Two Windows agent-loop friction fixes:
1. tools/mcp_tool.py (#56536): shutil.which(cmd, path=env_path) reads
executable extensions from the PARENT process PATHEXT, not the MCP
subprocess env — a stdio MCP config supplying both PATH and PATHEXT
could fail to resolve a command its own env can locate, and startup
then got a bare command name. On Windows, when the first which() call
misses and the config env carries PATHEXT (any key casing), retry the
resolution with the config's PATHEXT temporarily applied.
2. skills/ + optional-skills/ (#50606): 42 SKILL.md files that declare
platforms: [.., windows] used python3 in their command examples.
python3 does not exist on native Windows (the toolchain probe in the
system prompt reports python3=missing), so every copy-pasted example
burned a failed agent turn before self-correction. Replaced the
command word python3 -> python (python3-config / python3.x version
strings untouched). python is the spelling that exists in every
Hermes-managed environment (Windows native, uv-managed venvs on all
three OSes); agents on POSIX hosts additionally see the probed
toolchain line and adapt either way.
The GitHub skills' auth-detection fell back to reading GITHUB_TOKEN from a
hardcoded ~/.hermes/.env. In the official Docker layout HERMES_HOME=/opt/data
while tool subprocesses run with HOME=/opt/data/home, so `~/.hermes/.env`
expands to /opt/data/home/.hermes/.env — a path that does not exist — while the
real secrets file is /opt/data/.env. Result: the agent reports GITHUB_TOKEN as
"not set" even though it is present and the dashboard Keys page shows it.
Resolve the file as ${HERMES_HOME:-$HOME/.hermes}/.env (HERMES_HOME is bridged
into tool subprocess env, falling back to ~/.hermes when unset) across all six
auth-detection sites: github-auth (SKILL.md + scripts/gh-env.sh), github-issues,
github-repo-management, github-pr-workflow, github-code-review.
Completes the Windows-gating coverage for the built-in skills/ tree. Every
bundled SKILL.md now carries an explicit platforms: declaration so the
loader (agent.skill_utils.skill_matches_platform) can skip-load skills
that don't fit the current OS.
74 skills declared cross-platform (platforms: [linux, macos, windows]):
Creative (16): ascii-art, ascii-video, architecture-diagram, baoyu-comic,
baoyu-infographic, claude-design, creative-ideation, design-md,
excalidraw, humanizer, manim-video, p5js, pixel-art,
popular-web-designs, pretext, sketch, songwriting-and-ai-music,
touchdesigner-mcp
Autonomous agents: claude-code, codex, hermes-agent, opencode
Data/devops: jupyter-live-kernel, kanban-orchestrator, kanban-worker,
webhook-subscriptions, dogfood, codebase-inspection
GitHub: github-auth, github-code-review, github-issues,
github-pr-workflow, github-repo-management
Media: gif-search, heartmula, songsee, spotify, youtube-content
MCP / email / gaming / notes / smart-home: native-mcp, himalaya,
pokemon-player, obsidian, openhue
mlops (non-broken): weights-and-biases, huggingface-hub, llama-cpp,
outlines, segment-anything-model, dspy, trl-fine-tuning
Productivity: airtable, google-workspace, linear, maps, nano-pdf,
notion, ocr-and-documents, powerpoint
Red-teaming / research: godmode, arxiv, blogwatcher, llm-wiki,
polymarket
Software-dev: debugging-hermes-tui-commands, hermes-agent-skill-authoring,
node-inspect-debugger, plan, requesting-code-review, spike,
subagent-driven-development, systematic-debugging,
test-driven-development, writing-plans
Misc: yuanbao
5 skills gated from Windows (platforms: [linux, macos]):
mlops/inference/vllm (serving-llms-vllm)
vLLM is officially Linux-only; Windows requires WSL.
mlops/training/axolotl
Axolotl's flash-attn + deepspeed + bitsandbytes stack is Linux-first.
mlops/training/unsloth
Requires Triton + xformers + flash-attn — Linux only in practice.
mlops/models/audiocraft (audiocraft-audio-generation)
torchaudio ffmpeg backend + encodec dependencies are Linux-first.
mlops/inference/obliteratus
Research abliteration workflow; relies on Linux-focused pytorch
kernels and MLX — no first-class Windows path.
