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Why Local Models Lack Environment Awareness

Jun 29, 2026 · 12:16 PM
Ended: Jun 30, 2026 · 08:01 AM
Gary IndianaTeksploits
User
◆ Model: llama3.2:1b
◆ Provider: custom
◆ Context: 131K tokens (detected)
◆ Endpoint: http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1 = this was my local model, but it often seemed unaware of locally installed services or apps, why?
Assistant
That's a great question. The issue isn't that your local model (llama3.2:1b via Ollama) is "dumb" — it's that **it has no inherent knowledge of your environment**. Here's why:

## Why local models seem "unaware"

1. **No persistent memory** — Each conversation with a local LLM starts fresh. It doesn't know about your Flask apps, systemd services, nginx configs, or what you built last week unless you tell it every time.

2. **No tool access by default** — When running through Ollama's OpenAI-compatible endpoint, the model can't run shell commands, read files, or check running services. It can only generate text based on its training data.

3. **Small model size** — The 1B parameter version is quite small. It has limited reasoning capacity and a smaller context window for holding system instructions about your setup.

4. **No system prompt injection** — Unlike Hermes (which injects your memory, skills, and environment context automatically), a raw Ollama endpoint gets only whatever you send in the chat.

## How Hermes solves this

What you're using right now (Hermes Agent) is specifically designed to bridge this gap:

- **Memory** — I store facts about your services, preferences, and environment (you can see my memory panel above with your faceblur app, location service, etc.)
- **Skills** — Reusable procedures for your workflows
- **Tool access** — I can run systemctl, curl, read files, check ports, etc.
- **Session search** — I can look up past conversations about what we built

## If you want your local model to be more aware

You could:
- **Add a system prompt** in Ollama with context about your services
- **Use Hermes with the local model** as the backend (so you get tool access + memory, just with a smaller model)
- **Create a Modelfile** with environment details baked in

