An unset browser.backend ("") now resolves to Browser Use mode whenever
the browser-use CLI is runnable (installed binary or uvx); otherwise the
built-in browser tools are kept so browsing never silently breaks.
Camofox setups always keep the built-in tools (no CDP surface), and
backend: off (including YAML 1.1 bare off -> False) forces the built-in
stack. hermes tools row highlighting follows the same effective-mode
resolution, and tests/tools/ pins CLI discovery off so host uvx installs
can't flip built-in-browser tests.
Cold CLI time-to-banner was ~1.8s (hermes) / ~2.8s (hermes -w). The banner
path was paying for work the session doesn't need before first input:
- aux availability probes built REAL OpenAI/httpx clients (openai import
~0.3s + SSL context) just to answer check_fns. New aux_probe_mode()
returns a cache-excluded stub; resolution policy unchanged.
- tools/mcp_tool imported the mcp SDK (~260ms, mcp.types pydantic model
construction) at module import even with zero MCP servers configured.
SDK import is now lazy behind _ensure_mcp_sdk(); _MCP_AVAILABLE is a
find_spec probe so every existing gate/test keeps its semantics.
- banner blocked 500ms on the update-check prefetch; now waits 50ms and
defers the warning line to a daemon thread (prints above the prompt).
- banner recomputed get_tool_definitions + skills scan + git state every
launch; now snapshotted to ~/.hermes/cache/banner_snapshot.json keyed on
(config.yaml, .env, checkout rev, toolsets) and replayed on warm launches
with a background refresh. Agent tool list is still computed fresh.
- _resolve_active_context_length probed the Nous portal /models (~200ms
network) per launch; the tool-search gate now prefers the on-disk
context cache when present.
- schema reconciliation re-executed SCHEMA_SQL in a scratch SQLite DB
(~85ms) per SessionDB(); the reference parse is now disk-memoized by
DDL hash (live-DB diffing still runs every startup).
- bundled-skills sync (~120-170ms rglob/hash) moved off the startup path
to a daemon thread; plugin discovery starts in the background and every
synchronous consumer joins via discover_plugins().
- hermes_cli.auth imported httpx eagerly (~30ms); now a lazy proxy that
test monkeypatching still reaches (setattr forwards to the real module).
- fast chat launch: unambiguous 'hermes'/'hermes chat' invocations skip
building all ~40 subcommand parsers (bails to full dispatch on anything
else, incl. container mode).
- -w path: git worktree add runs with checkout.workers=8 (0.6s→0.2s) and
overlaps HermesCLI construction; --skills preload runs in the background
and is folded in at agent init (finalize_preloaded_skills, same
fail-loud contract for fully-unknown skill lists); stale-worktree prune
moved off the banner path.
Warm results (PTY time-to-banner, 5-run): hermes 1.80s → 0.38-0.40s;
hermes -w -s hermes-agent-dev --yolo 2.82s → 0.57-0.69s.
Move the autouse `_disable_lazy_stt_install` fixture out of the three
transcription test files and into `tests/tools/conftest.py` as a regular
(non-autouse) fixture. Each transcription test module opts in once at
the top via `pytestmark = pytest.mark.usefixtures(...)`.
Why: addresses three Copilot inline review comments on this PR that
flagged the verbatim duplication across files. Centralizing also keeps
the patch target in a single place, so a future rename of
`_try_lazy_install_stt` only updates one location.
Why opt-in (not autouse in conftest): other `tests/tools/` files do not
patch `_HAS_FASTER_WHISPER` and have no reason to bypass the runtime
lazy-install probe; making the fixture autouse globally would silently
mask any future test that wants to exercise the real lazy-install path.
* ci(tests): install ripgrep from prebuilt tarball instead of apt
apt-get update + install of ripgrep takes ~4 min on the GHA Ubuntu
runners (the apt-get update against archive.ubuntu.com is the slow
part; ripgrep itself is small). Switching to the upstream musl
binary tarball cuts the step to a few seconds.
- Pinned to ripgrep 15.1.0 with sha256 verification (same hash as
published in the releases sha256 sidecar file).
- Drops the `rg` binary into /usr/local/bin so it is on PATH for
every subsequent step without GITHUB_PATH manipulation.
- Applied to both the test and e2e jobs in tests.yml.
* fix(cli): compile syntax check to tempdir, not source __pycache__
`_validate_critical_files_syntax` runs `py_compile.compile()` on each
critical bootstrap file after a successful `git pull`. The default
`py_compile` writes the resulting `.pyc` next to the source under
`__pycache__/`, which causes two real problems:
1. Parallel test workers walking the same source tree (e.g. running
the suite under per-file process isolation) can race against each
other on the `__pycache__` write — manifests as flaky 'directory
not empty' errors during teardown.
2. In production, the post-pull syntax check leaves a `.pyc` behind
that the next interpreter run might pick up — fine when the
interpreter version matches, sketchy if it doesn't.
