1dce908930
* fix(gateway): config.yaml wins over .env for agent/display/timezone settings
Regression from the silent config→env bridge. The bridge at module import
time is correct for max_turns (unconditional overwrite), but every other
agent.*, display.*, timezone, and security bridge key was guarded by
'if X not in os.environ' — so a stale .env entry from an old 'hermes setup'
run would shadow the user's current config.yaml indefinitely.
Symptom: agent.max_turns: 500 in config.yaml, HERMES_MAX_ITERATIONS=60
in .env from an old setup, and the gateway silently capped at 60
iterations per turn. Gateway logs confirmed api_calls never exceeded 60.
Three changes:
1. gateway/run.py: drop the 'not in os.environ' guards for all agent.*,
display.*, timezone, and security.* bridge keys. config.yaml is now
authoritative for these settings — same semantics already in place
for max_turns, terminal.*, and auxiliary.*. Also surface the bridge
failure (previously 'except Exception: pass') to stderr so operators
see bridge errors instead of silently falling back to .env.
2. gateway/run.py: INFO-log the resolved max_iterations at gateway
start so operators can verify the config→env bridge did the right
thing instead of chasing a phantom budget ceiling.
3. hermes_cli/setup.py: stop writing HERMES_MAX_ITERATIONS to .env in
the setup wizard. config.yaml is the single source of truth. Also
clean up any stale .env entry left behind by pre-fix setups.
Regression tests in tests/gateway/test_config_env_bridge_authority.py
guard each config→env key against the 'stale .env shadows config' bug.
* fix(gateway): shutdown + restart hygiene (drain timeout, false-fatal, success log)
Three issues observed in production gateway.log during a rapid restart
chain on 2026-05-02, all fixed here.
1. _send_restart_notification logged unconditional success
adapter.send() catches provider errors (e.g. Telegram 'Chat not found')
and returns SendResult(success=False); it never raises. The caller
ignored the return value and always logged 'Sent restart notification
to <chat>' at INFO, producing a misleading success line directly
below the 'Failed to send Telegram message' traceback on every boot.
Now inspects result.success and logs WARNING with the error otherwise.
2. WhatsApp bridge SIGTERM on shutdown classified as fatal error
_check_managed_bridge_exit() saw the bridge's returncode -15 (our own
SIGTERM from disconnect()) and fired the full fatal-error path,
producing 'ERROR ... WhatsApp bridge process exited unexpectedly' plus
'Fatal whatsapp adapter error (whatsapp_bridge_exited)' on every
planned shutdown, immediately before the normal '✓ whatsapp
disconnected'. Adds a _shutting_down flag that disconnect() sets
before the terminate, and _check_managed_bridge_exit() returns None
for returncode in {0, -2, -15} while shutting down. OOM-kill (137)
and other non-signal exits still hit the fatal path.
3. restart_drain_timeout default 60s → 180s
On 2026-05-02 01:43:27 a user /restart fired while three agents were
mid-API-call (82s, 112s, 154s into their turns). The 60s drain budget
expired and all three were force-interrupted. 180s covers realistic
in-flight agent turns; users on very-long-reasoning models can still
raise it further via agent.restart_drain_timeout in config.yaml.
Existing explicit user values are preserved by deep-merge.
Tests
- tests/gateway/test_restart_notification.py: two new tests assert INFO
is only logged on SendResult(success=True) and WARNING with the error
string is logged on SendResult(success=False).
- tests/gateway/test_whatsapp_connect.py: parametrized test for
returncode in {0, -2, -15} proves shutdown-time exits are suppressed;
separate test proves returncode 137 (SIGKILL/OOM) still surfaces as
fatal even when _shutting_down is set.
- _check_managed_bridge_exit() reads _shutting_down via getattr-with-
default so existing _make_adapter() test helpers that bypass __init__
(pitfall #17 in AGENTS.md) keep working unmodified.
Hermes Agent ☤
The self-improving AI agent built by Nous Research. It's the only agent with a built-in learning loop — it creates skills from experience, improves them during use, nudges itself to persist knowledge, searches its own past conversations, and builds a deepening model of who you are across sessions. Run it on a $5 VPS, a GPU cluster, or serverless infrastructure that costs nearly nothing when idle. It's not tied to your laptop — talk to it from Telegram while it works on a cloud VM.
Use any model you want — Nous Portal, OpenRouter (200+ models), NVIDIA NIM (Nemotron), Xiaomi MiMo, z.ai/GLM, Kimi/Moonshot, MiniMax, Hugging Face, OpenAI, or your own endpoint. Switch with hermes model — no code changes, no lock-in.
| A real terminal interface | Full TUI with multiline editing, slash-command autocomplete, conversation history, interrupt-and-redirect, and streaming tool output. |
| Lives where you do | Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, and CLI — all from a single gateway process. Voice memo transcription, cross-platform conversation continuity. |
| A closed learning loop | Agent-curated memory with periodic nudges. Autonomous skill creation after complex tasks. Skills self-improve during use. FTS5 session search with LLM summarization for cross-session recall. Honcho dialectic user modeling. Compatible with the agentskills.io open standard. |
| Scheduled automations | Built-in cron scheduler with delivery to any platform. Daily reports, nightly backups, weekly audits — all in natural language, running unattended. |
| Delegates and parallelizes | Spawn isolated subagents for parallel workstreams. Write Python scripts that call tools via RPC, collapsing multi-step pipelines into zero-context-cost turns. |
| Runs anywhere, not just your laptop | Six terminal backends — local, Docker, SSH, Daytona, Singularity, and Modal. Daytona and Modal offer serverless persistence — your agent's environment hibernates when idle and wakes on demand, costing nearly nothing between sessions. Run it on a $5 VPS or a GPU cluster. |
| Research-ready | Batch trajectory generation, Atropos RL environments, trajectory compression for training the next generation of tool-calling models. |
Quick Install
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/main/scripts/install.sh | bash
Works on Linux, macOS, WSL2, and Android via Termux. The installer handles the platform-specific setup for you.