Want me to help set up a system prompt or Modelfile for your Ollama model that includes your key services and environment details?
User
Use Hermes with the local model as the backend (so you get tool access + memory, just with a smaller model) while adding key services and environment details.
Assistant
{"success": true, "name": "hermes-agent", "description": "Configure, extend, or contribute to Hermes Agent.", "tags": ["hermes", "setup", "configuration", "multi-agent", "spawning", "cli", "gateway", "development"], "related_skills": ["claude-code", "codex", "opencode"], "content": "---\nname: hermes-agent\ndescription: \"Configure, extend, or contribute to Hermes Agent.\"\nversion: 2.1.0\nauthor: Hermes Agent + Teknium\nlicense: MIT\nplatforms: [linux, macos, windows]\nmetadata:\n hermes:\n tags: [hermes, setup, configuration, multi-agent, spawning, cli, gateway, development]\n homepage: https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent\n related_skills: [claude-code, codex, opencode]\n---\n\n# Hermes Agent\n\nHermes Agent is an open-source AI agent framework by Nous Research that runs in your terminal, messaging platforms, and IDEs. It belongs to the same category as Claude Code (Anthropic), Codex (OpenAI), and OpenClaw — autonomous coding and task-execution agents that use tool calling to interact with your system. Hermes works with any LLM provider (OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepSeek, local models, and 15+ others) and runs on Linux, macOS, and WSL.\n\nWhat makes Hermes different:\n\n- **Self-improving through skills** — Hermes learns from experience by saving reusable procedures as skills. When it solves a complex problem, discovers a workflow, or gets corrected, it can persist that knowledge as a skill document that loads into future sessions. Skills accumulate over time, making the agent better at your specific tasks and environment.\n- **Persistent memory across sessions** — remembers who you are, your preferences, environment details, and lessons learned. Pluggable memory backends (built-in, Honcho, Mem0, and more) let you choose how memory works.\n- **Multi-platform gateway** — the same agent runs on Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Matrix, Email, and 10+ other platforms with full tool access, not just chat.\n- **Provider-agnostic** — swap models and providers mid-workflow without changing anything else. Credential pools rotate across multiple API keys automatically.\n- **Profiles** — run multiple independent Hermes instances with isolated configs, sessions, skills, and memory.\n- **Extensible** — plugins, MCP servers, custom tools, webhook triggers, cron scheduling, and the full Python ecosystem.\n\nPeople use Hermes for software development, research, system administration, data analysis, content creation, home automation, and anything else that benefits from an AI agent with persistent context and full system access.\n\n**This skill helps you work with Hermes Agent effectively** — setting it up, configuring features, spawning additional agent instances, troubleshooting issues, finding the right commands and settings, and understanding how the system works when you need to extend or contribute to it.\n\n**Docs:** https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/\n\n## Quick Start\n\n``bash\n# Install\ncurl -fsSL https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.sh | bash\n\n# Interactive chat (default)\nhermes\n\n# Single query\nhermes chat -q \"What is the capital of France?\"\n\n# Setup wizard\nhermes setup\n\n# Change model/provider\nhermes model\n\n# Check health\nhermes doctor\n`\n\n---\n\n## CLI Reference\n\n### Global Flags\n\n`\nhermes [flags] [command]\n\n --version, -V Show version\n --resume, -r SESSION Resume session by ID or title\n --continue, -c [NAME] Resume by name, or most recent session\n --worktree, -w Isolated git worktree mode (parallel agents)\n --skills, -s SKILL Preload skills (comma-separate or repeat)\n --profile, -p NAME Use a named profile\n --yolo Skip dangerous command approval\n --pass-session-id Include session ID in system prompt\n`\n\nNo subcommand defaults to chat.\n\n### Chat\n\n`\nhermes chat [flags]\n -q, --query TEXT Single query, non-interactive\n -m, --model MODEL Model (e.g. anthropic/claude-sonnet-4)\n -t, --toolsets LIST Comma-separated toolsets\n --provider PROVIDER Force provider (openrouter, anthropic, nous, etc.)\n -v, --verbose Verbose output\n -Q, --quiet Suppress banner, spinner, tool previews\n --checkpoints Enable filesystem checkpoints (/rollback)\n --source TAG Session source tag (default: cli)\n`\n\n### Configuration\n\n`\nhermes setup [section] Interactive wizard (model|terminal|gateway|tools|agent)\nhermes model Interactive model/provider picker\nhermes config View current config\nhermes config edit Open config.yaml in $EDITOR\nhermes config set KEY VAL Set a config value\nhermes config path Print config.yaml path\nhermes config env-path Print .env path\nhermes config check Check for missing/outdated config\nhermes config migrate Update config with new options\nhermes auth Interactive credential manager\nhermes auth add PROVIDER Add OAuth or API-key credential (e.g. nous, openai-codex, qwen-oauth)\nhermes auth list List stored credentials\nhermes auth remove PROVIDER Remove a stored credential\nhermes doctor [--fix] Check dependencies and config\nhermes status [--all] Show component status\n`\n\n### Tools & Skills\n\n`\nhermes tools Interactive tool enable/disable (curses UI)\nhermes tools list Show all tools and status\nhermes tools enable NAME Enable a toolset\nhermes tools disable NAME Disable a toolset\n\nhermes skills list List installed skills\nhermes skills search QUERY Search the skills hub\nhermes skills install ID Install a skill (ID can be a hub identifier OR a direct https://…/SKILL.md URL; pass --name to override when frontmatter has no name)\nhermes skills inspect ID Preview without installing\nhermes skills config Enable/disable skills per platform\nhermes skills check Check for updates\nhermes skills update Update outdated skills\nhermes skills uninstall N Remove a hub skill\nhermes skills publish PATH Publish to registry\nhermes skills browse Browse all available skills\nhermes skills tap add REPO Add a GitHub repo as skill source\n`\n\n### MCP Servers\n\n`\nhermes mcp serve Run Hermes as an MCP server\nhermes mcp add NAME Add an MCP server (--url or --command)\nhermes mcp remove NAME Remove an MCP server\nhermes mcp list List configured servers\nhermes mcp test NAME Test connection\nhermes mcp configure NAME Toggle tool selection\n`\n\nHow the built-in MCP client connects servers (stdio/HTTP), auto-discovers\ntheir tools, and exposes them as first-class tools, plus catalog install\n(hermes mcp install ): skill_view(name=\"hermes-agent\", file_path=\"references/native-mcp.md\").\n\n### Gateway (Messaging Platforms)\n\n`\nhermes gateway run Start gateway foreground\nhermes gateway install Install as background service\nhermes gateway start/stop Control the service\nhermes gateway restart Restart the service\nhermes gateway status Check status\nhermes gateway setup Configure platforms\n`\n\nSupported platforms: Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Email, SMS, Matrix, Mattermost, Home Assistant, DingTalk, Feishu, WeCom, BlueBubbles (iMessage), Weixin (WeChat), API Server, Webhooks. Open WebUI connects via the API Server adapter.\n\nPlatform docs: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/messaging/\n\n### Sessions\n\n`\nhermes sessions list List recent sessions\nhermes sessions browse Interactive picker\nhermes sessions export OUT Export to JSONL\nhermes sessions rename ID T Rename a session\nhermes sessions delete ID Delete a session\nhermes sessions prune Clean up old sessions (--older-than N days)\nhermes sessions stats Session store statistics\n`\n\n### Cron Jobs\n\n`\nhermes cron list List jobs (--all for disabled)\nhermes cron create SCHED Create: '30m', 'every 2h', '0 9 * * *'\nhermes cron edit ID Edit schedule, prompt, delivery\nhermes cron pause/resume ID Control job state\nhermes cron run ID Trigger on next tick\nhermes cron remove ID Delete a job\nhermes cron status Scheduler status\n`\n\n### Webhooks\n\n`\nhermes webhook subscribe N Create route at /webhooks/\nhermes webhook list List subscriptions\nhermes webhook remove NAME Remove a subscription\nhermes webhook test NAME Send a test POST\n`\n\nFull setup, route config, payload templating, and event-driven agent-run\npatterns: skill_view(name=\"hermes-agent\", file_path=\"references/webhooks.md\").\n\n### Profiles\n\n`\nhermes profile list List all profiles\nhermes profile create NAME Create (--clone, --clone-all, --clone-from)\nhermes profile use NAME Set sticky default\nhermes profile delete NAME Delete a profile\nhermes profile show NAME Show details\nhermes profile alias NAME Manage wrapper scripts\nhermes profile rename A B Rename a profile\nhermes profile export NAME Export to tar.gz\nhermes profile import FILE Import from archive\n`\n\n### Credential Pools\n\n`\nhermes auth add Interactive credential wizard\nhermes auth list [PROVIDER] List pooled credentials\nhermes auth remove P INDEX Remove by provider + index\nhermes auth reset PROVIDER Clear exhaustion status\n`\n\n### Other\n\n`\nhermes insights [--days N] Usage analytics\nhermes update Update to latest version\nhermes pairing list/approve/revoke DM authorization\nhermes plugins list/install/remove Plugin management\nhermes honcho setup/status Honcho memory integration (requires honcho plugin)\nhermes memory setup/status/off Memory provider config\nhermes completion bash|zsh Shell completions\nhermes acp ACP server (IDE integration)\nhermes claw migrate Migrate from OpenClaw\nhermes uninstall Uninstall Hermes\n`\n\n---\n\n## Slash Commands (In-Session)\n\nType these during an interactive chat session. New commands land fairly\noften; if something below looks stale, run /help in-session for the\nauthoritative list or see the [live slash commands reference](https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/reference/slash-commands).\nThe registry of record is hermes_cli/commands.py — every consumer\n(autocomplete, Telegram menu, Slack mapping, /help) derives from it.\n\n### Session Control\n`\n/new (/reset) Fresh session\n/clear Clear screen + new session (CLI)\n/retry Resend last message\n/undo Remove last exchange\n/title [name] Name the session\n/compress Manually compress context\n/stop Kill background processes\n/rollback [N] Restore filesystem checkpoint\n/snapshot [sub] Create or restore state snapshots of Hermes config/state (CLI)\n/background Run prompt in background\n/queue Queue for next turn\n/steer Inject a message after the next tool call without interrupting\n/agents (/tasks) Show active agents and running tasks\n/resume [name] Resume a named session\n/goal [text|sub] Set a standing goal Hermes works on across turns until achieved\n (subcommands: status, pause, resume, clear)\n/redraw Force a full UI repaint (CLI)\n`\n\n### Configuration\n`\n/config Show config (CLI)\n/model [name] Show or change model\n/personality [name] Set personality\n/reasoning [level] Set reasoning (none|minimal|low|medium|high|xhigh|show|hide)\n/verbose Cycle: off → new → all → verbose\n/voice [on|off|tts] Voice mode\n/yolo Toggle approval bypass\n/busy [sub] Control what Enter does while Hermes is working (CLI)\n (subcommands: queue, steer, interrupt, status)\n/indicator [style] Pick the TUI busy-indicator style (CLI)\n (styles: kaomoji, emoji, unicode, ascii)\n/footer [on|off] Toggle gateway runtime-metadata footer on final replies\n/skin [name] Change theme (CLI)\n/statusbar Toggle status bar (CLI)\n`\n\n### Tools & Skills\n`\n/tools Manage tools (CLI)\n/toolsets List toolsets (CLI)\n/skills Search/install skills (CLI)\n/skill Load a skill into session\n/reload-skills Re-scan ~/.hermes/skills/ for added/removed skills\n/reload Reload .env variables into the running session (CLI)\n/reload-mcp Reload MCP servers\n/cron Manage cron jobs (CLI)\n/curator [sub] Background skill maintenance (status, run, pin, archive, …)\n/kanban [sub] Multi-profile collaboration board (tasks, links, comments)\n/plugins List plugins (CLI)\n`\n\n### Gateway\n`\n/approve Approve a pending command (gateway)\n/deny Deny a pending command (gateway)\n/restart Restart gateway (gateway)\n/sethome Set current chat as home channel (gateway)\n/update Update Hermes to latest (gateway)\n/topic [sub] Enable or inspect Telegram DM topic sessions (gateway)\n/platforms (/gateway) Show platform connection status (gateway)\n`\n\n### Utility\n`\n/branch (/fork) Branch the current session\n/fast Toggle priority/fast processing\n/browser Open CDP browser connection\n/history Show conversation history (CLI)\n/save Save conversation to file (CLI)\n/copy [N] Copy the last assistant response to clipboard (CLI)\n/paste Attach clipboard image (CLI)\n/image Attach local image file (CLI)\n`\n\n### Info\n`\n/help Show commands\n/commands [page] Browse all commands (gateway)\n/usage Token usage\n/insights [days] Usage analytics\n/gquota Show Google Gemini Code Assist quota usage (CLI)\n/status Session info (gateway)\n/profile Active profile info\n/debug Upload debug report (system info + logs) and get shareable links\n`\n\n### Exit\n`\n/quit (/exit, /q) Exit CLI\n`\n\n---\n\n## Key Paths & Config\n\n`\n~/.hermes/config.yaml Main configuration\n~/.hermes/.env API keys and secrets (under $HERMES_HOME if set)\n$HERMES_HOME/skills/ Installed skills\n~/.hermes/sessions/ Gateway routing index, request dumps, *.jsonl transcripts (and optional per-session JSON snapshots when sessions.write_json_snapshots: true)\n~/.hermes/state.db Canonical session store (SQLite + FTS5)\n~/.hermes/logs/ Gateway and error logs\n~/.hermes/auth.json OAuth tokens and credential pools\n~/.hermes/hermes-agent/ Source code (if git-installed)\n`\n\nProfiles use ~/.hermes/profiles// with the same layout.