ac76bbe21f
* fix(desktop): triage 24 GUI quality-of-life fixes across sidebar, composer, tool cards, messaging, and platform plumbing
A grab-bag of high-leverage UX fixes plus a few backend touches that the
GUI needs to behave correctly on Windows.
Sidebar / sessions
- Decrement $sessionsTotal on delete + archive so "Load N more" stops
claiming removed rows are still on the server.
- Hide the "Group by workspace" toggle when no unpinned sessions exist.
- Accept Cmd/Ctrl+N as a "new session" accelerator (in addition to bare
Shift+N), and render the kbd hint per-platform.
- Switch the statusbar to overflow-x-clip so untitled sessions don't
paint a horizontal scrollbar at the bottom of the window.
Messaging + Cron
- Add [-webkit-app-region: no-drag] to the page-search input so clicks
reach the field instead of routing to the OS window-drag handler.
- Replace single-letter PlatformAvatar with brand glyphs from
@icons-pack/react-simple-icons (telegram, discord, matrix, signal,
whatsapp, mattermost, wechat, qq, ...). Letter monogram fallback for
Slack / Dingtalk / Feishu / WeCom (removed from Simple Icons at brand
owner request).
- Drop the duplicate "Create first cron" button in the empty state.
Composer
- Dedupe pasted images by (name, size, lastModified, type) instead of
Blob identity; Chromium hands us the same screenshot via both
clipboard.items and clipboard.files with fresh File instances.
- Enable spellcheck on the contentEditable, configure Chromium's
spellchecker with the system locale on whenReady, and add
replaceMisspelling + "Add to dictionary" entries to the context menu.
- Render user messages through a minimal markdown pipeline (inline
backtick code + fenced ``` blocks) while keeping @file:/@image:
directive chips intact.
- max-h-[60vh] overflow-y-auto + collisionPadding on the prompt-snippet
submenu.
- Bake cursor-pointer into the <Button> primitive (with
disabled:cursor-default) and into titlebarButtonClass.
Dialogs + tabs + version
- Default DialogContent now has max-h-[85vh] overflow-y-auto so long
bodies scroll instead of falling off-screen.
- Right-rail preview tabs close on middle-click (button === 1), with an
onMouseDown swallow to suppress Chromium autoscroll.
- New refreshDesktopVersion() helper called from About mount, after
every update check, and on throttled window focus so About reflects
the just-installed binary.
Keys + Artifacts + Terminal
- Drop the global "Show advanced" toggle in KeysSettings. Provider
groups now default-expand when they have any key set.
- Extend openExternalUrl to handle file:// via shell.openPath, with
showItemInFolder fallback when the OS can't open the file.
- New lib/ansi.ts SGR parser + <AnsiText> component, applied to
terminal/execute_code tool output.
- ToolView gained stdout / stderr / rendersAnsi; tool-fallback renders
the two streams as separate labeled blocks with stderr in a neutral
tone (not destructive — many CLIs log info on stderr).
- Drop 'stderr' from ERROR_MSG_KEYS in tool-result-summary.
Paths + platform
- resolveHermesCwd skips process.cwd() when packaged and prefers a
user-configurable default project directory.
- New hermes:setting:defaultProjectDir:{get,set,pick} IPC handlers +
preload bridge + global.d.ts typing + a "Default project directory"
row in Sessions settings.
- FileOperations.delete_path(path, recursive=True) on the abstract
base; ShellFileOperations.delete_file rewritten to run a cross-
platform python3 -c snippet so deletes work on Windows shells (which
have no rm/rm -rf). Fallback to `python` when `python3` isn't on PATH.
- README troubleshooting block split into macOS/Linux + Windows
PowerShell recipes.
- Tightened renderer favicon links in index.html + added color-scheme
and theme-color meta.
Backend lifecycle (renderer-side mitigation)
- New noteSessionActivity() heartbeat + session.ts watchdog: an
8-minute silence on the stream auto-clears stuck $workingSessionIds
entries so "Session Busy" never gets permanently wedged. Wired into
useSessionStateCache so every state update refreshes the timer.
i18n spike
- docs/desktop-i18n-rfc.md scoping a future language-switcher PR
(recommends react-intl, audits IME/RTL/CJK in the composer +
chat bubbles, 4-PR rollout plan, ~3-4 eng-weeks for the first
non-English locale).
Co-authored-by: Cursor <cursoragent@cursor.com>
* fix(desktop): replace native OS scrollbar in portaled dropdown menus
Radix's DropdownMenuPrimitive.Portal renders content under document.body,
outside the `.scrollbar-dt` scope on #root. Whenever a menu's max-height
clipped its content (even by a pixel — common for the composer "+" menu
that opens upward near the bottom of the window), the user saw the OS's
chunky native scrollbar painted across the whole menu.
