hermes-agent/website/docs/user-guide/features/built-in-plugins.md

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12	Built-in Plugins	Built-in Plugins	Plugins shipped with Hermes Agent that run automatically via lifecycle hooks — disk-cleanup and friends

Built-in Plugins

Hermes ships a small set of plugins bundled with the repository. They live under <repo>/plugins/<name>/ and load automatically alongside user-installed plugins in ~/.hermes/plugins/. They use the same plugin surface as third-party plugins — hooks, tools, slash commands — just maintained in-tree.

See the Plugins page for the general plugin system, and Build a Hermes Plugin to write your own.

How discovery works

The PluginManager scans four sources, in order:

1. Bundled — <repo>/plugins/<name>/ (what this page documents)
2. User — ~/.hermes/plugins/<name>/
3. Project — ./.hermes/plugins/<name>/ (requires HERMES_ENABLE_PROJECT_PLUGINS=1)
4. Pip entry points — hermes_agent.plugins

On name collision, later sources win — a user plugin named disk-cleanup would replace the bundled one.

plugins/memory/ and plugins/context_engine/ are deliberately excluded from bundled scanning. Those directories use their own discovery paths because memory providers and context engines are single-select providers configured through hermes memory setup / context.engine in config.

Bundled plugins are opt-in

Bundled plugins ship disabled. Discovery finds them (they appear in hermes plugins list and the interactive hermes plugins UI), but none load until you explicitly enable them:

hermes plugins enable disk-cleanup

Or via ~/.hermes/config.yaml:

plugins:
  enabled:
    - disk-cleanup

This is the same mechanism user-installed plugins use. Bundled plugins are never auto-enabled — not on fresh install, not for existing users upgrading to a newer Hermes. You always opt in explicitly.

To turn a bundled plugin off again:

hermes plugins disable disk-cleanup
# or: remove it from plugins.enabled in config.yaml

Currently shipped

The repo ships these bundled plugins under plugins/. All are opt-in — enable them via hermes plugins enable <name>.

Plugin	Kind	Purpose
disk-cleanup	hooks + slash command	Auto-track ephemeral files and clean them on session end
observability/langfuse	hooks	Trace turns / LLM calls / tools to Langfuse
spotify	backend (7 tools)	Native Spotify playback, queue, search, playlists, albums, library
google_meet	standalone	Join Meet calls, live-caption transcription, optional realtime duplex audio
image_gen/openai	image backend	OpenAI gpt-image-2 image generation backend (alternative to FAL)
image_gen/openai-codex	image backend	OpenAI image generation via Codex OAuth
image_gen/xai	image backend	xAI grok-2-image backend
hermes-achievements	dashboard tab	Steam-style collectible badges generated from your real Hermes session history
example-dashboard	dashboard example	Reference dashboard plugin for Extending the Dashboard
strike-freedom-cockpit	dashboard skin	Sample custom dashboard skin

Memory providers (plugins/memory/*) and context engines (plugins/context_engine/*) are listed separately on Memory Providers — they're managed through hermes memory and hermes plugins respectively. The full per-plugin detail for the two long-running hooks-based plugins follows.

disk-cleanup

Auto-tracks and removes ephemeral files created during sessions — test scripts, temp outputs, cron logs, stale chrome profiles — without requiring the agent to remember to call a tool.

How it works:

Hook	Behaviour
post_tool_call	When write_file / terminal / patch creates a file matching test_*, tmp_*, or *.test.* inside HERMES_HOME or /tmp/hermes-*, track it silently as test / temp / cron-output.
on_session_end	If any test files were auto-tracked during the turn, run the safe quick cleanup and log a one-line summary. Stays silent otherwise.

Deletion rules:

Category	Threshold	Confirmation
test	every session end	Never
temp	>7 days since tracked	Never
cron-output	>14 days since tracked	Never
empty dirs under HERMES_HOME	always	Never
research	>30 days, beyond 10 newest	Always (deep only)
chrome-profile	>14 days since tracked	Always (deep only)
files >500 MB	never auto	Always (deep only)

Slash command — /disk-cleanup available in both CLI and gateway sessions:

/disk-cleanup status                     # breakdown + top-10 largest
/disk-cleanup dry-run                    # preview without deleting
/disk-cleanup quick                      # run safe cleanup now
/disk-cleanup deep                       # quick + list items needing confirmation
/disk-cleanup track <path> <category>    # manual tracking
/disk-cleanup forget <path>              # stop tracking (does not delete)

State — everything lives at $HERMES_HOME/disk-cleanup/:

File	Contents
tracked.json	Tracked paths with category, size, and timestamp
tracked.json.bak	Atomic-write backup of the above
cleanup.log	Append-only audit trail of every track / skip / reject / delete

Safety — cleanup only ever touches paths under HERMES_HOME or /tmp/hermes-*. Windows mounts (/mnt/c/...) are rejected. Well-known top-level state dirs (logs/, memories/, sessions/, cron/, cache/, skills/, plugins/, disk-cleanup/ itself) are never removed even when empty — a fresh install does not get gutted on first session end.