\n\n### Config Sections\n\nEdit with hermes config edit or hermes config set section.key value.\n\n| Section | Key options |\n|---------|-------------|\n| model | default, provider, base_url, api_key, context_length |\n| agent | max_turns (90), tool_use_enforcement |\n| terminal | backend (local/docker/ssh/modal), cwd, timeout (180) |\n| compression | enabled, threshold (0.50), target_ratio (0.20) |\n| display | skin, tool_progress, show_reasoning, show_cost |\n| stt | enabled, provider (local/groq/openai/mistral) |\n| tts | provider (edge/elevenlabs/openai/minimax/mistral/neutts) |\n| memory | memory_enabled, user_profile_enabled, provider |\n| security | tirith_enabled, website_blocklist |\n| delegation | model, provider, base_url, api_key, max_iterations (50), reasoning_effort |\n| checkpoints | enabled, max_snapshots (50) |\n\nFull config reference: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/configuration\n\n### Providers\n\n20+ providers supported. Set via hermes model or hermes setup.\n\n| Provider | Auth | Key env var |\n|----------|------|-------------|\n| OpenRouter | API key | OPENROUTER_API_KEY |\n| Anthropic | API key | ANTHROPIC_API_KEY |\n| Nous Portal | OAuth | hermes auth |\n| OpenAI Codex | OAuth | hermes auth |\n| GitHub Copilot | Token | COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN |\n| Google Gemini | API key | GOOGLE_API_KEY or GEMINI_API_KEY |\n| DeepSeek | API key | DEEPSEEK_API_KEY |\n| xAI / Grok | API key | XAI_API_KEY |\n| Hugging Face | Token | HF_TOKEN |\n| Z.AI / GLM | API key | GLM_API_KEY |\n| MiniMax | API key | MINIMAX_API_KEY |\n| MiniMax CN | API key | MINIMAX_CN_API_KEY |\n| Kimi / Moonshot | API key | KIMI_API_KEY |\n| Alibaba / DashScope | API key | DASHSCOPE_API_KEY |\n| Xiaomi MiMo | API key | XIAOMI_API_KEY |\n| Kilo Code | API key | KILOCODE_API_KEY |\n| OpenCode Zen | API key | OPENCODE_ZEN_API_KEY |\n| OpenCode Go | API key | OPENCODE_GO_API_KEY |\n| Qwen OAuth | OAuth | hermes auth add qwen-oauth |\n| Custom endpoint | Config | model.base_url + model.api_key in config.yaml |\n| GitHub Copilot ACP | External | COPILOT_CLI_PATH or Copilot CLI |\n\nFull provider docs: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/integrations/providers\n\n### Toolsets\n\nEnable/disable via hermes tools (interactive) or hermes tools enable/disable NAME.\n\n| Toolset | What it provides |\n|---------|-----------------|\n| web | Web search and content extraction |\n| search | Web search only (subset of web) |\n| browser | Browser automation (Browserbase, Camofox, or local Chromium) |\n| terminal | Shell commands and process management |\n| file | File read/write/search/patch |\n| code_execution | Sandboxed Python execution |\n| vision | Image analysis |\n| image_gen | AI image generation |\n| video | Video analysis and generation |\n| tts | Text-to-speech |\n| skills | Skill browsing and management |\n| memory | Persistent cross-session memory |\n| session_search | Search past conversations |\n| delegation | Subagent task delegation |\n| cronjob | Scheduled task management |\n| clarify | Ask user clarifying questions |\n| messaging | Cross-platform message sending |\n| todo | In-session task planning and tracking |\n| kanban | Multi-agent work-queue tools (gated to workers) |\n| debugging | Extra introspection/debug tools (off by default) |\n| safe | Minimal, low-risk toolset for locked-down sessions |\n| spotify | Spotify playback and playlist control |\n| homeassistant | Smart home control (off by default) |\n| discord | Discord integration tools |\n| discord_admin | Discord admin/moderation tools |\n| feishu_doc | Feishu (Lark) document tools |\n| feishu_drive | Feishu (Lark) drive tools |\n| yuanbao | Yuanbao integration tools |\n| rl | Reinforcement learning tools (off by default) |\n| moa | Mixture of Agents (off by default) |\n\nFull enumeration lives in toolsets.py as the TOOLSETS dict; _HERMES_CORE_TOOLS is the default bundle most platforms inherit from.\n\nTool changes take effect on /reset (new session). They do NOT apply mid-conversation to preserve prompt caching.\n\n---\n\n## Security & Privacy Toggles\n\nCommon \"why is Hermes doing X to my output / tool calls / commands?\" toggles — and the exact commands to change them. Most of these need a fresh session (/reset in chat, or start a new hermes invocation) because they're read once at startup.\n\n### Secret redaction in tool output\n\nSecret redaction is **on by default** — tool output (terminal stdout, read_file, web content, subagent summaries, etc.) is scanned for strings that look like API keys, tokens, and secrets before it enters the conversation context and logs. Leave it enabled for normal use:\n\n`bash\nhermes config set security.redact_secrets true # keep enabled globally\n`\n\n**Restart required.** security.redact_secrets is snapshotted at import time — toggling it mid-session (e.g. via export HERMES_REDACT_SECRETS=false from a tool call) will NOT take effect for the running process. Tell the user to change it in config from a terminal, then start a new session. This is deliberate — it prevents an LLM from flipping the toggle on itself mid-task.\n\nDisable only when you deliberately need raw credential-like strings for debugging or redactor development:\n`bash\nhermes config set security.redact_secrets false\n`\n\n### PII redaction in gateway messages\n\nSeparate from secret redaction. When enabled, the gateway hashes user IDs and strips phone numbers from the session context before it reaches the model:\n\n`bash\nhermes config set privacy.redact_pii true # enable\nhermes config set privacy.redact_pii false # disable (default)\n`\n\n### Command approval prompts\n\nBy default (approvals.mode: manual), Hermes prompts the user before running shell commands flagged as destructive (rm -rf, git reset --hard, etc.). The modes are:\n\n- manual — always prompt (default)\n- smart — use an auxiliary LLM to auto-approve low-risk commands, prompt on high-risk\n- off — skip all approval prompts (equivalent to --yolo)\n\n`bash\nhermes config set approvals.mode smart # recommended middle ground\nhermes config set approvals.mode off # bypass everything (not recommended)\n`\n\nPer-invocation bypass without changing config:\n- hermes --yolo …\n- export HERMES_YOLO_MODE=1\n\nNote: YOLO / approvals.mode: off does NOT turn off secret redaction. They are independent.\n\n### Shell hooks allowlist\n\nSome shell-hook integrations require explicit allowlisting before they fire. Managed via ~/.hermes/shell-hooks-allowlist.json — prompted interactively the first time a hook wants to run.\n\n### Disabling the web/browser/image-gen tools\n\nTo keep the model away from network or media tools entirely, open hermes tools and toggle per-platform. Takes effect on next session (/reset). See the Tools & Skills section above.\n\n---\n\n## Voice & Transcription\n\n### STT (Voice → Text)\n\nVoice messages from messaging platforms are auto-transcribed.\n\nProvider priority (auto-detected):\n1. **Local faster-whisper** — free, no API key: pip install faster-whisper\n2. **Groq Whisper** — free tier: set GROQ_API_KEY\n3. **OpenAI Whisper** — paid: set VOICE_TOOLS_OPENAI_KEY\n4. **Mistral Voxtral** — set MISTRAL_API_KEY\n\nConfig:\n`yaml\nstt:\n enabled: true\n provider: local # local, groq, openai, mistral\n local:\n model: base # tiny, base, small, medium, large-v3\n`\n\n### TTS (Text → Voice)\n\n| Provider | Env var | Free? |\n|----------|---------|-------|\n| Edge TTS | None | Yes (default) |\n| ElevenLabs | ELEVENLABS_API_KEY | Free tier |\n| OpenAI | VOICE_TOOLS_OPENAI_KEY | Paid |\n| MiniMax | MINIMAX_API_KEY | Paid |\n| Mistral (Voxtral) | MISTRAL_API_KEY | Paid |\n| NeuTTS (local) | None (pip install neutts[all] + espeak-ng) | Free |\n\nVoice commands: /voice on (voice-to-voice), /voice tts (always voice), /voice off.\n\n---\n\n## Spawning Additional Hermes Instances\n\nRun additional Hermes processes as fully independent subprocesses — separate sessions, tools, and environments.\n\n### When to Use This vs delegate_task\n\n| | delegate_task | Spawning hermes process |\n|-|-----------------|--------------------------|\n| Isolation | Separate conversation, shared process | Fully independent process |\n| Duration | Minutes (bounded by parent loop) | Hours/days |\n| Tool access | Subset of parent's tools | Full tool access |\n| Interactive | No | Yes (PTY mode) |\n| Use case | Quick parallel subtasks | Long autonomous missions |\n\n### One-Shot Mode\n\n`\nterminal(command=\"hermes chat -q 'Research GRPO papers and write summary to ~/research/grpo.md'\", timeout=300)\n\n# Background for long tasks:\nterminal(command=\"hermes chat -q 'Set up CI/CD for ~/myapp'\", background=true)\n`\n\n### Interactive PTY Mode (via tmux)\n\nHermes uses prompt_toolkit, which requires a real terminal. Use tmux for interactive spawning:\n\n`\n# Start\nterminal(command=\"tmux new-session -d -s agent1 -x 120 -y 40 'hermes'\", timeout=10)\n\n# Wait for startup, then send a message\nterminal(command=\"sleep 8 && tmux send-keys -t agent1 'Build a FastAPI auth service' Enter\", timeout=15)\n\n# Read output\nterminal(command=\"sleep 20 && tmux capture-pane -t agent1 -p\", timeout=5)\n\n# Send follow-up\nterminal(command=\"tmux send-keys -t agent1 'Add rate limiting middleware' Enter\", timeout=5)\n\n# Exit\nterminal(command=\"tmux send-keys -t agent1 '/exit' Enter && sleep 2 && tmux kill-session -t agent1\", timeout=10)\n`\n\n### Multi-Agent Coordination\n\n`\n# Agent A: backend\nterminal(command=\"tmux new-session -d -s backend -x 120 -y 40 'hermes -w'\", timeout=10)\nterminal(command=\"sleep 8 && tmux send-keys -t backend 'Build REST API for user management' Enter\", timeout=15)\n\n# Agent B: frontend\nterminal(command=\"tmux new-session -d -s frontend -x 120 -y 40 'hermes -w'\", timeout=10)\nterminal(command=\"sleep 8 && tmux send-keys -t frontend 'Build React dashboard for user management' Enter\", timeout=15)\n\n# Check progress, relay context between them\nterminal(command=\"tmux capture-pane -t backend -p | tail -30\", timeout=5)\nterminal(command=\"tmux send-keys -t frontend 'Here is the API schema from the backend agent: ...' Enter\", timeout=5)\n`\n\n### Session Resume\n\n`\n# Resume most recent session\nterminal(command=\"tmux new-session -d -s resumed 'hermes --continue'\", timeout=10)\n\n# Resume specific session\nterminal(command=\"tmux new-session -d -s resumed 'hermes --resume 20260225_143052_a1b2c3'\", timeout=10)\n`\n\n### Tips\n\n- **Prefer delegate_task for quick subtasks** — less overhead than spawning a full process\n- **Use -w (worktree mode)** when spawning agents that edit code — prevents git conflicts\n- **Set timeouts** for one-shot mode — complex tasks can take 5-10 minutes\n- **Use hermes chat -q for fire-and-forget** — no PTY needed\n- **Use tmux for interactive sessions** — raw PTY mode has \\r vs \\n issues with prompt_toolkit\n- **For scheduled tasks**, use the cronjob tool instead of spawning — handles delivery and retry\n\n---\n\n## Durable & Background Systems\n\nFour systems run alongside the main conversation loop. Quick reference\nhere; full developer notes live in AGENTS.md, user-facing docs under\nwebsite/docs/user-guide/features/.\n\n### Delegation (delegate_task)\n\nSynchronous subagent spawn — the parent waits for the child's summary\nbefore continuing its own loop. Isolated context + terminal session.\n\n- **Single:** delegate_task(goal, context, toolsets).\n- **Batch:** delegate_task(tasks=[{goal, ...}, ...]) runs children in\n parallel, capped by delegation.max_concurrent_children (default 3).\n- **Roles:** leaf (default; cannot re-delegate) vs orchestrator\n (can spawn its own workers, bounded by delegation.max_spawn_depth).\n- **Not durable.** If the parent is interrupted, the child is\n cancelled. For work that must outlive the turn, use cronjob or\n terminal(background=True, notify_on_complete=True).\n\nConfig: delegation.* in config.yaml.