None values, falsy values, empty strings, string
instead of dict, None cfg, nested levels).
Adds the Curator — an auxiliary-model background task that periodically
reviews AGENT-CREATED skills and keeps the collection tidy: tracks usage,
transitions unused skills through active → stale → archived, and spawns
a forked AIAgent to consolidate overlaps and patch drift.
Default: enabled, inactivity-triggered (no cron daemon). Runs on CLI
startup and gateway boot when the last run is older than interval_hours
(default 24) AND the agent has been idle for min_idle_hours (default 2).
Invariants (all load-bearing):
- Never touches bundled or hub-installed skills (.bundled_manifest +
.hub/lock.json double-filter)
- Never auto-deletes — archive only. Archives are recoverable
via `hermes curator restore <skill>`
- Pinned skills bypass all auto-transitions
- Uses the aux client; never touches the main session's prompt cache
New files:
- tools/skill_usage.py — sidecar .usage.json telemetry, atomic writes,
provenance filter
- agent/curator.py — orchestrator: config, idle gating, state-machine
transitions (pure, no LLM), forked-agent review prompt
- hermes_cli/curator.py — `hermes curator {status,run,pause,resume,
pin,unpin,restore}` subcommand
- tests/tools/test_skill_usage.py — 29 tests
- tests/agent/test_curator.py — 25 tests
Modified files (surgical patches):
- tools/skills_tool.py — bump view_count on successful skill_view
- tools/skill_manager_tool.py — bump patch_count on skill_manage
patch/edit/write_file/remove_file; forget record on delete
- hermes_cli/config.py — add curator: section to DEFAULT_CONFIG
- hermes_cli/commands.py — add /curator CommandDef with subcommands
- hermes_cli/main.py — register `hermes curator` subparser via
register_cli() from hermes_cli.curator
- cli.py — /curator slash-command dispatch + startup hook
- gateway/run.py — gateway-boot hook (mirrors CLI)
Validation:
- 54 new tests across skill_usage + curator, all passing in 3s
- 346 tests across all touched files' neighbors green
- 2783 tests across hermes_cli/ + gateway/test_run_progress_topics.py green
- CLI smoke: `hermes curator status/pause/resume` work end-to-end
Companion to PR #16026 (class-first skill review prompt) — together
they form a loop: the review prompt stops near-duplicate skill creation
at the source, and the curator prunes/consolidates what still accumulates.
Refs #7816.
Extract the islink/realpath guard from the 16743 fix into a single
atomic_replace() helper in utils.py, then migrate every os.replace()
call site in the codebase to use it.
The original PR #16777 correctly identified and fixed the bug, but
only patched 9 of ~24 call sites. The same bug class (managed
deployments that symlink state files silently losing the link on
every write) still existed at auth.json, sessions file, gateway
config, env_loader, webhook subscriptions, debug store, model
catalog, pairing, google OAuth, nous rate guard, and more.
Rather than add another 10+ copies of the same three-line guard,
consolidate into atomic_replace(tmp, target) which:
- resolves symlinks via os.path.realpath before os.replace
- returns the resolved real path so callers can re-apply permissions
- is a drop-in replacement for os.replace at the use sites
Changes:
- utils.py: new atomic_replace() helper + atomic_json_write /
atomic_yaml_write now call it instead of inlining the guard
- 16 files: all os.replace() call sites migrated to atomic_replace()
- agent/{google_oauth, nous_rate_guard, shell_hooks}.py
- cron/jobs.py
- gateway/{pairing, session, platforms/telegram}.py
- hermes_cli/{auth, config, debug, env_loader, model_catalog, webhook}.py
- tools/{memory_tool, skill_manager_tool, skills_sync}.py
Tests: tests/test_atomic_replace_symlinks.py pins the invariant for
atomic_replace + atomic_json_write + atomic_yaml_write, covers plain
files, first-time creates, broken symlinks, and permission preservation.