Bake a thin, slot-styled scrollbar onto DropdownMenuContent and
DropdownMenuSubContent via [scrollbar-width:thin] + WebKit pseudo-element
arbitrary variants. The submenu also gets a max-h tied to
--radix-dropdown-menu-content-available-height so long snippet lists scroll
cleanly instead of running off the bottom of the viewport. Drop the now-
redundant max-h-[60vh] override on the prompt-snippet submenu.
Co-authored-by: Cursor <cursoragent@cursor.com>
* fix(desktop): unbork dropdown menu — submenu opens, parent isn't a circle
Two regressions from the previous dropdown-scrollbar fix:
- The parent menu rendered as a rounded oval. Long Tailwind v4 arbitrary-
variant strings like [&::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb]:rounded-full inside a
cn() call were being mis-resolved so the `rounded-full` leaked onto the
menu container itself. Replaced the whole tower of arbitrary variants
with a real `.dt-portal-scrollbar` class in styles.css that mirrors what
`.scrollbar-dt` already does for #root descendants. Plain CSS, no Tailwind
parser ambiguity.
- The Prompt snippets submenu didn't open. Radix publishes
--radix-dropdown-menu-content-available-height on Content but NOT on
SubContent, so the `max-h` bound to that variable computed to 0 and the
submenu collapsed to zero height. Switched SubContent to a fixed
max-h-80 (≈20rem) which is plenty for a snippet list and never collapses.
Co-authored-by: Cursor <cursoragent@cursor.com>
* fix(desktop): promote prompt snippets from Radix submenu to a real Dialog
The submenu refused to open when the parent dropdown was anchored at the
bottom of the window (composer "+" button) — Radix's collision detection +
SubContent positioning was fighting us. Rather than keep tuning side /
sideOffset / collisionPadding / max-h until something stuck, replace the
DropdownMenuSub with a clicked DropdownMenuItem that opens a proper
Dialog.
Side benefits over the submenu:
- Each snippet gets a description line, so a glance is enough to pick one.
- Focus management is handled by Dialog automatically.
- Easy to grow (search, custom user snippets, categories) without
another round of Radix positioning bugs.
Also extract types/interfaces to the bottom of the file per workspace
convention.
Co-authored-by: Cursor <cursoragent@cursor.com>
* fix(desktop): move cron 'New cron' button off the top bar into the body
Reverses the previous direction on cron empty-state dedup. The body
button is more discoverable for first-time users (it's anchored next to
the "No scheduled jobs yet" copy that explains the feature) and frees
the top bar from a global CTA that wasn't pulling its weight.
- Empty (zero jobs): EmptyState renders the "Create first cron" button
again, like the original design.
- Empty (search filtered out all jobs): no button, just "Try a broader
search query" copy.
- Has jobs: small inline header above the list shows `N/M active` plus
a single "New cron" button (right-aligned). The rows themselves
already cover edit/pause/trigger/delete, so this is the only "create"
affordance.
Also drop the dead `<div className="hidden">…</div>` enabledCount line
the previous patch left behind; the count is now visible in the new
header instead of hidden.
Co-authored-by: Cursor <cursoragent@cursor.com>
* fix(desktop): address Copilot review on PR 37536
- sessions-settings: guard the WHOLE bridge call rather than chaining
`?.settings.foo().then(...)` — the latter throws when
`window.hermesDesktop` is undefined (non-Electron / Vitest contexts)
because the chain short-circuits to `undefined.then(...)`.
- file_operations: drop `Path.unlink(missing_ok=True)` (Py>=3.8) so the
generated delete snippet still works on remote backends running
Python 3.7. The existing FileNotFoundError handler covers the same
case and works back to 3.4.
- ansi.test.ts: add focused Vitest coverage for the SGR parser
(basic/bright colors, bold toggles, default-fg reset, coalescing,
256-color / truecolor arg consumption, non-SGR CSI drop, empty SGR
full-reset) so future refactors can't silently regress terminal
rendering.
Co-authored-by: Cursor <cursoragent@cursor.com>
* fix(desktop/updates): swallow refreshDesktopVersion bridge errors
`refreshDesktopVersion()` is called best-effort with `void` from
`checkUpdates()`, `startUpdatePoller()`, and the window focus handler.
If the IPC bridge rejects (main process shutting down during reload,
bridge not yet ready on first paint), the rejection surfaces as an
unhandled promise rejection in the renderer. Wrap the call in try/catch
and return null on failure so callers can keep the existing
fire-and-forget pattern safely.
Co-authored-by: Cursor <cursoragent@cursor.com>
* chore(desktop): drop work duplicated by other in-flight PRs
- composer/text-utils.ts: revert paste-image dedupe — PR #37596
ships the same fix with a cleaner content-key approach and a
Vitest file (text-utils.test.ts). Letting that PR own the change.