Android / Termux: The tested manual path is documented in the Termux guide. On Termux, Hermes installs a curated
.[termux]extra because the full.[all]extra currently pulls Android-incompatible voice dependencies.Windows: Native Windows is not supported. Please install WSL2 and run the command above.
After installation:
source ~/.bashrc # reload shell (or: source ~/.zshrc)
hermes # start chatting!
Getting Started
hermes # Interactive CLI — start a conversation
hermes model # Choose your LLM provider and model
hermes tools # Configure which tools are enabled
hermes config set # Set individual config values
hermes gateway # Start the messaging gateway (Telegram, Discord, etc.)
hermes setup # Run the full setup wizard (configures everything at once)
hermes claw migrate # Migrate from OpenClaw (if coming from OpenClaw)
hermes update # Update to the latest version
hermes doctor # Diagnose any issues
CLI vs Messaging Quick Reference
Hermes has two entry points: start the terminal UI with hermes, or run the gateway and talk to it from Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, or Email. Once you're in a conversation, many slash commands are shared across both interfaces.
| Action | CLI | Messaging platforms |
|---|---|---|
| Start chatting | hermes |
Run hermes gateway setup + hermes gateway start, then send the bot a message |
| Start fresh conversation | /new or /reset |
/new or /reset |
| Change model | /model [provider:model] |
/model [provider:model] |
| Set a personality | /personality [name] |
/personality [name] |
| Retry or undo the last turn | /retry, /undo |
/retry, /undo |
| Compress context / check usage | /compress, /usage, /insights [--days N] |
/compress, /usage, /insights [days] |
| Browse skills | /skills or /<skill-name> |
/<skill-name> |
| Interrupt current work | Ctrl+C or send a new message |
/stop or send a new message |
| Platform-specific status | /platforms |
/status, /sethome |
For the full command lists, see the CLI guide and the Messaging Gateway guide.
Documentation
All documentation lives at hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs:
| Section | What's Covered |
|---|---|
| Quickstart | Install → setup → first conversation in 2 minutes |
| CLI Usage | Commands, keybindings, personalities, sessions |
| Configuration | Config file, providers, models, all options |
| Messaging Gateway | Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Home Assistant |
| Security | Command approval, DM pairing, container isolation |
| Tools & Toolsets | 40+ tools, toolset system, terminal backends |
| Skills System | Procedural memory, Skills Hub, creating skills |
| Memory | Persistent memory, user profiles, best practices |
| MCP Integration | Connect any MCP server for extended capabilities |
| Cron Scheduling | Scheduled tasks with platform delivery |
| Context Files | Project context that shapes every conversation |
| Architecture | Project structure, agent loop, key classes |
| Contributing | Development setup, PR process, code style |
| CLI Reference | All commands and flags |
| Environment Variables | Complete env var reference |
Migrating from OpenClaw
If you're coming from OpenClaw, Hermes can automatically import your settings, memories, skills, and API keys.
During first-time setup: The setup wizard (hermes setup) automatically detects ~/.openclaw and offers to migrate before configuration begins.
Anytime after install:
hermes claw migrate # Interactive migration (full preset)
hermes claw migrate --dry-run # Preview what would be migrated
hermes claw migrate --preset user-data # Migrate without secrets
hermes claw migrate --overwrite # Overwrite existing conflicts
What gets imported:
- SOUL.md — persona file
- Memories — MEMORY.md and USER.md entries
- Skills — user-created skills →
~/.hermes/skills/openclaw-imports/ - Command allowlist — approval patterns
- Messaging settings — platform configs, allowed users, working directory
- API keys — allowlisted secrets (Telegram, OpenRouter, OpenAI, Anthropic, ElevenLabs)
- TTS assets — workspace audio files
- Workspace instructions — AGENTS.md (with
--workspace-target)
See hermes claw migrate --help for all options, or use the openclaw-migration skill for an interactive agent-guided migration with dry-run previews.
Contributing
We welcome contributions! See the Contributing Guide for development setup, code style, and PR process.
Quick start for contributors — clone and go with setup-hermes.sh:
git clone https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent.git
cd hermes-agent
./setup-hermes.sh # installs uv, creates venv, installs .[all], symlinks ~/.local/bin/hermes
./hermes # auto-detects the venv, no need to `source` first
Manual path (equivalent to the above):
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
uv venv venv --python 3.11
source venv/bin/activate
uv pip install -e ".[all,dev]"
scripts/run_tests.sh
RL Training (optional): The RL/Atropos integration (
environments/) ships via theatroposlibandtinkerdependencies pulled in by.[all,dev]— no submodule setup required.
Community
- 💬 Discord
- 📚 Skills Hub
- 🐛 Issues
- 🔌 HermesClaw — Community WeChat bridge: Run Hermes Agent and OpenClaw on the same WeChat account.
License
MIT — see LICENSE.
Built by Nous Research.