Agent instructions for Hermes WebUI

This file is the shared entry point for AI assistants working in this repository. Keep it project-specific and safe to publish. Do not put personal machine setup, private network details, credentials, tokens, or local-only workflow notes here.

Documentation by task

Use the references that match the change; there is no blanket reading list for unrelated work. Keep subsystem-specific safety and contract requirements below.

• README.md for product behavior, setup, usage, and the docs index
• CONTRIBUTING.md for contribution scope, PR format, and review requirements
• docs/CONTRACTS.md to find the contract/RFC for the subsystem being changed
• docs/GUIDELINES.md for bug-class coverage, state ownership, and evidence standards
• CHANGELOG.md for release-history questions; ordinary PRs do not edit it
• ARCHITECTURE.md for design constraints and current module layout
• TESTING.md for local verification commands and relevant manual checks
• docs/onboarding.md for first-run onboarding behavior
• docs/troubleshooting.md for diagnostic flows
• docs/rfcs/README.md for larger RFCs and state/durability contracts
• docs/UIUX-GUIDE.md and DESIGN.md for layout, interaction flow, themes, chat rendering, and composer chrome

Onboarding and reinstall support

If the task involves install, reinstall, bootstrap, first-run onboarding, provider setup, local model server setup, Docker onboarding, WSL onboarding, or support for a failed first run, read docs/onboarding-agent-checklist.md before running commands or inspecting logs.

Follow that checklist's safety rules:

• use isolated HERMES_HOME and HERMES_WEBUI_STATE_DIR for trials unless the human explicitly asks to use real state
• do not delete or overwrite a real ~/.hermes directory without explicit approval
• do not print API keys, OAuth tokens, cookies, full .env files, full auth.json files, or password hashes
• collect non-secret status and log evidence before recommending a fix

Contribution style

• Keep one logical change per PR; split unrelated refactors or cleanup.
• Read docs/CONTRACTS.md and the linked contract/RFC for the touched subsystem before editing.
• For local pytest runs, use ./scripts/test.sh instead of bare python3, python -m pytest, or pytest. The script creates/uses the repo .venv, pins execution to Python 3.11-3.13, and installs missing dev test dependencies. HERMES_WEBUI_TEST_PYTHON selects the supported base interpreter used to create or rebuild .venv; it must not install test dependencies into a system/Homebrew interpreter directly. If a direct pytest invocation reports an unsupported interpreter, rerun through ./scripts/test.sh before debugging product code.
• Prefer the existing Python + vanilla JavaScript structure. Do not add dependencies, build tools, frameworks, or long-lived processes without clear justification and a rollback story.
• Update docs when changing setup, onboarding, runtime behavior, architecture, testing guidance, or user-facing workflows.
• Do not edit CHANGELOG.md in ordinary contributor PRs. The release workflow owns changelog updates through release commits. If a change is release-note worthy, include concise release-note wording in the PR body instead.
• For UI or UX changes, include before/after evidence and test relevant desktop, narrow, and mobile states.
• For behavior changes, add or update automated tests where practical and list the manual verification performed.
• For runtime, streaming, recovery, replay, compression, or sidebar metadata changes, name the state layer being mutated and prove the relevant invariant.
• Active-run Steer resolves the stream-bound agent with explicit stream and worker ownership before consulting the reusable session cache. Compression may rotate the agent identity; steering must never evict or close an agent. Keep HTTP response writes outside runtime registry locks. A Gateway-owned active run must resolve to the Gateway outcome before any local cache fallback, even when no in-process worker is registered for that stream. Stop publishes cancellation and detaches stream/agent entries under the same stream lock (STREAMS_LOCK -> ACTIVE_RUNS_LOCK); interrupt and session persistence remain outside it. The retained cache-only path (no registered worker) revalidates stream membership, owner, and active-run session/backend/phase and enqueues agent.steer() under that same lock edge, so a Stop that claims cancellation never strands guidance an earlier Steer response reported as accepted. Test both Stop/Steer orderings — registered and cache-only — with deterministic barriers. Initial active-run publication and its cancel flag must share that lock edge with Stop; do not recreate the flag after journal setup. Worker registration must also check its retained cancel event and live stream membership: Stop can remove CANCEL_FLAGS during initialization. Do not re-register a cancelled worker; finalize outside the stream lock. Local Steer accepts only explicit starting/running phases. Close admission by publishing finalizing under STREAMS_LOCK before the last pending-steer drain; earlier accepted guidance is drained, later guidance is rejected with not_running while the owned stream is still live (not stream_dead). Use one idempotent terminal settlement before done/error/end and final cleanup, covering returned errors, exceptions and self-heal, not only the success path. Merge Agent-returned pending_steer with the registered worker's final slot drain and emit leftovers before terminal events, outside registry locks. Test both drain/Steer orderings, including compression-rotated identities.
• Inactive-session recovery is separate from live Steer. Resolve durable compression lineage in the session's profile database, read-only, even when the WebUI sidecar has no snapshot flag. Never reopen a sealed parent. Reject stale chat POSTs before workspace/model/pending-state mutation; the browser loads the continuation and preserves the draft without automatic replay. Explicit closures and unknown terminal reasons do not authorize a redirect.
• For Docker build changes in docker_init.bash, mirror directory exclusions in both the rsync and cp -a paths — /opt/hermes may contain subdirectories with restricted permissions (e.g. .playwright/).

Completion and verification

A change is ready for review when:

• The requested scope is implemented, with related call sites and lifecycle paths covered or explicitly identified as out of scope; unrelated cleanup is absent.
• Behavior changes have observable regression evidence where practical, including proof that a bug-fix test fails before the fix and passes after it. Evidence covers affected and neighboring tests, not only new tests.
• State changes identify the authoritative value and its owner, use that value through decision, action, and persistence, and account for cleanup on every exit. Fallbacks and defaults extend the existing mechanism rather than duplicate it.
• UI changes include before/after evidence at desktop and narrow widths and cover relevant mobile interactions; controls fit their frequency of use.
• Relevant docs are current. The PR body follows CONTRIBUTING.md, includes Contract Routing (and Contract Change for intentional contract changes) where required by docs/CONTRACTS.md, and reports actual commands, outcomes, assumptions, and anything not verified. Mocks are not proof of external behavior.

Within the requested scope, you may run local tests with disposable fixtures, fix failures caused by the change, and rerun affected tests without asking for approval at each step. Use ./scripts/test.sh for pytest as specified above. This permission applies only with confirmed isolated state and no live credentials or services; the runner manages Python dependencies but is not a network sandbox. It does not authorize modifying real state, handling credentials, restarting existing services, or exposing the app beyond localhost. Those actions require explicit human approval and the onboarding safety rules still apply. If verification is blocked, report the blocker rather than claim completion.

Local state and secrets

Hermes WebUI can read and write real agent state, sessions, workspaces, credentials, and cron data. Treat local validation as potentially destructive unless you have confirmed the active state directories.

For authority, capability, identity, or containment checks, fail closed when safety cannot be confirmed: unknown is not allowed. Validate adversarial inputs at the point of use, account for check-then-use races, and scope caches by the complete identity so profiles and sessions cannot leak into each other.

Prefer isolated trial state for experiments:

HERMES_HOME=/tmp/hermes-webui-agent-home \
HERMES_WEBUI_STATE_DIR=/tmp/hermes-webui-agent-state \
HERMES_WEBUI_PORT=8789 \
python3 bootstrap.py

Do not include private machine instructions in this tracked file. Use a git-ignored local note for personal workflow details.