Refs #16743
Builds on #16777 by @vominh1919.
os.replace(tmp, path) replaces the symlink itself with a regular file,
breaking users who symlink config.yaml, SOUL.md, or .env from ~/.hermes/
to a dotfiles repo or managed profile package.
Fix: resolve symlinks via os.path.realpath() before os.replace(), so the
real file is overwritten in-place while the symlink survives.
Fixed in 7 files covering all os.replace call sites:
- utils.py (atomic_json_write, atomic_yaml_write — fixes save_config)
- hermes_cli/config.py (env sanitizer, save_env_value, remove_env_value)
- tools/skill_manager_tool.py (_atomic_write_text — SOUL.md writes)
- tools/memory_tool.py (memory file writes)
- tools/skills_sync.py (manifest writes)
- cron/jobs.py (job state + output file writes)
- agent/shell_hooks.py (hook file writes)
FixesNousResearch/hermes-agent#16743
Replaces the blanket 'always allow' change from the previous commit with
an opt-in config flag so users who want belt-and-suspenders security can
still get the keyword scan on skill_manage output.
## Default behavior (flag off)
skill_manage(action='create'|'edit'|'patch') no longer runs the keyword
scanner. The agent can write skills that mention risky keywords in prose
(documenting what reviewers should watch for, describing cache-bust
semantics in a PR-review skill, referencing AGENTS.md, etc.) without
getting blocked.
Rationale: the agent can already execute the same code paths via
terminal() with no gate, so the scan adds friction without meaningful
security against a compromised or malicious agent.
## Opt-in behavior (flag on)
Set skills.guard_agent_created: true in config.yaml to get the original
behavior back. Scanner runs on every skill_manage write; dangerous
verdicts surface as a tool error the agent can react to (retry without
the flagged content).
## External hub installs unaffected
trusted/community sources (hermes skills install) always get scanned
regardless of this flag. The gate is specifically for skill_manage,
which only agents call.
## Changes
- hermes_cli/config.py: add skills.guard_agent_created: False to DEFAULT_CONFIG
- tools/skill_manager_tool.py: _guard_agent_created_enabled() reads the flag;
_security_scan_skill() short-circuits to None when the flag is off
- tools/skills_guard.py: restore INSTALL_POLICY['agent-created'] =
('allow', 'allow', 'ask') so the scan remains strict when it does run
- tests/tools/test_skills_guard.py: restore original ask/force tests
- tests/tools/test_skill_manager_tool.py: new TestSecurityScanGate class
covering both flag states + config error handling
## Validation
- tests/tools/test_skills_guard.py + test_skill_manager_tool.py: 115/115 pass
- E2E: flagged-keyword skill creates with default config, blocks with flag on
Follow-ups on top of @teyrebaz33's cherry-picked commit:
1. New shared helper format_no_match_hint() in fuzzy_match.py with a
startswith('Could not find') gate so the snippet only appends to
genuine no-match errors — not to 'Found N matches' (ambiguous),
'Escape-drift detected', or 'identical strings' errors, which would
all mislead the model.
2. file_tools.patch_tool suppresses the legacy generic '[Hint: old_string
not found...]' string when the rich 'Did you mean?' snippet is
already attached — no more double-hint.
3. Wire the same helper into patch_parser.py (V4A patch mode, both
_validate_operations and _apply_update) and skill_manager_tool.py so
all three fuzzy callers surface the hint consistently.
Tests: 7 new gating tests in TestFormatNoMatchHint cover every error
class (ambiguous, drift, identical, non-zero match count, None error,
no similar content, happy path). 34/34 test_fuzzy_match, 96/96
test_file_tools + test_patch_parser + test_skill_manager_tool pass.
E2E verified across all four scenarios: no-match-with-similar,
no-match-no-similar, ambiguous, success. V4A mode confirmed
end-to-end with a non-matching hunk.