\n\n### Cron (scheduled jobs)\n\nDurable scheduler — cron/jobs.py + cron/scheduler.py. Drive it via\nthe cronjob tool, the hermes cron CLI (list, add, edit,\npause, resume, run, remove), or the /cron slash command.\n\n- **Schedules:** duration (\"30m\", \"2h\"), \"every\" phrase\n (\"every monday 9am\"), 5-field cron (\"0 9 * * *\"), or ISO timestamp.\n- **Per-job knobs:** skills, model/provider override, script\n (pre-run data collection; no_agent=True makes the script the whole\n job), context_from (chain job A's output into job B), workdir\n (run in a specific dir with its AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md loaded),\n multi-platform delivery.\n- **Invariants:** 3-minute hard interrupt per run, .tick.lock file\n prevents duplicate ticks across processes, cron sessions pass\n skip_memory=True by default, and cron deliveries are framed with a\n header/footer instead of being mirrored into the target gateway\n session (keeps role alternation intact).\n\nUser docs: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/cron\n\n### Curator (skill lifecycle)\n\nBackground maintenance for agent-created skills. Tracks usage, marks\nidle skills stale, archives stale ones, keeps a pre-run tar.gz backup\nso nothing is lost.\n\n- **CLI:** hermes curator status, run, pause, resume,\n pin, unpin, archive, restore, prune, backup, rollback.\n- **Slash:** /curator mirrors the CLI.\n- **Scope:** only touches skills with created_by: \"agent\" provenance.\n Bundled + hub-installed skills are off-limits. **Never deletes** —\n max destructive action is archive. Pinned skills are exempt from\n every auto-transition and every LLM review pass.\n- **Telemetry:** sidecar at ~/.hermes/skills/.usage.json holds\n per-skill use_count, view_count, patch_count,\n last_activity_at, state, pinned.\n\nConfig: curator.* (enabled, interval_hours, min_idle_hours,\nstale_after_days, archive_after_days, backup.*).\nUser docs: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/curator\n\n### Kanban (multi-agent work queue)\n\nDurable SQLite board for multi-profile / multi-worker collaboration.\nUsers drive it via hermes kanban ; dispatcher-spawned workers\nsee a focused kanban_* toolset gated by HERMES_KANBAN_TASK, and\norchestrator profiles can opt into the broader kanban toolset. Normal\nsessions still have zero kanban_* schema footprint unless configured.\n\n- **CLI verbs (common):** init, create, list (alias ls),\n show, assign, link, unlink, comment, complete, block,\n unblock, archive, tail. Less common: watch, stats, runs,\n log, dispatch, daemon, gc.\n- **Worker/orchestrator toolset:** kanban_show, kanban_complete,\n kanban_block, kanban_heartbeat, kanban_comment, kanban_create,\n kanban_link; profiles that explicitly enable the kanban toolset\n outside a dispatcher-spawned task also get kanban_list and\n kanban_unblock for board routing.\n- **Dispatcher** runs inside the gateway by default\n (kanban.dispatch_in_gateway: true) — reclaims stale claims,\n promotes ready tasks, atomically claims, spawns assigned profiles.\n Auto-blocks a task after failure_limit consecutive spawn failures\n (default 2; configurable via kanban.failure_limit or per-task\n max_retries).\n- **Isolation:** board is the hard boundary (workers get\n HERMES_KANBAN_BOARD pinned in env); tenant is a soft namespace\n within a board for workspace-path + memory-key isolation.\n\nUser docs: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/kanban\n\n---\n\n## Windows-Specific Quirks\n\nHermes runs natively on Windows (PowerShell, cmd, Windows Terminal, git-bash\nmintty, VS Code integrated terminal). Most of it just works, but a handful\nof differences between Win32 and POSIX have bitten us — document new ones\nhere as you hit them so the next person (or the next session) doesn't\nrediscover them from scratch.\n\n### Input / Keybindings\n\n**Alt+Enter doesn't insert a newline.** Windows Terminal intercepts Alt+Enter\nat the terminal layer to toggle fullscreen — the keystroke never reaches\nprompt_toolkit. Use **Ctrl+Enter** instead. Windows Terminal delivers\nCtrl+Enter as LF (c-j), distinct from plain Enter (c-m / CR), and the\nCLI binds c-j to newline insertion on win32 only (see\n_bind_prompt_submit_keys + the Windows-only c-j binding in cli.py).\nSide effect: the raw Ctrl+J keystroke also inserts a newline on Windows —\nunavoidable, because Windows Terminal collapses Ctrl+Enter and Ctrl+J to\nthe same keycode at the Win32 console API layer. No conflicting binding\nexisted for Ctrl+J on Windows, so this is a harmless side effect.\n\nmintty / git-bash behaves the same (fullscreen on Alt+Enter) unless you\ndisable Alt+Fn shortcuts in Options → Keys. Easier to just use Ctrl+Enter.\n\n**Diagnosing keybindings.** Run python scripts/keystroke_diagnostic.py\n(repo root) to see exactly how prompt_toolkit identifies each keystroke\nin the current terminal. Answers questions like \"does Shift+Enter come\nthrough as a distinct key?\" (almost never — most terminals collapse it\nto plain Enter) or \"what byte sequence is my terminal sending for\nCtrl+Enter?\" This is how the Ctrl+Enter = c-j fact was established.\n\n### Config / Files\n\n**HTTP 400 \"No models provided\" on first run.** config.yaml was saved\nwith a UTF-8 BOM (common when Windows apps write it). Re-save as UTF-8\nwithout BOM. hermes config edit writes without BOM; manual edits in\nNotepad are the usual culprit.\n\n### execute_code / Sandbox\n\n**WinError 10106** (\"The requested service provider could not be loaded\nor initialized\") from the sandbox child process — it can't create an\nAF_INET socket, so the loopback-TCP RPC fallback fails before\nconnect(). Root cause is usually **not** a broken Winsock LSP; it's\nHermes's own env scrubber dropping SYSTEMROOT / WINDIR / COMSPEC\nfrom the child env. Python's socket module needs SYSTEMROOT to locate\nmswsock.dll. Fixed via the _WINDOWS_ESSENTIAL_ENV_VARS allowlist in\ntools/code_execution_tool.py. If you still hit it, echo os.environ\ninside an execute_code block to confirm SYSTEMROOT is set. Full\ndiagnostic recipe in references/execute-code-sandbox-env-windows.md.\n\n### Testing / Contributing\n\n**scripts/run_tests.sh doesn't work as-is on Windows** — it looks for\nPOSIX venv layouts (.venv/bin/activate). The Hermes-installed venv at\nvenv/Scripts/ has no pip or pytest either (stripped for install size).\nWorkaround: install pytest + pytest-xdist + pyyaml into a system Python\n3.11 user site, then invoke pytest directly with PYTHONPATH set:\n\n`bash\n\"/c/Program Files/Python311/python\" -m pip install --user pytest pytest-xdist pyyaml\nexport PYTHONPATH=\"$(pwd)\"\n\"/c/Program Files/Python311/python\" -m pytest tests/foo/test_bar.py -v --tb=short -n 0\n`\n\nUse -n 0, not -n 4pyproject.toml's default addopts already\nincludes -n, and the wrapper's CI-parity guarantees don't apply off POSIX.\n\n**POSIX-only tests need skip guards.** Common markers already in the codebase:\n- Symlinks — elevated privileges on Windows\n- 0o600 file modes — POSIX mode bits not enforced on NTFS by default\n- signal.SIGALRM — Unix-only (see tests/conftest.py::_enforce_test_timeout)\n- Winsock / Windows-specific regressions — @pytest.mark.skipif(sys.platform != \"win32\", ...)\n\nUse the existing skip-pattern style (sys.platform == \"win32\" or\nsys.platform.startswith(\"win\")) to stay consistent with the rest of the\nsuite.\n\n### Path / Filesystem\n\n**Line endings.** Git may warn LF will be replaced by CRLF the next time\nGit touches it. Cosmetic — the repo's .gitattributes normalizes. Don't\nlet editors auto-convert committed POSIX-newline files to CRLF.\n\n**Forward slashes work almost everywhere.** C:/Users/... is accepted by\nevery Hermes tool and most Windows APIs. Prefer forward slashes in code\nand logs — avoids shell-escaping backslashes in bash.\n\n---\n\n## Troubleshooting\n\n### Voice not working\n1. Check stt.enabled: true in config.yaml\n2. Verify provider: pip install faster-whisper or set API key\n3. In gateway: /restart. In CLI: exit and relaunch.\n\n### Tool not available\n1. hermes tools — check if toolset is enabled for your platform\n2. Some tools need env vars (check .env)\n3. /reset after enabling tools\n\n### Model/provider issues\n1. hermes doctor — check config and dependencies\n2. hermes auth — re-authenticate OAuth providers (or hermes auth add )\n3. Check .env has the right API key\n4. **Copilot 403**: gh auth login tokens do NOT work for Copilot API. You must use the Copilot-specific OAuth device code flow via hermes model → GitHub Copilot.\n\n### Changes not taking effect\n- **Tools/skills:** /reset starts a new session with updated toolset\n- **Config changes:** In gateway: /restart. In CLI: exit and relaunch.\n- **Code changes:** Restart the CLI or gateway process\n\n### Skills not showing\n1. hermes skills list — verify installed\n2. hermes skills config — check platform enablement\n3. Load explicitly: /skill name or hermes -s name\n\n### Gateway issues\nCheck logs first:\n`bash\ngrep -i \"failed to send\\|error\" ~/.hermes/logs/gateway.log | tail -20\n`\n\nCommon gateway problems:\n- **Gateway dies on SSH logout**: Enable linger: sudo loginctl enable-linger $USER\n- **Gateway dies on WSL2 close**: WSL2 requires systemd=true in /etc/wsl.conf for systemd services to work. Without it, gateway falls back to nohup (dies when session closes).\n- **Gateway crash loop**: Reset the failed state: systemctl --user reset-failed hermes-gateway\n\n### Platform-specific issues\n- **Discord bot silent**: Must enable **Message Content Intent** in Bot → Privileged Gateway Intents.\n- **Slack bot only works in DMs**: Must subscribe to message.channels event. Without it, the bot ignores public channels.\n- **Windows-specific issues** (Alt+Enter newline, WinError 10106, UTF-8 BOM config, test suite, line endings): see the dedicated **Windows-Specific Quirks** section above.\n\n### Auxiliary models not working\nIf auxiliary tasks (vision, compression, session_search) fail silently, the auto provider can't find a backend. Either set OPENROUTER_API_KEY or GOOGLE_API_KEY, or explicitly configure each auxiliary task's provider:\n`bash\nhermes config set auxiliary.vision.provider \nhermes config set auxiliary.vision.model \n`\n\n---\n\n## Where to Find Things\n\n| Looking for... | Location |\n|----------------|----------|\n| Config options | hermes config edit or [Configuration docs](https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/configuration) |\n| Available tools | hermes tools list or [Tools reference](https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/reference/tools-reference) |\n| Slash commands | /help in session or [Slash commands reference](https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/reference/slash-commands) |\n| Skills catalog | hermes skills browse or [Skills catalog](https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/reference/skills-catalog) |\n| Provider setup | hermes model or [Providers guide](https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/integrations/providers) |\n| Platform setup | hermes gateway setup or [Messaging docs](https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/messaging/) |\n| MCP servers | hermes mcp list or [MCP guide](https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/mcp) |\n| Profiles | hermes profile list or [Profiles docs](https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/profiles) |\n| Cron jobs | hermes cron list or [Cron docs](https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/cron) |\n| Memory | hermes memory status or [Memory docs](https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/memory) |\n| Env variables | hermes config env-path or [Env vars reference](https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/reference/environment-variables) |\n| CLI commands | hermes --help or [CLI reference](https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/reference/cli-commands) |\n| Gateway logs | ~/.hermes/logs/gateway.log |\n| Session files | hermes sessions browse (reads state.db) |\n| Source code | ~/.hermes/hermes-agent/ |\n\n---\n\n## References\n\n- references/webhooks.md — Full webhook setup, route config, payload templating, event-driven agent-run patterns\n- references/native-mcp.md — Native MCP client: how built-in client connects servers, auto-discovers tools, catalog install\n- references/reverse-proxy-ws-cors.md — Reverse proxy, WebSocket, and CORS configuration for gateway\n- references/custom-skills.md — Custom skill development patterns: directory structure, Node.js/Python skills, face-api.js model weights, Discord mirror bridge integration, common pitfalls\n\n---\n\n## Contributor Quick Reference\n\nFor occasional contributors and PR authors. Full developer docs: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/developer-guide/\n\n### Project Layout\n\n`\nhermes-agent/\n├── run_agent.py # AIAgent — core conversation loop\n├── model_tools.py # Tool discovery and dispatch\n├── toolsets.py # Toolset definitions\n├── cli.py # Interactive CLI (HermesCLI)\n├── hermes_state.py # SQLite session store\n├── agent/ # Prompt builder, context compression, memory, model routing, credential pooling, skill dispatch\n├── hermes_cli/ # CLI subcommands, config, setup, commands\n│ ├── commands.py # Slash command registry (CommandDef)\n│ ├── config.py # DEFAULT_CONFIG, env var definitions\n│ └── main.py # CLI entry point and argparse\n├── tools/ # One file per tool\n│ └── registry.py # Central tool registry\n├── gateway/ # Messaging gateway\n│ └── platforms/ # Platform adapters (telegram, discord, etc.)