_check_local_runtime() only imported 'hindsight' and
'hindsight_embed.daemon_embed_manager', a strictly weaker import surface
than the embedded daemon actually needs: the daemon imports
sentence_transformers at startup (embeddings + reranker). When the
embedding stack is broken (e.g. a dependency conflict on a shared package
like huggingface-hub), the daemon can never start, yet is_available() and
'hermes memory status' still report Hindsight as available — every
retain/recall then fails silently.
Import sentence_transformers in the same probe so local/local_embedded
availability goes red with the real ImportError as the reason, letting
the agent degrade loudly instead of silently dropping memory. Local path
only; cloud mode is untouched and no network or model download is
triggered by the import.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01MN8RMDLwxCfFxwtADoEJJf
ab2c9289ca