Hermes Agent v0.9.0 (v2026.4.13)

Release Date: April 13, 2026
Since v0.8.0: 487 commits · 269 merged PRs · 167 resolved issues · 493 files changed · 63,281 insertions · 24 contributors

The everywhere release — Hermes goes mobile with Termux/Android, adds iMessage and WeChat, ships Fast Mode for OpenAI and Anthropic, introduces background process monitoring, launches a local web dashboard for managing your agent, and delivers the deepest security hardening pass yet across 16 supported platforms.

✨ Highlights

Local Web Dashboard — A new browser-based dashboard for managing your Hermes Agent locally. Configure settings, monitor sessions, browse skills, and manage your gateway — all from a clean web interface without touching config files or the terminal. The easiest way to get started with Hermes.
Fast Mode (/fast) — Priority processing for OpenAI and Anthropic models. Toggle /fast to route through priority queues for significantly lower latency on supported models (GPT-5.4, Codex, Claude). Expands across all OpenAI Priority Processing models and Anthropic's fast tier. (#6875, #6960, #7037)
iMessage via BlueBubbles — Full iMessage integration through BlueBubbles, bringing Hermes to Apple's messaging ecosystem. Auto-webhook registration, setup wizard integration, and crash resilience. (#6437, #6460, #6494)
WeChat (Weixin) & WeCom Callback Mode — Native WeChat support via iLink Bot API and a new WeCom callback-mode adapter for self-built enterprise apps. Streaming cursor, media uploads, markdown link handling, and atomic state persistence. Hermes now covers the Chinese messaging ecosystem end-to-end. (#7166, #7943)
Termux / Android Support — Run Hermes natively on Android via Termux. Adapted install paths, TUI optimizations for mobile screens, voice backend support, and the /image command work on-device. (#6834)
Background Process Monitoring (watch_patterns) — Set patterns to watch for in background process output and get notified in real-time when they match. Monitor for errors, wait for specific events ("listening on port"), or watch build logs — all without polling. (#7635)
Native xAI & Xiaomi MiMo Providers — First-class provider support for xAI (Grok) and Xiaomi MiMo, with direct API access, model catalogs, and setup wizard integration. Plus Qwen OAuth with portal request support. (#7372, #7855)
Pluggable Context Engine — Context management is now a pluggable slot via hermes plugins. Swap in custom context engines that control what the agent sees each turn — filtering, summarization, or domain-specific context injection. (#7464)
Unified Proxy Support — SOCKS proxy, DISCORD_PROXY, and system proxy auto-detection across all gateway platforms. Hermes behind corporate firewalls just works. (#6814)
Comprehensive Security Hardening — Path traversal protection in checkpoint manager, shell injection neutralization in sandbox writes, SSRF redirect guards in Slack image uploads, Twilio webhook signature validation (SMS RCE fix), API server auth enforcement, git argument injection prevention, and approval button authorization. (#7933, #7944, #7940, #7151, #7156)
hermes backup & hermes import — Full backup and restore of your Hermes configuration, sessions, skills, and memory. Migrate between machines or create snapshots before major changes. (#7997)
16 Supported Platforms — With BlueBubbles (iMessage) and WeChat joining Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Matrix, Email, SMS, DingTalk, Feishu, WeCom, Mattermost, Home Assistant, and Webhooks, Hermes now runs on 16 messaging platforms out of the box.
/debug & hermes debug share — New debugging toolkit: /debug slash command across all platforms for quick diagnostics, plus hermes debug share to upload a full debug report to a pastebin for easy sharing when troubleshooting. (#8681)

🏗️ Core Agent & Architecture

Provider & Model Support

Native xAI (Grok) provider with direct API access and model catalog (#7372)
Xiaomi MiMo as first-class provider — setup wizard, model catalog, empty response recovery (#7855)
Qwen OAuth provider with portal request support (#6282)
Fast Mode — /fast toggle for OpenAI Priority Processing + Anthropic fast tier (#6875, #6960, #7037)
Structured API error classification for smart failover decisions (#6514)
Rate limit header capture shown in /usage (#6541)
API server model name derived from profile name (#6857)
Custom providers now included in /model listings and resolution (#7088)
Fallback provider activation on repeated empty responses with user-visible status (#7505)
OpenRouter variant tags (:free, :extended, :fast) preserved during model switch (#6383)
Credential exhaustion TTL reduced from 24 hours to 1 hour (#6504)
OAuth credential lifecycle hardening — stale pool keys, auth.json sync, Codex CLI race fixes (#6874)
Empty response recovery for reasoning models (MiMo, Qwen, GLM) (#8609)
MiniMax context lengths, thinking guard, endpoint corrections (#6082, #7126)
Z.AI endpoint auto-detect via probe and cache (#5763)