Fix: write the compiled output to a `tempfile.TemporaryDirectory()`
that's discarded on function exit. We only care about the compile-or-not
signal, not the artifact.
* test(runner): per-file process isolation, drop manual state reset + xdist
Replace fragile manual _reset_module_state test fixtures with robust
per-file subprocess isolation. Each test file runs in a fresh
`python -m pytest <file>` subprocess via ThreadPoolExecutor. No xdist,
no custom pytest plugin, no shared worker state.
Key changes:
* scripts/run_tests_parallel.py — new runner: discovers test files,
runs N in parallel via ThreadPoolExecutor, captures stdout per file,
treats exit code 5 (no tests collected) as pass, kills all children
on exit. Change from cpu_count to cpu_count*2. The runner is
I/O-bound (waiting on subprocess.communicate() from pytest children)
The parent process does almost no CPU work, so 2x oversubscription
keeps more pipes full. When a file fails, immediately show the last
30 lines of pytest output (stack traces + FAILED summary) plus a
ready-to-copy repro command:
python -m pytest tests/agent/test_auxiliary_client.py
* scripts/run_tests.sh — delegates to run_tests_parallel.py
* .github/workflows/tests.yml — test step: python
scripts/run_tests_parallel.py
* pyproject.toml — drop pytest-xdist, pytest-split; simplify addopts
* tests/conftest.py — remove ~200 lines of manual state-reset fixtures
* AGENTS.md — update Testing section for per-file design
* test(runner): speed gateway test antipattern scan up
* fix(test): web search provider plugin test missing xai
* fix(tests): make 14 test files pass under per-file subprocess isolation
Tests that relied on cross-file state pollution from xdist workers
fail when run in isolation (per-file subprocess model). Root causes
and fixes:
Tool registry not populated:
- test_video_generation_tool_surface_matrix: add discover_builtin_tools()
- test_web_providers_brave_free/ddgs/searxng/general: autouse fixtures
registering all 8 bundled web providers, reset after each test
- test_website_policy: same provider registration pattern
- test_web_tools_tavily: same pattern across 3 dispatch test classes
- Also add is_safe_url/check_website_access mocks where SSRF check
blocks example.com (DNS resolution fails in isolated envs)
Stale check_fn cache:
- test_kanban_tools: invalidate_check_fn_cache() + _clear_tool_defs_cache()
in both kanban guidance tests (prior test cached False for kanban_show)
- test_discord_tool: cache invalidation in setup/teardown
- test_homeassistant_tool: invalidate_check_fn_cache() before registry queries
Module-level state pollution:
- test_auxiliary_client: autouse fixture clearing _aux_unhealthy_until cache
- test_skill_commands: set_session_vars() instead of patch.dict(os.environ)
(ContextVar takes precedence over os.environ)
- test_dm_topics: overwrite sys.modules + separate telegram.constants mock
+ force-reimport of gateway.platforms.telegram
- test_terminal_tool_requirements: removed duplicate class declaration,
autouse _clear_caches fixture
* change(tests): run_tests.sh explicitly includes env vars
instead of manually dropping some vars, now we just only include some
* fix(tests): 5 more isolation/NixOS fixes
- test_approval_plugin_hooks: isolate HERMES_HOME so real user's
command_allowlist doesn't short-circuit the approval path
- test_google_chat: skipif when Platform.GOOGLE_CHAT not in enum
(feature not merged on this branch)
- test_write_deny: test systemd prefix against tmp_path instead of
/etc/systemd which resolves to /nix/store on NixOS
- test_pty_bridge: use shutil.which('cat') instead of /bin/cat
(doesn't exist on NixOS)
- profiles.py: rmtree onexc handler chmod's parent dirs too, fixing
profile deletion when copytree preserved read-only modes from
nix store
* fix(tests): clear unhealthy cache in autouse fixture for auxiliary_client
* fix(tests): skip send_message when telegram not installed; handle missing worker_id in browser_supervisor
* fix: py3.11 rmtree onexc compat + belt-and-suspenders unhealthy cache clear for expired codex test
* fix: address PR #29016 review feedback
- Remove tracked .pytest-cache/ artifact and add to .gitignore
- Fix stale 'xdist worker' comment in conftest.py
- Deduplicate web provider registration into tests/tools/conftest.py
shared helper (register_all_web_providers), replacing 8 copy-pasted
blocks across 6 test files
- Update PR description: remove stale recovered-test-files claim,
fix worker count to match code (cpu_count*2)
* fix: eliminate race in stale-cache achievements test
The background scan thread could complete and overwrite _SNAPSHOT_CACHE
before evaluate_all() returned the stale data — only 10 fake sessions
made the scan finish instantly. Added scan_delay param to _FakeSessionDB
and set it to 2s in the stale-cache test so the background thread can't
win the race.
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