Enabling: hermes plugins enable disk-cleanup (or check the box in hermes plugins).

Disabling again: hermes plugins disable disk-cleanup.

observability/langfuse

Traces Hermes turns, LLM calls, and tool invocations to Langfuse — an open-source LLM observability platform. One span per turn, one generation per API call, one tool observation per tool call. Usage totals, per-type token counts, and cost estimates come out of Hermes' canonical agent.usage_pricing numbers, so the Langfuse dashboard sees the same breakdown (input / output / cache_read_input_tokens / cache_creation_input_tokens / reasoning_tokens) that appears in hermes logs.

The plugin is fail-open: no SDK installed, no credentials, or a transient Langfuse error — all turn into a silent no-op in the hook. The agent loop is never impacted.

Setup (interactive — recommended):

hermes tools          # → Langfuse Observability → Cloud or Self-Hosted

The wizard collects your keys, pip installs the langfuse SDK, and adds observability/langfuse to plugins.enabled for you. Restart Hermes and the next turn ships a trace.

Setup (manual):

pip install langfuse
hermes plugins enable observability/langfuse

Then put the credentials in ~/.hermes/.env:

HERMES_LANGFUSE_PUBLIC_KEY=pk-lf-...
HERMES_LANGFUSE_SECRET_KEY=sk-lf-...
HERMES_LANGFUSE_BASE_URL=https://cloud.langfuse.com   # or your self-hosted URL

How it works:

Hook	Behaviour
pre_api_request / pre_llm_call	Open (or reuse) a per-turn root span "Hermes turn". Start a generation child observation for this API call with serialized recent messages as input.
post_api_request / post_llm_call	Close the generation, attach usage_details, cost_details, finish_reason, assistant output + tool calls. If no tool calls and non-empty content, close the turn.
pre_tool_call	Start a tool child observation with sanitized args.
post_tool_call	Close the tool observation with sanitized result. read_file payloads get summarized (head + tail + omitted-line count) so a huge file read stays under HERMES_LANGFUSE_MAX_CHARS.

Session grouping keys off the Hermes session ID (or task ID for sub-agents) via langfuse.propagate_attributes, so everything in a single hermes chat session lives under one Langfuse session.

Verify:

hermes plugins list                 # observability/langfuse should show "enabled"
hermes chat -q "hello"              # check the Langfuse UI for a "Hermes turn" trace

Optional tuning (in .env):

Variable	Default	Purpose
HERMES_LANGFUSE_ENV	—	Environment tag on traces (production, staging, …)
HERMES_LANGFUSE_RELEASE	—	Release/version tag
HERMES_LANGFUSE_SAMPLE_RATE	1.0	Sampling rate passed to the SDK (0.0–1.0)
HERMES_LANGFUSE_MAX_CHARS	12000	Per-field truncation for message content / tool args / tool results
HERMES_LANGFUSE_DEBUG	false	Verbose plugin logging to agent.log

Hermes-prefixed and standard SDK env vars (LANGFUSE_PUBLIC_KEY, LANGFUSE_SECRET_KEY, LANGFUSE_BASE_URL) are both accepted — Hermes-prefixed wins when both are set.

Performance: the Langfuse client is cached after the first hook call. If credentials or SDK are missing, that decision is also cached — subsequent hooks fast-return without re-checking env vars or reloading config.

Disabling: hermes plugins disable observability/langfuse. The plugin module is still discovered, but no module code runs until you re-enable.

google_meet

Lets the agent join, transcribe, and participate in Google Meet calls — take notes on a meeting, summarize the back-and-forth after, follow up on specific points, and (optionally) speak replies back into the call via TTS.

What it adds:

• A headless virtual participant that joins a Meet URL using browser automation
• Live transcription of the meeting audio via the configured STT provider
• A meet_summarize / meet_speak / meet_followup toolset the agent invokes to act on what it heard
• Post-meeting artifacts (transcript, speaker-attributed notes, action items) saved under ~/.hermes/cache/google_meet/<meeting_id>/

Setup:

hermes plugins enable google_meet
# Prompts you to sign in via the plugin's OAuth flow on first use —
# needs a Google account with Meet access. Host approval may be required
# if the meeting enforces "only invited participants can join".

Usage from chat:

"Join meet.google.com/abc-defg-hij and take notes. After the call, send me a summary with action items."