Agent Loop & Conversation

Pluggable context engine slot via hermes plugins (#7464)
Background process monitoring — watch_patterns for real-time output alerts (#7635)
Improved context compression — higher limits, tool tracking, degradation warnings, token-budget tail protection (#6395, #6453)
/compress <focus> — guided compression with a focus topic (#8017)
Tiered context pressure warnings with gateway dedup (#6411)
Staged inactivity warning before timeout escalation (#6387)
Prevent agent from stopping mid-task — compression floor, budget overhaul, activity tracking (#7983)
Propagate child activity to parent during delegate_task (#7295)
Truncated streaming tool call detection before execution (#6847)
Empty response retry (3 attempts with nudge) (#6488)
Adaptive streaming backoff + cursor strip to prevent message truncation (#7683)
Compression uses live session model instead of stale persisted config (#8258)
Strip <thought> tags from Gemma 4 responses (#8562)
Prevent <think> in prose from suppressing response output (#6968)
Turn-exit diagnostic logging to agent loop (#6549)
Scope tool interrupt signal per-thread to prevent cross-session leaks (#7930)

Memory & Sessions

Hindsight memory plugin — feature parity, setup wizard, config improvements — @nicoloboschi (#6428)
Honcho — opt-in initOnSessionStart for tools mode — @Kathie-yu (#6995)
Orphan children instead of cascade-deleting in prune/delete (#6513)
Doctor command only checks the active memory provider (#6285)

📱 Messaging Platforms (Gateway)

New Platforms

BlueBubbles (iMessage) — full adapter with auto-webhook registration, setup wizard, and crash resilience (#6437, #6460, #6494, #7107)
Weixin (WeChat) — native support via iLink Bot API with streaming, media uploads, markdown links (#7166, #8665)
WeCom Callback Mode — self-built enterprise app adapter with atomic state persistence (#7943, #7928)

Discord

Allowed channels whitelist config — @jarvis-phw (#7044)
Forum channel topic inheritance in thread sessions — @hermes-agent-dhabibi (#6377)
DISCORD_REPLY_TO_MODE setting (#6333)
Accept .log attachments, raise document size limit — @kira-ariaki (#6467)
Decouple readiness from slash sync (#8016)

Slack

Consolidated Slack improvements — 7 community PRs salvaged into one (#6809)
Handle assistant thread lifecycle events (#6433)

Matrix

Migrated from matrix-nio to mautrix-python (#7518)
SQLite crypto store replacing pickle (fixes E2EE decryption) — @alt-glitch (#7981)
Cross-signing recovery key verification for E2EE migration (#8282)
DM mention threads + group chat events for Feishu (#7423)

Gateway Core

Unified proxy support — SOCKS, DISCORD_PROXY, multi-platform with macOS auto-detection (#6814)
Inbound text batching for Discord, Matrix, WeCom + adaptive delay (#6979)
Surface natural mid-turn assistant messages in chat platforms (#7978)
WSL-aware gateway with smart systemd detection (#7510)
All missing platforms added to setup wizard (#7949)
Per-platform tool_progress overrides (#6348)
Configurable 'still working' notification interval (#8572)
/model switch persists across messages (#7081)
/usage shows rate limits, cost, and token details between turns (#7038)
Drain in-flight work before restart (#7503)
Don't evict cached agent on failed runs — prevents MCP restart loop (#7539)
Replace os.environ session state with contextvars (#7454)
Derive channel directory platforms from enum instead of hardcoded list (#7450)
Validate image downloads before caching (cross-platform) (#7125)
Cross-platform webhook delivery for all platforms (#7095)
Cron Discord thread_id delivery support (#7106)
Feishu QR-based bot onboarding (#8570)
Gateway status scoped to active profile (#7951)
Prevent background process notifications from triggering false pairing requests (#6434)

🖥️ CLI & User Experience

Interactive CLI

Termux / Android support — adapted install paths, TUI, voice, /image (#6834)
Native /model picker modal for provider → model selection (#8003)
Live per-tool elapsed timer restored in TUI spinner (#7359)
Stacked tool progress scrollback in TUI (#8201)
Random tips on new session start (CLI + gateway, 279 tips) (#8225, #8237)
hermes dump — copy-pasteable setup summary for debugging (#6550)
hermes backup / hermes import — full config backup and restore (#7997)
WSL environment hint in system prompt (#8285)
Profile creation UX — seed SOUL.md + credential warning (#8553)
Shell-aware sudo detection, empty password support (#6517)
Flush stdin after curses/terminal menus to prevent escape sequence leakage (#7167)
Handle broken stdin in prompt_toolkit startup (#8560)