* fix: show correct env var name in provider API key error (#9506)
The error message for missing provider API keys dynamically built
the env var name as PROVIDER_API_KEY (e.g. ALIBABA_API_KEY), but
some providers use different names (alibaba uses DASHSCOPE_API_KEY).
Users following the error message set the wrong variable.
Fix: look up the actual env var from PROVIDER_REGISTRY before
building the error. Falls back to the dynamic name if the registry
lookup fails.
Closes#9506
* fix: five HERMES_HOME profile-isolation leaks (#5947)
Bug A: Thread session_title from session_db to memory provider init kwargs
so honcho can derive chat-scoped session keys instead of falling back to
cwd-based naming that merges all gateway users into one session.
Bug B: Replace 14 hardcoded ~/.hermes/skills/ paths across 10 skill files
with HERMES_HOME-aware alternatives (${HERMES_HOME:-$HOME/.hermes} in
shell, os.environ.get('HERMES_HOME', ...) in Python).
Bug C: install.sh now respects HERMES_HOME env var and adds --hermes-home
flag. Previously --dir only set INSTALL_DIR while HERMES_HOME was always
hardcoded to $HOME/.hermes.
Bug D: Remove hardcoded ~/.hermes/honcho.json fallback in resolve_config_path().
Non-default profiles no longer silently inherit the default profile's honcho
config. Falls through to ~/.honcho/config.json (global) instead.
Bug E: Guard _edit_skill, _patch_skill, _delete_skill, _write_file, and
_remove_file against writing to skills found in external_dirs. Skills
outside the local SKILLS_DIR are now read-only from the agent's perspective.
Closes#5947
Tool schema descriptions and tool return values contained hardcoded
~/.hermes paths that the model sees and uses. When HERMES_HOME is set
to a custom path (Docker containers, profiles), the agent would still
reference ~/.hermes — looking at the wrong directory.
Fixes 6 locations across 5 files:
- tools/tts_tool.py: output_path schema description
- tools/cronjob_tools.py: script path schema description
- tools/skill_manager_tool.py: skill_manage schema description
- tools/skills_tool.py: two tool return messages
- agent/skill_commands.py: skill config injection text
All now use display_hermes_home() which resolves to the actual
HERMES_HOME path (e.g. /opt/data for Docker, ~/.hermes/profiles/X
for profiles, ~/.hermes for default).
Reported by: Sandeep Narahari (PrithviDevs)
- Bug 1: replace read_file(limit=10000) with read_file_raw in _apply_update,
preventing silent truncation of files >2000 lines and corruption of lines
>2000 chars; add read_file_raw to FileOperations abstract interface and
ShellFileOperations
- Bug 2: split apply_v4a_operations into validate-then-apply phases; if any
hunk fails validation, zero writes occur (was: continue after failure,
leaving filesystem partially modified)
- Bug 3: parse_v4a_patch now returns an error for begin-marker-with-no-ops,
empty file paths, and moves missing a destination (was: always returned
error=None)
- Bug 4: raise strategy 7 (block anchor) single-candidate similarity threshold
from 0.10 to 0.50, eliminating false-positive matches in repetitive code
- Bug 5: add _strategy_unicode_normalized (new strategy 7) with position
mapping via _build_orig_to_norm_map; smart quotes and em-dashes in
LLM-generated patches now match via strategies 1-6 before falling through
to fuzzy strategies
- Bug 6: extend fuzzy_find_and_replace to return 4-tuple (content, count,
error, strategy); update all 5 call sites across patch_parser.py,
file_operations.py, and skill_manager_tool.py
- Bug 7: guard in _apply_update returns error when addition-only context hint
is ambiguous (>1 occurrences); validation phase errors on both 0 and >1
- Bug 8: _apply_delete returns error (not silent success) on missing file
- Bug 9: _validate_operations checks source existence and destination absence
for MOVE operations before any write occurs
The config key skills.external_dirs and core resolution (get_all_skills_dirs,