Same strict-over-lenient policy as the optional-skills sweep: when the
underlying tool's Windows support is rough, missing, or WSL-only, gate the
skill. Easier to un-gate after verified Windows support lands than to leak
partial support that manifests as mid-task failures.
Combined with prior commits in this branch, every bundled SKILL.md
(skills/ + optional-skills/) now has a platforms: declaration.
Target: every skill's description fits in a one-line gateway menu and
leads with trigger keywords an agent would match on. Drops filler like
'Use this skill to', 'A skill for', 'This skill provides'.
Before: max description length was 791 chars (architecture-diagram),
74 of 81 built-in skills were >60 chars.
After: max 60, mean 54, all 81 built-in skills <=60.
Rewritten with double-quoted YAML scalars to preserve Chinese/arrow
glyphs (baoyu-comic, yuanbao, youtube-content).
* fix: show correct env var name in provider API key error (#9506)
The error message for missing provider API keys dynamically built
the env var name as PROVIDER_API_KEY (e.g. ALIBABA_API_KEY), but
some providers use different names (alibaba uses DASHSCOPE_API_KEY).
Users following the error message set the wrong variable.
Fix: look up the actual env var from PROVIDER_REGISTRY before
building the error. Falls back to the dynamic name if the registry
lookup fails.
Closes#9506
* fix: five HERMES_HOME profile-isolation leaks (#5947)
Bug A: Thread session_title from session_db to memory provider init kwargs
so honcho can derive chat-scoped session keys instead of falling back to
cwd-based naming that merges all gateway users into one session.
Bug B: Replace 14 hardcoded ~/.hermes/skills/ paths across 10 skill files
with HERMES_HOME-aware alternatives (${HERMES_HOME:-$HOME/.hermes} in
shell, os.environ.get('HERMES_HOME', ...) in Python).
Bug C: install.sh now respects HERMES_HOME env var and adds --hermes-home
flag. Previously --dir only set INSTALL_DIR while HERMES_HOME was always
hardcoded to $HOME/.hermes.
Bug D: Remove hardcoded ~/.hermes/honcho.json fallback in resolve_config_path().
Non-default profiles no longer silently inherit the default profile's honcho
config. Falls through to ~/.honcho/config.json (global) instead.
Bug E: Guard _edit_skill, _patch_skill, _delete_skill, _write_file, and
_remove_file against writing to skills found in external_dirs. Skills
outside the local SKILLS_DIR are now read-only from the agent's perspective.
Closes#5947
* fix(github-auth): check ~/.hermes/.env before ~/.git-credentials for token extraction
Users who configured their token via `hermes setup` have it stored in
~/.hermes/.env (GITHUB_TOKEN=...), not in ~/.git-credentials. On macOS
with osxkeychain as the default git credential helper, ~/.git-credentials
may not exist at all, causing silent 401 failures in all GitHub skills.
Add ~/.hermes/.env as the first fallback in the auth detection block and
the inline "Extracting the Token from Git Credentials" example.
Priority order: env var → ~/.hermes/.env → ~/.git-credentials → none
Part of fix for NousResearch/hermes-agent#3464
* fix(github-auth): check ~/.hermes/.env before ~/.git-credentials
Fixes#3464
* fix(github-auth): check ~/.hermes/.env before ~/.git-credentials
Fixes#3464
* fix(github-auth): check ~/.hermes/.env before ~/.git-credentials
Fixes#3464
* fix(github-auth): check ~/.hermes/.env before ~/.git-credentials
Fixes#3464
* fix(github-auth): check ~/.hermes/.env before ~/.git-credentials
Fixes#3464
* fix(github-auth): check ~/.hermes/.env before ~/.git-credentials
Fixes#3464
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