- docs/desktop-i18n-rfc.md: delete the i18n scoping RFC — PR #37568
has already shipped a working i18n surface (homegrown nanostores
`t()` helper over en/zh dictionaries), so the RFC's framework
recommendation (`react-intl`) is now obsolete and would just
contradict the implementation that's actually landing.
Co-authored-by: Cursor <cursoragent@cursor.com>
---------
Co-authored-by: Cursor <cursoragent@cursor.com>
Hermes Desktop ☤
The native desktop app for Hermes Agent — the self-improving AI agent from Nous Research. Same agent, same skills, same memory as the CLI and gateway, in a polished native window — chat with streaming tool output, side-by-side previews, a file browser, voice, and settings, no terminal required. Available for macOS, Windows, and Linux.
| Chat with the full agent | Streaming responses, live tool activity, structured tool summaries, and the same conversation history as every other Hermes surface. |
| Side-by-side previews | Render web pages, files, and tool outputs in a right-hand pane while you keep chatting. |
| File browser | Explore and preview the working directory without leaving the app. |
| Voice | Talk to Hermes and hear it back. |
| Settings & onboarding | Manage providers, models, tools, and credentials from a real UI. First-run setup gets you to your first message in seconds. |
| Stays current | Built-in updates pull the latest agent and rebuild the app in place. |
Install
Install with Hermes (recommended)
Add --include-desktop to the one-line installer and it sets up the agent and builds the desktop app in one go:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/main/scripts/install.sh | bash -s -- --include-desktop
Already have the Hermes CLI? Just run:
hermes desktop
It builds and launches the GUI against your existing install — same config, keys, sessions, and skills. On first launch Hermes walks you through picking a provider and model; nothing else to configure.
Prebuilt installers
When a release ships desktop installers they're attached to its releases page — .dmg (macOS), .exe / .msi (Windows), .AppImage / .deb / .rpm (Linux). These are published manually, so the install-with-Hermes path above is the most reliable way to get the latest.
Updating
The app checks for updates in the background and offers a one-click update when one is ready. You can also update any time from the CLI:
hermes update
Requirements
The installer handles everything for you (Python 3.11+, a portable Git, ripgrep). The only thing worth knowing:
- Windows — the installer bundles its own Git and Python; no admin rights or system changes required.
- macOS / Linux — uses your system Python 3.11+ (installed automatically if missing).
Development
Want to hack on the app itself? Install workspace deps from the repo root once, then run the dev server from this directory:
npm install # from repo root — links apps/desktop, web, apps/shared
cd apps/desktop
npm run dev # Vite renderer + Electron, which boots the Python backend
Point the app at a specific source checkout, or sandbox it away from your real config:
HERMES_DESKTOP_HERMES_ROOT=/path/to/clone npm run dev
HERMES_HOME=/tmp/throwaway npm run dev
npm run dev:fake-boot # exercise the startup overlay with deterministic delays
Building installers
npm run dist:mac # DMG + zip
npm run dist:win # NSIS + MSI
npm run dist:linux # AppImage + deb + rpm
npm run pack # unpacked app under release/ (no installer)
Installers are built and uploaded to GitHub Releases manually. macOS/Windows signing & notarization happen automatically when the relevant credentials are present in the environment (CSC_LINK / CSC_KEY_PASSWORD / APPLE_* for macOS, WIN_CSC_* for Windows).
How it works
The packaged app ships only the Electron shell. On first launch it installs the Hermes Agent runtime into HERMES_HOME (~/.hermes, or %LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes on Windows) — the same layout a CLI install uses, so the two are interchangeable. The renderer (React, in src/) talks to a hermes dashboard --tui backend over the standard gateway APIs and reuses the embedded TUI rather than reimplementing chat. The install, backend-resolution, and self-update logic all live in electron/main.cjs.
Verification
Run before opening a PR (lint may surface pre-existing warnings but must exit cleanly):
npm run fix
npm run type-check
npm run lint
npm run test:desktop:all
Troubleshooting
Boot logs land in HERMES_HOME/logs/desktop.log (includes backend output and recent Python tracebacks) — check it first if the app reports a boot failure.
macOS / Linux:
# Force a clean first-launch setup
rm "$HOME/.hermes/hermes-agent/.hermes-bootstrap-complete"
# Rebuild a broken Python venv
rm -rf "$HOME/.hermes/hermes-agent/venv"
# Reset a stuck macOS microphone prompt (macOS only)
tccutil reset Microphone com.nousresearch.hermes
Windows (PowerShell):
# Force a clean first-launch setup
Remove-Item "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\hermes\hermes-agent\.hermes-bootstrap-complete"
# Rebuild a broken Python venv
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\hermes\hermes-agent\venv"
The default Hermes home on Windows is
%LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes. Set theHERMES_HOMEenv var if you've relocated it.
Community
- 💬 Discord
- 📖 Documentation
- 🐛 Issues
License
MIT — see LICENSE.
Built by Nous Research.