Setup & Configuration

Per-platform display verbosity configuration (#8006)
Component-separated logging with session context and filtering (#7991)
network.force_ipv4 config to fix IPv6 timeout issues (#8196)
Standardize message whitespace and JSON formatting (#7988)
Rebrand OpenClaw → Hermes during migration (#8210)
Config.yaml takes priority over env vars for auxiliary settings (#7889)
Harden setup provider flows + live OpenRouter catalog refresh (#7078)
Normalize reasoning effort ordering across all surfaces (#6804)
Remove dead LLM_MODEL env var + migration to clear stale entries (#6543)
Remove /prompt slash command — prefix expansion footgun (#6752)
HERMES_HOME_MODE env var to override permissions — @ygd58 (#6993)
Fall back to default model when model config is empty (#8303)
Warn when compression model context is too small (#7894)

🔧 Tool System

Environments & Execution

Unified spawn-per-call execution layer for environments (#6343)
Unified file sync with mtime tracking, deletion, and transactional state (#7087)
Persistent sandbox envs survive between turns (#6412)
Bulk file sync via tar pipe for SSH/Modal backends — @alt-glitch (#8014)
Daytona — bulk upload, config bridge, silent disk cap (#7538)
Foreground timeout cap to prevent session deadlocks (#7082)
Guard invalid command values (#6417)

MCP

hermes mcp add --env and --preset support (#7970)
Combine content and structuredContent when both present (#7118)
MCP tool name deconfliction fixes (#7654)

Browser

Browser hardening — dead code removal, caching, scroll perf, security, thread safety (#7354)
/browser connect auto-launch uses dedicated Chrome profile dir (#6821)
Reap orphaned browser sessions on startup (#7931)

Voice & Vision

Voxtral TTS provider (Mistral AI) (#7653)
TTS speed support for Edge TTS, OpenAI TTS, MiniMax (#8666)
Vision auto-resize for oversized images, raise limit to 20 MB, retry-on-failure (#7883, #7902)
STT provider-model mismatch fix (whisper-1 vs faster-whisper) (#7113)

Other Tools

hermes dump command for setup summary (#6550)
TODO store enforces ID uniqueness during replace operations (#7986)
List all available toolsets in delegate_task schema description (#8231)
API server: tool progress as custom SSE event to prevent model corruption (#7500)
API server: share one Docker container across all conversations (#7127)

🧩 Skills Ecosystem

Centralized skills index + tree cache — eliminates rate-limit failures on install (#8575)
More aggressive skill loading instructions in system prompt (v3) (#8209, #8286)
Google Workspace skill migrated to GWS CLI backend (#6788)
Creative divergence strategies skill — @SHL0MS (#6882)
Creative ideation — constraint-driven project generation — @SHL0MS (#7555)
Parallelize skills browse/search to prevent hanging (#7301)
Read name from SKILL.md frontmatter in skills_sync (#7623)

🔒 Security & Reliability

Security Hardening

Twilio webhook signature validation — SMS RCE fix (#7933)
Shell injection neutralization in _write_to_sandbox via path quoting (#7940)
Git argument injection and path traversal prevention in checkpoint manager (#7944)
SSRF redirect bypass in Slack image uploads + base.py cache helpers (#7151)
Path traversal, credential gate, DANGEROUS_PATTERNS gaps (#7156)
API bind guard — enforce API_SERVER_KEY for non-loopback binding (#7455)
Approval button authorization — require auth for session continuation — @Cafexss (#6930)
Path boundary enforcement in skill manager operations (#7156)
DingTalk/API webhook URL origin validation, header injection rejection (#7455)

Reliability

Contextual error diagnostics for invalid API responses (#8565)
Prevent 400 format errors from triggering compression loop on Codex (#6751)
Don't halve context_length on output-cap-too-large errors — @KUSH42 (#6664)
Recover primary client on OpenAI transport errors (#7108)
Credential pool rotation on billing-classified 400s (#7112)
Auto-increase stream read timeout for local LLM providers (#6967)
Fall back to default certs when CA bundle path doesn't exist (#7352)
Disambiguate usage-limit patterns in error classifier — @sprmn24 (#6836)
Harden cron script timeout and provider recovery (#7079)
Gateway interrupt detection resilient to monitor task failures (#8208)
Prevent unwanted session auto-reset after graceful gateway restarts (#8299)
Prevent duplicate update prompt spam in gateway watcher (#8343)
Deduplicate reasoning items in Responses API input (#7946)

