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.
ruff check --fix --select F541 . on current main. Pure prefix removals;
adjacent-string concatenations keep the f only on interpolating fragments.
No string content or live placeholder altered.
Follow-up to the GitHub-skills fix: the same hardcoded ~/.hermes/.env
pattern existed across other bundled and optional skills. Under the
official Docker setup (HERMES_HOME=/opt/data, subprocess HOME=/opt/data/home)
those paths point at a nonexistent file.
- kanban-video-orchestrator setup.sh.tmpl + docs: resolve via
${HERMES_HOME:-$HOME/.hermes}/.env in check_key()
- telephony.py / canvas_api.py / hyperliquid_client.py: error and
save messages now report the real resolved env path instead of a
hardcoded literal (path resolution itself was already correct)
- godmode SKILL.md: load_dotenv snippet resolves via HERMES_HOME
- watch_github.py + ~20 SKILL.md prose mentions: document the env file
as ${HERMES_HOME:-~/.hermes}/.env so Docker users edit the right file
* chore(skills): remove red-team skills (godmode, obliteratus) from bundled catalog
Anthropic's output classifier on claude-fable-5 (and likely other Claude
models served through it) intermittently returns empty content for sessions
whose system prompt advertises these skills. The bundled skills-catalog block
is injected into every session's system prompt, so the descriptions
- red-teaming/godmode 'Jailbreak LLMs: Parseltongue, GODMODE, ULTRAPLINIAN'
- mlops/inference/obliteratus 'OBLITERATUS: abliterate LLM refusals (diff-in-means)'
trip the classifier on EVERY session regardless of which skill is actually
loaded, killing unrelated legitimate work (PR review, codebase audits, etc.).
Measured impact (controlled, interleaved A/B, claude-fable-5 via OpenRouter,
prompts differing only by the ~204 chars of these catalog lines, N=20 each):
catalog lines present -> 19/20 (95%) blocked
catalog lines absent -> 5/20 (25%) blocked
Removing them ~quartered the block rate. Rewording the descriptions was not
enough; the skills must leave the bundled catalog.
- Delete skills/red-teaming/godmode and skills/mlops/inference/obliteratus
- Drop their generated doc pages + catalog/sidebar entries (EN + zh-Hans)
- Drop the godmode hand-written-page exception in generate-skill-docs.py
* chore(skills): relocate godmode + obliteratus to optional-skills
Rather than deleting outright, move both into optional-skills/ so they remain
installable via `hermes skills install` while leaving the always-injected
bundled catalog (which is what tripped Anthropic's classifier).
- optional-skills/security/godmode (was skills/red-teaming/godmode)
- optional-skills/mlops/obliteratus (was skills/mlops/inference/obliteratus)
- regenerate optional-skills catalog + sidebar entries
Teknium