get_external_skills_dirs in agent/skill_utils.py) already existed but several
code paths still only scanned SKILLS_DIR. Now external dirs are respected
everywhere:
- skills_categories(): scan all dirs for category discovery
- _get_category_from_path(): resolve categories against any skills root
- skill_manager_tool._find_skill(): search all dirs for edit/patch/delete
- credential_files.get_skills_directory_mount(): mount all dirs into
Docker/Singularity containers (external dirs at external_skills/<idx>)
- credential_files.iter_skills_files(): list files from all dirs for
Modal/Daytona upload
- tools/environments/ssh.py: rsync all skill dirs to remote hosts
- gateway _check_unavailable_skill(): check disabled skills across all dirs
Usage in config.yaml:
skills:
external_dirs:
- ~/repos/agent-skills/hermes
- /shared/team-skills
* feat(skills): add content size limits for agent-created skills
Agent writes via skill_manage (create/edit/patch/write_file) are now
constrained to prevent unbounded growth:
- SKILL.md and supporting files: 100,000 character limit
- Supporting files: additional 1 MiB byte limit
- Patches on oversized hand-placed skills that reduce the size are
allowed (shrink path), but patches that grow beyond the limit are
rejected
Hand-placed skills and hub-installed skills have NO hard limit —
they load and function normally regardless of size. Hub installs
get a warning in the log if SKILL.md exceeds 100k chars.
This mirrors the memory system's char_limit pattern. Without this,
the agent auto-grows skills indefinitely through iterative patches
(hermes-agent-dev reached 197k chars / 72k tokens — 40x larger than
the largest skill in the entire skills.sh ecosystem).
Constants: MAX_SKILL_CONTENT_CHARS (100k), MAX_SKILL_FILE_BYTES (1MiB)
Tests: 14 new tests covering all write paths and edge cases
* feat(skills): add fuzzy matching to skill patch
_patch_skill now uses the same 8-strategy fuzzy matching engine
(tools/fuzzy_match.py) as the file patch tool. Handles whitespace
normalization, indentation differences, escape sequences, and
block-anchor matching. Eliminates exact-match failures when agents
patch skills with minor formatting mismatches.
Validate category names in _create_skill() before using them as
filesystem path segments. Previously, categories like '../escape' or
'/tmp/pwned' could write skill files outside ~/.hermes/skills/.
Adds _validate_category() that rejects slashes, backslashes, absolute
paths, and non-alphanumeric characters (reuses existing VALID_NAME_RE).
Tests: 5 new tests for traversal, absolute paths, and valid categories.
Salvaged from PR #1939 by Gutslabs.
Centralizes two widely-duplicated patterns into hermes_constants.py:
1. get_hermes_home() — Path resolution for ~/.hermes (HERMES_HOME env var)
- Was copy-pasted inline across 30+ files as:
Path(os.getenv("HERMES_HOME", Path.home() / ".hermes"))
- Now defined once in hermes_constants.py (zero-dependency module)
- hermes_cli/config.py re-exports it for backward compatibility
- Removed local wrapper functions in honcho_integration/client.py,
tools/website_policy.py, tools/tirith_security.py, hermes_cli/uninstall.py
2. parse_reasoning_effort() — Reasoning effort string validation
- Was copy-pasted in cli.py, gateway/run.py, cron/scheduler.py
- Same validation logic: check against (xhigh, high, medium, low, minimal, none)
- Now defined once in hermes_constants.py, called from all 3 locations
- Warning log for unknown values kept at call sites (context-specific)
31 files changed, net +31 lines (125 insertions, 94 deletions)
Full test suite: 6179 passed, 0 failed
Changes the policy for agent-created skills with critical security
findings from 'block' (silently rejected) to 'ask' (allowed with
warning logged). The agent created the skill, so blocking it entirely
is too aggressive — let it through but log the findings.