Infrastructure

Multi-arch Docker image — amd64 + arm64 (#6124)
Docker runs as non-root user with virtualenv — @benbarclay contributing (#8226)
Use uv for Docker dependency resolution to fix resolution-too-deep (#6965)
Container-aware Nix CLI — auto-route into managed container — @alt-glitch (#7543)
Nix shared-state permission model for interactive CLI users — @alt-glitch (#6796)
Per-profile subprocess HOME isolation (#7357)
Profile paths fixed in Docker — profiles go to mounted volume (#7170)
Docker container gateway pathway hardened (#8614)
Enable unbuffered stdout for live Docker logs (#6749)
Install procps in Docker image — @HiddenPuppy (#7032)
Shallow git clone for faster installation — @sosyz (#8396)
hermes update always reset on stash conflict (#7010)
Write update exit code before gateway restart (cgroup kill race) (#8288)
Nix: setupSecrets optional, tirith runtime dep — @devorun, @ethernet8023 (#6261, #6721)
launchd stop uses bootout so KeepAlive doesn't respawn (#7119)

🐛 Notable Bug Fixes

Fix: /model switch not persisting across gateway messages (#7081)
Fix: session-scoped gateway model overrides ignored — @Hygaard (#7662)
Fix: compaction model context length ignoring config — 3 related issues (#8258, #8107)
Fix: OpenCode.ai context window resolved to 128K instead of 1M (#6472)
Fix: Codex fallback auth-store lookup — @cherifya (#6462)
Fix: duplicate completion notifications when process killed (#7124)
Fix: agent daemon thread prevents orphan CLI processes on tab close (#8557)
Fix: stale image attachment on text paste and voice input (#7077)
Fix: DM thread session seeding causing cross-thread contamination (#7084)
Fix: OpenClaw migration shows dry-run preview before executing (#6769)
Fix: auth errors misclassified as retryable — @kuishou68 (#7027)
Fix: Copilot-Integration-Id header missing (#7083)
Fix: ACP session capabilities — @luyao618 (#6985)
Fix: ACP PromptResponse usage from top-level fields (#7086)
Fix: several failing/flaky tests on main — @dsocolobsky (#6777)
Fix: backup marker filenames — @sprmn24 (#8600)
Fix: NoneType in fast_mode check — @0xbyt4 (#7350)
Fix: missing imports in uninstall.py — @JiayuuWang (#7034)

📚 Documentation

Platform adapter developer guide + WeCom Callback docs (#7969)
Cron troubleshooting guide (#7122)
Streaming timeout auto-detection for local LLMs (#6990)
Tool-use enforcement documentation expanded (#7984)
BlueBubbles pairing instructions (#6548)
Telegram proxy support section (#6348)
hermes dump and hermes logs CLI reference (#6552)
tool_progress_overrides configuration reference (#6364)
Compression model context length warning docs (#7879)

👥 Contributors

269 merged PRs from 24 contributors across 487 commits.

Community Contributors

@alt-glitch (6 PRs) — Nix container-aware CLI, shared-state permissions, Matrix SQLite crypto store, bulk SSH/Modal file sync, Matrix mautrix compat
@SHL0MS (2 PRs) — Creative divergence strategies skill, creative ideation skill
@sprmn24 (2 PRs) — Error classifier disambiguation, backup marker fix
@nicoloboschi — Hindsight memory plugin feature parity
@Hygaard — Session-scoped gateway model override fix
@jarvis-phw — Discord allowed_channels whitelist
@Kathie-yu — Honcho initOnSessionStart for tools mode
@hermes-agent-dhabibi — Discord forum channel topic inheritance
@kira-ariaki — Discord .log attachments and size limit
@cherifya — Codex fallback auth-store lookup
@Cafexss — Security: auth for session continuation
@KUSH42 — Compaction context_length fix
@kuishou68 — Auth error retryable classification fix
@luyao618 — ACP session capabilities
@ygd58 — HERMES_HOME_MODE env var override
@0xbyt4 — Fast mode NoneType fix
@JiayuuWang — CLI uninstall import fix
@HiddenPuppy — Docker procps installation
@dsocolobsky — Test suite fixes
@benbarclay — Docker image tag simplification
@sosyz — Shallow git clone for faster install
@devorun — Nix setupSecrets optional
@ethernet8023 — Nix tirith runtime dep

Full Changelog: v2026.4.8...v2026.4.13

NousResearch/hermes-agent v2026.4.13 Hermes Agent v0.9.0 (v2026.4.13) on GitHub