\n├── cron/ # Job scheduler\n├── tests/ # ~3000 pytest tests\n└── website/ # Docusaurus docs site\n`\n\nConfig: ~/.hermes/config.yaml (settings), ~/.hermes/.env (API keys) — both under $HERMES_HOME when it is set.\n\n### Adding a Tool (3 files)\n\n**1. Create tools/your_tool.py:**\n`python\nimport json, os\nfrom tools.registry import registry\n\ndef check_requirements() -> bool:\n return bool(os.getenv(\"EXAMPLE_API_KEY\"))\n\ndef example_tool(param: str, task_id: str = None) -> str:\n return json.dumps({\"success\": True, \"data\": \"...\"})\n\nregistry.register(\n name=\"example_tool\",\n toolset=\"example\",\n schema={\"name\": \"example_tool\", \"description\": \"...\", \"parameters\": {...}},\n handler=lambda args, **kw: example_tool(\n param=args.get(\"param\", \"\"), task_id=kw.get(\"task_id\")),\n check_fn=check_requirements,\n requires_env=[\"EXAMPLE_API_KEY\"],\n)\n`\n\n**2. Add to toolsets.py** → _HERMES_CORE_TOOLS list.\n\nAuto-discovery: any tools/*.py file with a top-level registry.register() call is imported automatically — no manual list needed.\n\nAll handlers must return JSON strings. Use get_hermes_home() for paths, never hardcode ~/.hermes.\n\n### Adding a Slash Command\n\n1. Add CommandDef to COMMAND_REGISTRY in hermes_cli/commands.py\n2. Add handler in cli.pyprocess_command()\n3. (Optional) Add gateway handler in gateway/run.py\n\nAll consumers (help text, autocomplete, Telegram menu, Slack mapping) derive from the central registry automatically.\n\n### Agent Loop (High Level)\n\n`\nrun_conversation():\n 1. Build system prompt\n 2. Loop while iterations < max:\n a. Call LLM (OpenAI-format messages + tool schemas)\n b. If tool_calls → dispatch each via handle_function_call() → append results → continue\n c. If text response → return\n 3. Context compression triggers automatically near token limit\n`\n\n### Testing\n\n`bash\npython -m pytest tests/ -o 'addopts=' -q # Full suite\npython -m pytest tests/tools/ -q # Specific area\n`\n\n- Tests auto-redirect HERMES_HOME to temp dirs — never touch real ~/.hermes/\n- Run full suite before pushing any change\n- Use -o 'addopts=' to clear any baked-in pytest flags\n\n**Windows contributors:** scripts/run_tests.sh currently looks for POSIX venvs (.venv/bin/activate / venv/bin/activate) and will error out on Windows where the layout is venv/Scripts/activate + python.exe. The Hermes-installed venv at venv/Scripts/ also has no pip or pytest — it's stripped for end-user install size. Workaround: install pytest + pytest-xdist + pyyaml into a system Python 3.11 user site (/c/Program Files/Python311/python -m pip install --user pytest pytest-xdist pyyaml), then run tests directly:\n\n`bash\nexport PYTHONPATH=\"$(pwd)\"\n\"/c/Program Files/Python311/python\" -m pytest tests/tools/test_foo.py -v --tb=short -n 0\n`\n\nUse -n 0 (not -n 4) because pyproject.toml's default addopts already includes -n, and the wrapper's CI-parity story doesn't apply off-POSIX.\n\n**Cross-platform test guards:** tests that use POSIX-only syscalls need a skip marker. Common ones already in the codebase:\n- Symlink creation → @pytest.mark.skipif(sys.platform == \"win32\", reason=\"Symlinks require elevated privileges on Windows\") (see tests/cron/test_cron_script.py)\n- POSIX file modes (0o600, etc.) → @pytest.mark.skipif(sys.platform.startswith(\"win\"), reason=\"POSIX mode bits not enforced on Windows\") (see tests/hermes_cli/test_auth_toctou_file_modes.py)\n- signal.SIGALRM → Unix-only (see tests/conftest.py::_enforce_test_timeout)\n- Live Winsock / Windows-specific regression tests → @pytest.mark.skipif(sys.platform != \"win32\", reason=\"Windows-specific regression\")\n\n**Monkeypatching sys.platform is not enough** when the code under test also calls platform.system() / platform.release() / platform.mac_ver(). Those functions re-read the real OS independently, so a test that sets sys.platform = \"linux\" on a Windows runner will still see platform.system() == \"Windows\" and route through the Windows branch. Patch all three together:\n\n`python\nmonkeypatch.setattr(sys, \"platform\", \"linux\")\nmonkeypatch.setattr(platform, \"system\", lambda: \"Linux\")\nmonkeypatch.setattr(platform, \"release\", lambda: \"6.8.0-generic\")\n`\n\nSee tests/agent/test_prompt_builder.py::TestEnvironmentHints for a worked example.\n\n### Extending the system prompt's execution-environment block\n\nFactual guidance about the host OS, user home, cwd, terminal backend, and shell (bash vs. PowerShell on Windows) is emitted from agent/prompt_builder.py::build_environment_hints(). This is also where the WSL hint and per-backend probe logic live. The convention:\n\n- **Local terminal backend** → emit host info (OS, $HOME, cwd) + Windows-specific notes (hostname ≠ username, terminal uses bash not PowerShell).\n- **Remote terminal backend** (anything in _REMOTE_TERMINAL_BACKENDS: docker, singularity, modal, daytona, ssh, managed_modal) → **suppress** host info entirely and describe only the backend. A live uname/whoami/pwd probe runs inside the backend via tools.environments.get_environment(...).execute(...), cached per process in _BACKEND_PROBE_CACHE, with a static fallback if the probe times out.\n- **Key fact for prompt authoring:** when TERMINAL_ENV != \"local\", *every* file tool (read_file, write_file, patch, search_files) runs inside the backend container, not on the host. The system prompt must never describe the host in that case — the agent can't touch it.\n\nFull design notes, the exact emitted strings, and testing pitfalls:\nreferences/prompt-builder-environment-hints.md.\n\n**Refactor-safety pattern (POSIX-equivalence guard):** when you extract inline logic into a helper that adds Windows/platform-specific behavior, keep a _legacy_ oracle function in the test file that's a verbatim copy of the old code, then parametrize-diff against it. Example: tests/tools/test_code_execution_windows_env.py::TestPosixEquivalence. This locks in the invariant that POSIX behavior is bit-for-bit identical and makes any future drift fail loudly with a clear diff.\n\n### Commit Conventions\n\n`\ntype: concise subject line\n\nOptional body.\n`\n\nTypes: fix:, feat:, refactor:, docs:, chore:\n\n### Key Rules\n\n- **Never break prompt caching** — don't change context, tools, or system prompt mid-conversation\n- **Message role alternation** — never two assistant or two user messages in a row\n- Use get_hermes_home() from hermes_constants for all paths (profile-safe)\n- Config values go in config.yaml, secrets go in .env\n- New tools need a check_fn` so they only appear when requirements are met\n", "path": "autonomous-ai-agents/hermes-agent/SKILL.md", "skill_dir": "/root/.hermes/skills/autonomous-ai-agents/hermes-agent", "linked_files": {"references": ["references/custom-skills.md", "references/webhooks.md", "references/native-mcp.md", "references/reverse-proxy-ws-cors.md"]}, "usage_hint": "To view linked files, call skill_view(name, file_path) where file_path is e.g. 'references/api.md' or 'assets/config.yaml'", "required_environment_variables": [], "required_commands": [], "missing_required_environment_variables": [], "missing_credential_files": [], "missing_required_commands": [], "setup_needed": false, "setup_skipped": false, "readiness_status": "available", "metadata": {"hermes": {"tags": ["hermes", "setup", "configuration", "multi-agent", "spawning", "cli", "gateway", "development"], "homepage": "https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent", "related_skills": ["claude-code", "codex", "opencode"]}}}
Assistant
Now let me check the current config to understand the setup:
Assistant
{"output": "model:\n default: openrouter/owl-alpha\n provider: openrouter\n base_url: https://openrouter.ai/api/v1\n api_key: ollama\nproviders: {}\nfallback_providers: []\ncredential_pool_strategies: {}\ntoolsets:\n- hermes-cli\nmax_concurrent_sessions: null\nagent:\n max_turns: 90\n gateway_timeout: 1800\n restart_drain_timeout: 180\n api_max_retries: 3\n service_tier: ''\n tool_use_enforcement: auto\n task_completion_guidance: true\n environment_probe: true\n environment_hint: ''\n coding_context: auto\n gateway_timeout_warning: 900\n clarify_timeout: 600\n gateway_notify_interval: 180\n gateway_auto_continue_freshness: 3600\n image_input_mode: auto\n disabled_toolsets: []\n reasoning_effort: medium\nterminal:\n backend: local\n modal_mode: auto\n cwd: .\n timeout: 180\n env_passthrough: []\n home_mode: auto\n shell_init_files: []\n auto_source_bashrc: true\n docker_image: nikolaik/python-nodejs:python3.11-nodejs20\n docker_forward_env: []\n docker_env: {}\n singularity_image: docker://nikolaik/python-nodejs:python3.11-nodejs20\n modal_image: nikolaik/python-nodejs:python3.11-nodejs20\n daytona_image: nikolaik/python-nodejs:python3.11-nodejs20\n container_cpu: 1\n container_memory: 5120\n container_disk: 51200\n container_persistent: true\n docker_volumes: []\n docker_mount_cwd_to_workspace: false\n docker_extra_args: []\n docker_run_as_host_user: false\n persistent_shell: true\nweb:\n backend: ''\n search_backend: ''\n extract_backend: ''\nbrowser:\n inactivity_timeout: 120\n command_timeout: 30\n record_sessions: false\n allow_private_urls: false\n engine: auto\n auto_local_for_private_urls: true\n cdp_url: http://127.0.0.1:9222\n dialog_policy: must_respond\n dialog_timeout_s: 300\n camofox:\n managed_persistence: false\n user_id: ''\n session_key: ''\n adopt_existing_tab: false\n rewrite_loopback_urls: false\n loopback_host_alias: host.docker.internal\ncheckpoints:\n enabled: false\n max_snapshots: 20\n max_total_size_mb: 500\n max_file_size_mb: 10\n auto_prune: true", "exit_code": 0, "error": null}
Assistant
{"output": "# OPENROUTER_API_KEY=*** NOVITA_API_KEY=*** NOVITA_BASE_URL=https://api.novita.ai/openai/v1 # Override default base URL\n# GOOGLE_API_KEY=your_g...here\n# GEMINI_API_KEY=your_g...here # alias for GOOGLE_API_KEY\n# GEMINI_BASE_URL=https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai\n# LLM PROVIDER (Ollama Cloud)\n# Cloud-hosted open models via Ollama's OpenAI-compatible endpoint.\n# Get your key at: https://ollama.com/settings\n# OLLAMA_API_KEY=your_o...here\n# Optional base URL override (default: https://ollama.com/v1)\n# OLLAMA_BASE_URL=https://ollama.com/v1\n# GLM_API_KEY=*** GLM_BASE_URL=https://api.z.ai/api/paas/v4 # Override default base URL\n# Legacy keys from platform.moonshot.ai need KIMI_BASE_URL override below.\n# KIMI_API_KEY=*** KIMI_BASE_URL=https://api.kimi.com/coding/v1 # Default for sk-kimi- keys\n# KIMI_BASE_URL=https://api.moonshot.ai/v1 # For legacy Moonshot keys\n# KIMI_BASE_URL=https://api.moonshot.cn/v1 # For Moonshot China keys\n# KIMI_CN_API_KEY=*** Dedicated Moonshot China key", "exit_code": 0, "error": null}
Assistant
{"output": "model:\n default: openrouter/owl-alpha\n provider: openrouter\n base_url: https://openrouter.ai/api/v1\n api_key: ollama\nproviders: {}\n--\n model: ''\n base_url: ''\n api_key: ''", "exit_code": 0, "error": null}
Assistant
{"output": "llama3.2:1b (1.3B)", "exit_code": 0, "error": null, "approval": "Command required approval (Security scan — [HIGH] Pipe to interpreter: curl | python3: Command pipes output from 'curl' directly to interpreter 'python3'. Downloaded content will be executed without inspection.\n Safer: tirith run http://127.0.0.1:11434/api/tags — or: vet http://127.0.0.1:11434/api/tags (https://getvet.sh)) and was approved by the user."}
Assistant
Good running with llama3.2:1b. Now I'll configure Hermes to use your local model as a custom provider while keeping all the tool access, memory, and environment awareness. I'll also add your key services to the system the environment_hint field.
Assistant
{"output": "llama3.2:1b", "exit_code": 0, "error": null}
Assistant
{"output": "", "exit_code": -1, "error": "Invalid command: expected string, got NoneType", "status": "error"}
Assistant
Now let me configure Hermes to use Ollama as a custom provider. I'll set up the model section to point to your local endpoint:
Assistant
{"error": "Refusing to write to Hermes config file: /root/.hermes/config.yaml\nAgent cannot modify security-sensitive configuration. Edit ~/.hermes/config.yaml directly or use 'hermes config' instead."}
Assistant
{"output": "", "exit_code": -1, "error": "Invalid command: expected string, got NoneType", "status": "error"}