The agent kicks off the meeting join, streams the transcription back into its context as the call proceeds, and produces a structured summary when the meeting ends (or when you tell it to stop).

When to use it: recurring standups where you want a bot to transcribe + summarize for async attendees; deposition-style interviews where you want structured notes; any case where you'd otherwise need Fireflies / Otter / Grain. When you'd rather not have an AI listening in — don't enable it.

Disabling: hermes plugins disable google_meet. Any cached transcripts and recordings stay in ~/.hermes/cache/google_meet/ until you remove them.

hermes-achievements

Adds a Steam-style achievements tab to the dashboard — 60+ collectible, tiered badges generated from your real Hermes session history. Tool-chain feats, debugging patterns, vibe-coding streaks, skill/memory usage, model/provider variety, lifestyle quirks (weekend and night sessions). Originally authored by @PCinkusz as an external plugin; brought in-tree so it stays in lockstep with Hermes feature changes.

How it works:

• Scans your entire ~/.hermes/state.db session history on the dashboard backend
• Per-session stats are cached by (started_at, last_active) fingerprint, so only new or changed sessions re-analyze on subsequent scans
• First-ever scan runs in a background thread — the dashboard never blocks waiting for it, even on databases with thousands of sessions
• Unlock state is persisted to $HERMES_HOME/plugins/hermes-achievements/state.json

Tier progression: Copper → Silver → Gold → Diamond → Olympian. Each card exposes a "What counts" section listing the exact metric being tracked.

Achievement states:

State	Meaning
Unlocked	At least one tier achieved
Discovered	Known achievement, progress visible, not yet earned
Secret	Hidden until Hermes detects the first related signal in your history

API — routes mount under /api/plugins/hermes-achievements/:

Endpoint	Purpose
GET /achievements	Full catalog with per-badge unlock state (returns a pending placeholder while the first cold scan is running)
GET /scan-status	State of the background scanner: idle / running / failed, last duration, run count
GET /recent-unlocks	Twenty most recently unlocked badges, newest first
GET /sessions/{id}/badges	Badges earned primarily in one specific session
POST /rescan	Manual synchronous rescan (blocks; use when the user clicks the rescan button)
POST /reset-state	Clear unlock history and cached snapshot

State files — live under $HERMES_HOME/plugins/hermes-achievements/:

File	Contents
state.json	Unlock history: which badges you've earned and when. Stable across Hermes updates.
scan_snapshot.json	Last completed scan payload (served immediately on dashboard load)
scan_checkpoint.json	Per-session stats cache keyed by fingerprint (makes warm rescans fast)

Performance notes:

• Cold scan on ~8,000 sessions takes a few minutes. It runs in a background thread on first dashboard request; the UI sees a pending placeholder and polls /scan-status.
• Incremental results during a cold scan — the scanner publishes a partial snapshot every ~250 sessions so each dashboard refresh shows more badges unlocked as the scan progresses. No minute-long stare at zeros.
• Warm rescan reuses per-session stats for every session whose started_at + last_active fingerprint matches the checkpoint — completes in seconds even on large histories.
• The in-memory snapshot TTL is 120s; stale requests serve the old snapshot immediately and kick a background refresh. You never wait on a spinner just because TTL expired.

Enabling: Nothing to enable — hermes-achievements is a dashboard-only plugin (no lifecycle hooks, no model-visible tools). It auto-registers as a tab in hermes dashboard on first launch. The plugins.enabled config only gates lifecycle/tool plugins; dashboard plugins are discovered purely via their dashboard/manifest.json.

Opting out: Delete or rename plugins/hermes-achievements/dashboard/manifest.json, or override it with a user plugin of the same name in ~/.hermes/plugins/hermes-achievements/ that ships no dashboard. The plugin's state files under $HERMES_HOME/plugins/hermes-achievements/ survive — reinstalling preserves your unlock history.

Adding a bundled plugin

Bundled plugins are written exactly like any other Hermes plugin — see Build a Hermes Plugin. The only differences are:

• Directory lives at <repo>/plugins/<name>/ instead of ~/.hermes/plugins/<name>/
• Manifest source is reported as bundled in hermes plugins list
• User plugins with the same name override the bundled version

A plugin is a good candidate for bundling when:

• It has no optional dependencies (or they're already pip install .[all] deps)
• The behaviour benefits most users and is opt-out rather than opt-in
• The logic ties into lifecycle hooks that the agent would otherwise have to remember to invoke
• It complements a core capability without expanding the model-visible tool surface

Counter-examples — things that should stay as user-installable plugins, not bundled: third-party integrations with API keys, niche workflows, large dependency trees, anything that would meaningfully change agent behaviour by default.