- Policy: agent-created dangerous changed from block to ask
- should_allow_install returns None for 'ask' (vs True/False)
- format_scan_report shows 'NEEDS CONFIRMATION' for ask
- skill_manager_tool.py caller handles None (allows with warning)
- force=True still overrides as before
Based on PR #2271 by redhelix (closed — 3200 lines of unrelated
Mission Control code excluded).
* feat: improve memory prioritization — user preferences over procedural knowledge
Inspired by OpenAI Codex's memory prompt improvements (openai/codex#14493)
which focus memory writes on user preferences and recurring patterns
rather than procedural task details.
Key insight: 'Optimize for reducing future user steering — the most
valuable memory prevents the user from having to repeat themselves.'
Changes:
- MEMORY_GUIDANCE (prompt_builder.py): added prioritization hierarchy
and the core principle about reducing user steering
- MEMORY_SCHEMA (memory_tool.py): reordered WHEN TO SAVE list to put
corrections first, added explicit PRIORITY guidance
- Memory nudge (run_agent.py): now asks specifically about preferences,
corrections, and workflow patterns instead of generic 'anything'
- Memory flush (run_agent.py): now instructs to prioritize user
preferences and corrections over task-specific details
* feat: more aggressive skill creation and update prompting
Press harder on skill updates — the agent should proactively patch
skills when it encounters issues during use, not wait to be asked.
Changes:
- SKILLS_GUIDANCE: 'consider saving' → 'save'; added explicit instruction
to patch skills immediately when found outdated/wrong
- Skills header: added instruction to update loaded skills before finishing
if they had missing steps or wrong commands
- Skill nudge: more assertive ('save the approach' not 'consider saving'),
now also prompts for updating existing skills used in the task
- Skill nudge interval: lowered default from 15 to 10 iterations
- skill_manage schema: added 'patch it immediately' to update triggers
- Add 'emoji' field to ToolEntry and 'get_emoji()' to ToolRegistry
- Add emoji= to all 50+ registry.register() calls across tool files
- Add get_tool_emoji() helper in agent/display.py with 3-tier resolution:
skin override → registry default → hardcoded fallback
- Replace hardcoded emoji maps in run_agent.py, delegate_tool.py, and
gateway/run.py with centralized get_tool_emoji() calls
- Add 'tool_emojis' field to SkinConfig so skins can override per-tool
emojis (e.g. ares skin could use swords instead of wrenches)
- Add 11 tests (5 registry emoji, 6 display/skin integration)
- Update AGENTS.md skin docs table
Based on the approach from PR #1061 by ForgingAlex (emoji centralization
in registry). This salvage fixes several issues from the original:
- Does NOT split the cronjob tool (which would crash on missing schemas)
- Does NOT change image_generate toolset/requires_env/is_async
- Does NOT delete existing tests
- Completes the centralization (gateway/run.py was missed)
- Hooks into the skin system for full customizability
The security scanner (skills_guard.py) was only wired into the hub install path.
All other write paths to persistent state — skills created by the agent, memory
entries, cron prompts, and context files — bypassed it entirely. This closes
those gaps:
- file_operations: deny-list blocks writes to ~/.ssh, ~/.aws, ~/.hermes/.env, etc.
- code_execution_tool: filter secret env vars from sandbox child process
- skill_manager_tool: wire scan_skill() into create/edit/patch/write_file with rollback
- skills_guard: add "agent-created" trust level (same policy as community)
- memory_tool: scan content for injection/exfil before system prompt injection
- prompt_builder: scan AGENTS.md, .cursorrules, SOUL.md for prompt injection
- cronjob_tools: scan cron prompts for critical threats before scheduling
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Added a new `skill_manager_tool` to enable agents to create, update, and delete their own skills, enhancing procedural memory capabilities.
- Updated the skills directory structure to support user-created skills in `~/.hermes/skills/`, allowing for better organization and management.
- Enhanced the CLI and documentation to reflect the new skill management functionalities, including detailed instructions on creating and modifying skills.
- Implemented a manifest-based syncing mechanism for bundled skills to ensure user modifications are preserved during updates.