[Tool loop warning: repeated_exact_failure_warning; count=2; terminal has failed 2 times with identical arguments. This looks like a loop; inspect the error and change strategy instead of retrying it unchanged.]
Assistant
I can't modify the config from within the running Hermes instance (security guard). Let me give you the exact commands to run yourself.

---

## Here's what you need to do:

Your is working and accessible. To use it as a Hermes backend with full tool access + memory + environment awareness, run these commands in your terminal:

### Step 1: Configure Hermes to use Ollama

``bash
# Set the model to your local Ollama instance
hermes config set model.default "3.2:1b"
her.provider "custom"
hermes config set model.base_url "http://0.0.1:11434/v1"
hermes config set model.api_key "ollama"
hermes config set model.context_length 131072
`

### Step 2: Add environment hint about your local services

This is the key part — injecting your services into every session's system prompt so the model always "knows" about them:

`bash
# You an environment hint that gets injected into every session set agent.environment_hint "User runs local services: Face Blur app on port 91blur.teksploits.com), Location service on port 9118, FlareSolverr on 8191. Memory Wiki site. VPS host: racknerd-fba290e. Commaand venv Python for User: Shawndell, Gary IN 46402. Blog: teksploits.com."
`

### Step 3: Verify and restart

`bash
# Verify config
hermes config# Restart gateway to pick up new model
hermes gateway restart
`

### What you get vs. raw Ollama

| Feature | Raw Ollama | Hermes + Ollama |
|---------|-----------|-----------------|
| Shell commands | ❌ | ✅ |
| File read/write | ❌ | ✅ |
| Memory across sessions | ❌ | ✅ |
| Skill loading | ❌ | ✅ |
| Knows your services | ❌ | ✅ (via env hint) |
| Session search | ❌ | ✅ |
| Cron jobs | ❌ | ✅ |
| Web search | ❌ | ✅ |
| Context size | 131K | 131K |

### Optional: Go bigger

If you get Ollama models with more parameters (7b, 13b), you'll get noticeably better reasoning while keeping everything the model name:

`bash
hermes config set model.default "custom/2:7b"
``

---

Want me to walk through any of these steps, or would you like to also set up the environment hint with more granular detail about your services?
User
tell me more about step 2? also where to add this information?
Assistant
## Step 2: Environment Hint — Deep Dive

The agent.environment_hint field in ~/.hermes/config.yaml is a **free-text into every single session's system prompt**. It's the single most effective way to make a local model "aware" of your stuff.

### Where it lives in config

``yaml
agent:
max_turns: 90
environment_probe: true # ← auto-detects OS, hostname, cwd
environment_hint # ← THIS is where you add your info
`

So you'd change it to something like:

`yaml
agent:
max_turns: 90
environment_probe: true
environment_hint: |
=== USER ENVIRONMENT ===
Name
Location: Gary, Indiana 4
VPS: racknerd-fba290e

=== RUNNING SERVICES ===
- Face Blur app: port 9116 (faceblur.teksploits.com nginx proxy)
- Location service: port 9118 (Flask, auth: admin:H62078185h!)
- FlareSolverr: port 8191
- Memory Wiki site: ~/memory-wiki/

=== KEY COMMANDS ===
All Flask apps use venv Python. systemctl for services.
nginx config: /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

=== PREFERENCES ===
Always include map links (Google/Apple/OSM) in location lookups.
Test thingsously, don't just explain how.
`

### Why this works

Every time Hermes starts a new conversation (in Telegram, CLI), it builds a system prompt. That prompt includes:
1. OS info (from
environment_probe: true)
2. Whatever you in
environment_hint

So ** model sees your service list on every single message** — even it's a stateless local model, it always has context.

### How to set it

Single-line version:
hermes config set agent.environment_hint "User: Shawndell, Gary IN 46402. Services: Face Blur port 9116 (systemd faceblur.service), Location port 9118 (Flask, auth admin:H62078185h!), FlareSolverr port 8191. VPS racknerd-fba290e. Flask apps use venv Python. Always include map links in lookups. Blog teksploits.com."
`

But honestly a multi-line block like above, **editing the file directly** is cleaner:

`bash
hermes config edit
`

That opens
~/.hermes/config.yaml in yourEDITOR. Just paste the environment_hint block under the agent: section.

### What to include vs. what NOT to include

✅ **Good candidates:**
- Service names, ports, how to start/stop them
- Your location/time file paths
- Domain names you use
- Database- Common commands you run
- Preferences ("always test, don't just tell")

❌ **Don't put here:**
- Passwords/API keys (Hermes will redact them output but they'll still exist in every prompt — bad practice)
- Temporary state
- Anything that changes frequently

### Another option: Memory tool

For things that might change over time, the **memory tool** is actually better — I already store some of this. You can view what I know with:

``
/hermes memory
`

But memory entries prominent than the environment hint, so for "always critical, the hint wins.

---

Want me to write out the exact
environment_hint` text you should paste in? I can tailor it from what I already know about your setup in my memory.
User
yes
Assistant
{"output": "", "exit_code": -1, "error": "Invalid command: expected string, got NoneType", "status": "error"}
Assistant
{"output": "/usr/bin/bash: eval: line 5: unexpected EOF while looking for matching `''\n/usr/bin/bash: eval: line 6: syntax error: unexpected end of file", "exit_code": 2, "error": null}
Assistant
{"output": "app.py\n__pycache__\ntemplates", "exit_code": 0, "error": null}
Assistant
{"output": "LISTEN 0 128 127.0.0.1:9118 0.0.0.0:* users:((\"python3\",pid=88162,fd=4)) \nLISTEN 0 128 127.0.0.1:9116 0.0.0.0:* users:((\"python3\",pid=832,fd=4))", "exit_code": 0, "error": null}
Assistant
{"output": "", "exit_code": 1, "error": null, "exit_code_meaning": "No matches found (not an error)"}
Assistant
{"output": "faceblur\nfaceblur-http\nhermes.conf\nlocation.conf\nwiki.conf", "exit_code": 0, "error": null}
Assistant
{"output": "listen 80;\n listen 443 ssl http2;", "exit_code": 0, "error": null}
Assistant
{"output": "● flaresolverr.service - FlareSolverr - Cloudflare bypass proxy\n Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/flaresolverr.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)\n Active: activating (start-pre) since Mon 2026-06-29 07:30:50 CDT; 1min 11s ago\nCntrl PID: 110934 (Xvfb)\n Tasks: 1 (limit: 2215)", "exit_code": 0, "error": null}
Assistant
{"output": "", "exit_code": 0, "error": null}
Assistant
{"output": "faceblur.service loaded active running Face Detection & Blur Web App\n hermes-dashboard.service loaded active running Hermes Agent Web Dashboard\n hermes-gateway.service loaded active running Hermes Agent Gateway - Messaging Platform Integration\n hermes-mirror.service loaded active running Hermes Mirror Bridge (Discord + Telegram)\n nginx.service loaded active running A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server\n ollama.service loaded active running Ollama Service", "exit_code": 0, "error": null}
Assistant
{"output": "server_name wiki.teksploits.com;\n return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;\n server_name wiki.teksploits.com;", "exit_code": 0, "error": null}
Assistant
Now I have the full picture. Here's the exact environment_hint to paste in:

---

Add this to ~/.hermes/config.yaml under the agent: section (run hermes config edit):

``yaml
environment_hint: |
=== USER ===
Shawndell — Gary, IN02. Founder of Teksploits.
Blog: teksploits.com | VPS: racknerd0e

=== RUNNING SERVICES ===
- Face Blur app: Flask port 9116 → nginx proxy → faceblur.teksploits.com (systemd: faceblur.service)
- Location tracker: Flask port 9118 → nginx proxy → location.teksploits.com (systemd: location.service)
- Memory Wiki: Flask → nginx proxy → wiki.teksploits.com (nginx config: /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/wiki.conf)
- FlareSolverr: port 8191 (systemd: flaresolverr.service) — Cloudflare bypass proxy
- Ollama: port 11434 (systemd: ollama.service) — local LLM server, model: llama3.2:1b
- Hermes Gateway: Discord + Telegram bridge (systemd: hermes-gateway, hermes-mirror)

=== PATTERNS ===
All Python/Flask apps MUST use venv Python (never system python3).
All subdomain nginx configs in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
Location lookup format: map links (Google/Apple/OSM/MapTiler/Mapbox) + device list + local time with DST
User prefers autonomous test-don't-tell execution.
`

So the full
agent: section of your config would look like:

`yaml
agent:
max_turns: 90
gateway_timeout: 1800
restart_drain_timeout: 180
api_max_retries: 3
service_tier: ''
tool_use_enforcement: auto
task_completion_guidance: true
environment_probe: true
environment_hint: |
=== USER ===
Shawndell — Gary, IN 46402. Founder of Teksploits teksploits.com | VPS: racknerd-fba290e

=== RUNNING SERVICES ===
- Face Blur app: Flask port 9116 → nginx proxy → faceblur.teksploits.com (systemd: faceblur.service)
- Location tracker: Flask port 9118 → nginx proxy → location.teksploits.com (systemd: location.service)
- Memory Wiki: Flask → nginx proxy → wiki.teksploits.com (nginx config: /etc/nginx/sites - FlareSolverr: port 8191 (systemd: flaresolverr.service) — Cloudflare bypass proxy
- Ollama: port 11434 (systemd: ollama.service) — local LLM server, model: llama3.2:1b
- Hermes Gateway: Discord + Telegram bridge (systemd: hermes-gateway, hermes-mirror)

=== PATTERNS ===
All Python/Flask apps MUST use venv Python (never system python3).
All subdomain nginx configs in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
Location lookup format: map links (Google/Apple/OSM/MapTiler/Mapbox) + device list + local time with DST
User prefers autonomous test-don't-tell execution.
coding_context: auto
`

**After editing, run
hermes gateway restart`** to pick it up. Done!
User
[The user sent a text document: 'message.txt'. Its content has been included below. The file is also saved at: /root/.hermes/cache/documents/doc_554ca766be2d_message.txt]

[Content of message.txt]:
model:
default: openrouter/owl-alpha
provider: openrouter
base_url: https://openrouter.ai/api/v1
api_key: ollama
providers: {}
fallback_providers: []
credential_pool_strategies: {}
toolsets:
- hermes-cli
max_concurrent_sessions: null
agent:
max_turns: 90
gateway_timeout: 1800
restart_drain_timeout: 180
api_max_retries: 3
service_tier: ''
tool_use_enforcement: auto
task_completion_guidance: true
environment_probe: true
environment_hint: ''
coding_context: auto
gateway_timeout_warning: 900
clarify_timeout: 600
gateway_notify_interval: 180
gateway_auto_continue_freshness: 3600
image_input_mode: auto
disabled_toolsets: []
reasoning_effort: medium
terminal:
backend: local
modal_mode: auto
cwd: .
timeout: 180
env_passthrough: []
home_mode: auto
shell_init_files: []
auto_source_bashrc: true
docker_image: nikolaik/python-nodejs:python3.11-nodejs20
docker_forward_env: []
docker_env: {}
singularity_image: docker://nikolaik/python-nodejs:python3.11-nodejs20
modal_image: nikolaik/python-nodejs:python3.11-nodejs20
daytona_image: nikolaik/python-nodejs:python3.11-nodejs20
container_cpu: 1
container_memory: 5120
container_disk: 51200
container_persistent: true
docker_volumes: []
docker_mount_cwd_to_workspace: false
docker_extra_args: []
docker_run_as_host_user: false
persistent_shell: true
web:
backend: ''
search_backend: ''
extract_backend: ''
browser:
inactivity_timeout: 120
command_timeout: 30
record_sessions: false
allow_private_urls: false
engine: auto
auto_local_for_private_urls: true
cdp_url: http://127.0.0.1:9222
dialog_policy: must_respond
dialog_timeout_s: 300
camofox:
managed_persistence: false
user_id: ''
session_key: ''
adopt_existing_tab: false
rewrite_loopback_urls: false
loopback_host_alias: host.docker.internal
checkpoints:
enabled: false
max_snapshots: 20
max_total_size_mb: 500
max_file_size_mb: 10
auto_prune: true
retention_days: 7
delete_orphans: true
min_interval_hours: 24
file_read_max_chars: 100000
tool_output:
max_bytes: 50000
max_lines: 2000
max_line_length: 2000
tool_loop_guardrails:
warnings_enabled: true
hard_stop_enabled: false
warn_after:
exact_failure: 2
same_tool_failure: 3
idempotent_no_progress: 2
hard_stop_after:
exact_failure: 5
same_tool_failure: 8
idempotent_no_progress: 5
compression:
enabled: true
threshold: 0.5
target_ratio: 0.2
protect_last_n: 20
hygiene_hard_message_limit: 400
protect_first_n: 3
abort_on_summary_failure: false
codex_gpt55_autoraise: true
prompt_caching:
cache_ttl: 5m
openrouter:
response_cache: true
response_cache_ttl: 300
min_coding_score: 0.65
bedrock:
region: ''
discovery:
enabled: true
provider_filter: []
refresh_interval: 3600
guardrail:
guardrail_identifier: ''
guardrail_version: ''
stream_processing_mode: async
trace: disabled
auxiliary:
vision:
provider: auto
model: ''
base_url: ''
api_key: ''
timeout: 120
extra_body: {}
download_timeout: 30
web_extract:
provider: auto
model: ''
base_url: ''
api_key: ''
timeout: 360
extra_body: {}
compression:
provider: auto
model: ''
base_url: ''
api_key: ''
timeout: 120
extra_body: {}
skills_hub:
provider: auto
model: ''
base_url: ''
api_key: ''
timeout: 30
extra_body: {}
approval:
provider: auto
model: ''
base_url: ''
api_key: ''
timeout: 30
extra_body: {}
mcp:
provider: auto
model: ''
base_url: ''
api_key: ''
timeout: 30
extra_body: {}
title_generation:
provider: auto
model: ''
base_url: ''
api_key: ''
timeout: 30
extra_body: {}
tts_audio_tags:
provider: auto
model: ''
base_url: ''
api_key: ''
timeout: 30
extra_body: {}
triage_specifier:
provider: auto
model: ''
base_url: ''
api_key: ''
timeout: 120
extra_body: {}
kanban_decomposer:
provider: auto
model: ''
base_url: ''
api_key: ''
timeout: 180
extra_body: {}
profile_describer:
provider: auto
model: ''
base_url: ''
api_key: ''
timeout: 60
extra_body: {}
curator:
provider: auto
model: ''
base_url: ''
api_key: ''
timeout: 600
extra_body: {}
monitor:
provider: auto
model: ''
base_url: ''
api_key: ''
timeout: 60
extra_body: {}
display:
compact: false
personality: ''
resume_display: full
resume_exchanges: 10
resume_max_user_chars: 300
resume_max_assistant_chars: 200
resume_max_assistant_lines: 3
resume_skip_tool_only: true
busy_input_mode: interrupt
interface: cli
tui_auto_resume_recent: false
tui_agents_nudge: true
bell_on_complete: false
show_reasoning: false
memory_notifications: 'on'
streaming: false
timestamps: false
final_response_markdown: strip
persistent_output: true
persistent_output_max_lines: 200
persist_prompts: true
inline_diffs: true
file_mutation_verifier: true
credits_notices: true
turn_completion_explainer: true
show_cost: false
skin: default
language: en
tui_status_indicator: kaomoji
user_message_preview:
first_lines: 2
last_lines: 2
interim_assistant_messages: true
tool_progress_command: false
tool_progress_overrides: {}
tool_preview_length: 0
tool_progress_grouping: accumulate
ephemeral_system_ttl: 0
platforms:
telegram:
streaming: true
discord:
streaming: false
runtime_footer:
enabled: false
fields:
- model
- context_pct
- cwd
copy_shortcut: auto
dashboard:
theme: default
show_token_analytics: false
oauth:
client_id: ''
portal_url: ''
basic_auth:
username: admin
password_hash: ''
password: hermes123
secret: a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0k1l2m3n4o5p6q7r8s9t0u1v2w3x4y5z6
session_ttl_seconds: 43200
public_url: https://dashboard.teksploits.com
privacy:
redact_pii: false
tts:
provider: edge
edge:
voice: en-US-AriaNeural
elevenlabs:
voice_id: pNInz6obpgDQGcFmaJgB
model_id: eleven_multilingual_v2
openai:
model: gpt-4o-mini-tts
voice: alloy
gemini:
model: gemini-2.5-flash-preview-tts
voice: Kore
audio_tags: false
persona_prompt_file: ''
xai:
voice_id: eve
language: en
sample_rate: 24000
bit_rate: 128000
mistral:
model: voxtral-mini-tts-2603
voice_id: c69964a6-ab8b-4f8a-9465-ec0925096ec8
neutts:
ref_audio: ''
ref_text: ''
model: neuphonic/neutts-air-q4-gguf
device: cpu
piper:
voice: en_US-lessac-medium
stt:
enabled: true
provider: local
local:
model: base
language: ''
openai:
model: whisper-1
mistral:
model: voxtral-mini-latest
elevenlabs:
model_id: scribe_v2
language_code: ''
tag_audio_events: false
diarize: false
voice:
record_key: ctrl+b
max_recording_seconds: 120
auto_tts: false
beep_enabled: true
silence_threshold: 200
silence_duration: 3.0
human_delay:
mode: 'off'
min_ms: 800
max_ms: 2500
context:
engine: compressor
memory:
memory_enabled: true
user_profile_enabled: true
write_approval: false
memory_char_limit: 2200
user_char_limit: 1375
provider: ''
delegation:
model: ''
provider: ''
base_url: ''
api_key: ''
api_mode: ''
inherit_mcp_toolsets: true
max_iterations: 50
child_timeout_seconds: 0
reasoning_effort: ''
max_concurrent_children: 3
max_async_children: 3
max_spawn_depth: 1
orchestrator_enabled: true
subagent_auto_approve: false
prefill_messages_file: ''
goals:
max_turns: 20
skills:
external_dirs:
- ~/.hermes/skills
template_vars: true
inline_shell: false
inline_shell_timeout: 10
guard_agent_created: false
write_approval: false
reload: true
curator:
enabled: true
interval_hours: 168
min_idle_hours: 2
stale_after_days: 30
archive_after_days: 90
prune_builtins: true
backup:
enabled: true
keep: 5
honcho: {}
timezone: ''
slack:
require_mention: true
free_response_channels: ''
allowed_channels: ''
channel_prompts: {}
discord:
require_mention: true
free_response_channels: ''
allowed_channels: ''
auto_thread: true
thread_require_mention: false
history_backfill: true
history_backfill_limit: 50
reactions: true
channel_prompts: {}
dm_role_auth_guild: ''
server_actions: ''
allow_any_attachment: false
max_attachment_bytes: 33554432
voice_fx:
enabled: false
ambient_enabled: true
ambient_path: ''
ambient_gain: 0.18
duck_gain: 0.06
speech_gain: 1.0
ack_enabled: true
ack_phrases:
- Let me look into that.
- One moment.
- Checking on that now.
- Give me a sec.
- On it.
whatsapp: {}
telegram:
reactions: false
channel_prompts: {}
allowed_chats: ''
extra:
rich_messages: true
mattermost:
require_mention: true
free_response_channels: ''
allowed_channels: ''
channel_prompts: {}
matrix:
require_mention: true
free_response_rooms: ''
allowed_rooms: ''
approvals:
mode: manual
timeout: 60
cron_mode: deny
mcp_reload_confirm: true
destructive_slash_confirm: false
command_allowlist:
- script execution via -e/-c flag
- delete in root path
- shell command via -c/-lc flag
- script execution via heredoc
- stop/restart system service
- overwrite system config
- copy/move file into system config path
- kill process via pgrep expansion (self-termination)
- recursive delete
- SQL TRUNCATE
- overwrite system file via redirection
- force kill processes
- find -delete
- in-place edit of Hermes config/env
- stop/restart hermes gateway (kills running agents)
quick_commands: {}
hooks:
mirror:
events: '["agent:end"]'
path: ~/.hermes/hooks/mirror
hooks_auto_accept: false
personalities: {}
security:
allow_private_urls: false
redact_secrets: true
tirith_enabled: true
tirith_path: tirith
tirith_timeout: 5
tirith_fail_open: true
website_blocklist:
enabled: false
domains: []
shared_files: []
acked_advisories: []
allow_lazy_installs: true
cron:
wrap_response: true
max_parallel_jobs: null
kanban:
dispatch_in_gateway: true
dispatch_interval_seconds: 60
failure_limit: 2
worker_log_rotate_bytes: 2097152
worker_log_backup_count: 1
orchestrator_profile: ''
default_assignee: ''
max_in_progress_per_profile: null
auto_decompose: true
auto_decompose_per_tick: 3
dispatch_stale_timeout_seconds: 14400
code_execution:
mode: project
tools:
tool_search:
enabled: auto
threshold_pct: 10
search_default_limit: 5
max_search_limit: 20
logging:
level: INFO
max_size_mb: 5
backup_count: 3
model_catalog:
enabled: true
url: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/api/model-catalog.json
ttl_hours: 1
providers: {}
network:
force_ipv4: false
gateway:
strict: false
media_delivery_allow_dirs: []
trust_recent_files: true
trust_recent_files_seconds: 600
streaming:
enabled: false
transport: auto
edit_interval: 0.8
buffer_threshold: 24
cursor: " \u2589"
fresh_final_after_seconds: 0.0
sessions:
auto_prune: false
retention_days: 90
vacuum_after_prune: true
min_interval_hours: 24
write_json_snapshots: false
onboarding:
seen:
busy_input_prompt: true
profile_build: ask
updates:
pre_update_backup: false
backup_keep: 5
non_interactive_local_changes: stash
lsp:
enabled: true
wait_mode: document
wait_timeout: 5.0
install_strategy: auto
servers: {}
x_search:
model: grok-4.20-reasoning
timeout_seconds: 180
retries: 2
secrets:
bitwarden:
enabled: false
access_token_env: BWS_ACCESS_TOKEN
project_id: ''
cache_ttl_seconds: 300
override_existing: true
auto_install: true
server_url: ''
paste_collapse_threshold: 5
paste_collapse_threshold_fallback: 5
paste_collapse_char_threshold: 2000
_config_version: 29
platform_toolsets:
cli:
- browser
- clarify
- code_execution
- computer_use
- cronjob
- delegation
- file
- image_gen
- memory
- messaging
- session_search
- skills
- terminal
- todo
- tts
- vision
- web
- x_search
known_plugin_toolsets:
cli:
- spotify
custom_providers:
- name: Local (127.0.0.1:11434)
base_url: http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1
api_key: ollama
model: llama3.2:1b

# ── Fallback Model ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
# Automatic provider failover when primary is unavailable.
# Uncomment and configure to enable. Triggers on rate limits (429),
# overload (529), service errors (503), or connection failures.
#
# Supported providers:
# openrouter (OPENROUTER_API_KEY) — routes to any model
# openai-codex (OAuth — hermes auth) — OpenAI Codex
# nous (OAuth — hermes auth) — Nous Portal
# zai (ZAI_API_KEY) — Z.AI / GLM
# kimi-coding (KIMI_API_KEY) — Kimi / Moonshot
# kimi-coding-cn (KIMI_CN_API_KEY) — Kimi / Moonshot (China)
# minimax (MINIMAX_API_KEY) — MiniMax
# minimax-cn (MINIMAX_CN_API_KEY) — MiniMax (China)
# bedrock (AWS IAM / boto3) — AWS Bedrock (Converse API)
#
# For custom OpenAI-compatible endpoints, add base_url and key_env.
#
# fallback_model:
# provider: openrouter
# model: anthropic/claude-sonnet-4


current hermes config.yaml =
User
errors after i add this to the config.yaml = agent:
max_turns: 90
gateway_timeout: 1800
restart_drain_timeout: 180
api_max_retries: 3
service_tier: ''
tool_use_enforcement: auto
task_completion_guidance: true
environment_probe: true
environment_hint: |
=== USER ===
Shawndell — Gary, IN 46402. Founder of Teksploits teksploits.com | VPS: racknerd-fba290e

=== RUNNING SERVICES ===
- Face Blur app: Flask port 9116 → nginx proxy → faceblur.teksploits.com (systemd: faceblur.service)
- Location tracker: Flask port 9118 → nginx proxy → location.teksploits.com (systemd: location.service)
- Memory Wiki: Flask → nginx proxy → wiki.teksploits.com (nginx config: /etc/nginx/sites - FlareSolverr: port 8191 (systemd: flaresolverr.service) — Cloudflare bypass proxy
- Ollama: port 11434 (systemd: ollama.service) — local LLM server, model: llama3.2:1b
- Hermes Gateway: Discord + Telegram bridge (systemd: hermes-gateway, hermes-mirror)

=== PATTERNS ===
All Python/Flask apps MUST use venv Python (never system python3).
All subdomain nginx configs in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
Location lookup format: map links (Google/Apple/OSM/MapTiler/Mapbox) + device list + local time with DST
User prefers autonomous test-don't-tell execution.
coding_context: auto
Assistant
I can see the issue! You accidentally truncated a line. Look at this line in your paste:

``
- Memory Wiki: Flask → nginx proxy → wiki.teksploits.com (nginx config: /etc/nginx/sites
`

It should be:

`
- Memory Wiki: Flask → nginx proxy → wiki.teksploits.com (nginx config: /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/wiki.conf)
`

But more importantly — **you don't need to mess with the model section at all!** Your config already has the custom provider defined at the bottom:

`yaml
custom_providers:
- name: Local (127.0.0.1:11434)
base_url: http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1
api_key: ollama
model: llama3.2:1b
`

So all you actually need to change is **two things**:

### 1. Set the model to use your local provider

`bash
hermes config set model.default "custom/llama3.2:1b"
hermes config set model.provider "custom"
`

### 2. Set the environment hint

`bash
hermes config set agent.environment_hint "User: Shawndell, Gary IN 46402. Founder of Teksploits teksploits.com | VPS: racknerd-fba290e. Services: Face Blur (port 9116, faceblur.teksploits.com), Location tracker (port 9118, location.teksploits.com), Memory Wiki (wiki.teksploits.com), FlareSolverr (port 8191), Ollama (port 11434, model llama3.2:1b). Flask apps use venv Python. Location lookups include map links + device list + local time DST. User prefers autonomous test-don't-tell execution."
`

### 3. Restart

`bash
hermes gateway restart
`

That's it — don't touch the big YAML block you pasted. The
hermes config set` commands will edit the file safely for you and avoid YAML formatting errors. The truncated line would cause a YAML parse error which is likely what broke.

Want to try those 3 commands?
User
Who am I?
Assistant
You are **Shawndell** (trupsalms/1812605657).

- 📍 Gary, Indiana 46402
- 🚛 USPS Tractor-Trailer Operator
- ️ Founder of **Teksploits** (teksploits.com)
- 💻 Self-hosted VPS (racknerd-fba290e)
- 📱 Devices: Samsung S21, Note 8, Laptop1, multiple iPhones

You come to me to build and run things — you prefer I **test it for you, don't just tell me how**. You've got a whole ecosystem of self-hosted services (Face Blur app, Location tracker, Memory Wiki, FlareSolverr) and you want your local AI to actually *know* about them and be able to manage them.

Right now we're working on configuring Hermes to use your local Ollama model (llama3.2:1b) as a backend so you get full tool access + memory + environment awareness, not just raw chat.