Merging the RFC as the agreed product contract for long-running-session assistant replies. Thank you @franksong2702! 🙏
It's docs-only (no code), well-structured, and gives the project a shared vocabulary for the follow-up implementation slices — in particular the honest terminal-state set (completed / cancelled / interrupted / compression-exhausted / tool-limit-reached / no-response / error, specific-wins-over-generic) and the live → settled → recovery/replay lifecycle. Nathan blessed merging it as the north-star contract.
## Release v0.51.238 — Release HF (stage-q9)
Phase 3 MEDIUM-ring pick (3-factor: contributor×impact×mitigated-risk) — high-impact perf fix to the most-clicked affordance from a regular contributor (@franksong2702 ★★★), small code surface, CI-green.
### Fixed
| PR | Author | Fix |
|----|--------|-----|
| #2518 follow-up | @franksong2702 | Clicking **New Conversation** on a cold start no longer hangs 3–4s on a catalog rebuild. `newSession()` fills `model_provider` from `window._activeProvider` (then prev-session) when the dropdown carries none, so `POST /api/session/new` takes the fast path on the first click too. |
### Pre-release dual gate caught a wrong-backend routing bug (fixed + regression-tested)
The server fast path passes `(model, provider)` through **without validating the pair**, so naively attaching the active provider to *any* bare model could silently route to the wrong backend (e.g. bare `claude-opus-4.8` + active `openrouter`). **Codex** flagged this; **Opus** had judged it acceptable ("respect the selection over silent swap"). I took the stricter, empirically-grounded path and added a **family-mismatch guard** mirroring the server's own bare-prefix→provider map (`gpt`→openai, `claude`→anthropic, `gemini`→google): when the model's known family differs from the fallback provider, `model_provider` stays `null` so the server slow-path's family repair runs. This keeps the perf win for the common matching case while closing the mis-route. Backend behavioral tests confirm fast-path-on-match + slow-path-on-mismatch. (Also re-anchored the source-shape test assertions on the real `reqBody.model_provider=` assignment per Codex's 2nd note.)
### Gate results
- **Full pytest suite**: 7495 passed, 9 skipped, 3 xpassed, **0 failed**
- **ESLint runtime gate**: CLEAN · **ruff**: CLEAN · **browser-smoke**: CLEAN
- **Codex (regression)**: SHIP ONLY WITH FIXES → guard + test-anchor applied → re-reviewed **SAFE TO SHIP**
- **Opus (correctness)**: reviewed the original (judged acceptable); the shipped version is strictly safer (adds the family guard)
Note: `docs/pr-media/2518/{PR_BODY.md,bench.py}` are the contributor's review aids, included per the tracked `docs/pr-media/` convention (157 files already tracked) — not app code.
Closes#2518.
Co-authored-by: franksong2702 <franksong2702@users.noreply.github.com>
Information-architecture pass on the 840-line README so the most important
things come first and secondary/niche content is linked rather than inline:
- Reorder: Why -> Quick start -> FEATURES (was at line 502, now right after
Quick start) -> Configuration & access -> Docker -> Running tests ->
Architecture -> Docs -> Contributors. Readers see what it does before the
deployment minutiae.
- Consolidate the scattered access sections (start.sh discovery, overrides,
remote/SSH, Tailscale, manual launch) under one '## Configuration & access'
H2 with H3 subsections.
- Extract two genuinely-niche blocks to new linked docs (nothing deleted):
- docs/advanced-chat-setup.md — dynamic recall-prefill + Gateway-backed chat
- docs/remote-access.md — SSH tunnel + Tailscale + ARM64-Android field report
Quick start keeps a one-line pointer to each.
- Update Contents TOC + Docs index for the new order and new files.
README 840 -> 705 lines; content preserved (verified moved-not-dropped); all
internal links + new docs verified to resolve; docs/*.md gitignore-allowlisted.
Opt-in HTTP runner-client boundary for the runner-local runtime adapter
(RFC hermes-run-adapter-contract / #1925, Slice 4c/4d). Default-OFF:
without HERMES_WEBUI_RUNNER_BASE_URL the factory preserves the bounded
'not configured' path; when set, WebUI acts only as a JSON HTTP client +
SSE bridge for start/observe/status/controls without owning runner maps.
New api/runner_client.py + additive _runner_* helpers in api/routes.py;
no change to the live _run_agent_streaming legacy path.
Co-authored-by: AJV20 <AJV20@users.noreply.github.com>
Scheduled cron jobs created in the Tasks panel never tick on a
single-container Docker install because the WebUI doesn't run the
gateway daemon itself. The maintainer's analysis on #2785 spells this
out: the gateway ticks the scheduler every 60s, and without it
'Gateway not configured' just sits there.
The Tasks panel already shows a banner explaining this, but doesn't
give the user anywhere to go. Two small docs-shaped changes:
1. Add a 'Scheduled jobs require a gateway daemon' section to
docs/docker.md under 'What goes wrong' with the two-container
compose command and a verify step. Cross-linked from the existing
short paragraph higher up so both entry points land on the same
fix.
2. Append a 'How to enable scheduled jobs in Docker' link to the
cron panel banner (loadCronGatewayNotice) pointing at the new
docs anchor when the gateway is unconfigured. The banner text
itself is unchanged.
Verified locally by serving the WebUI without a gateway, opening
Tasks, and confirming the banner now shows the new link; clicked it
and confirmed it lands on the new docs section. With the gateway
running the banner stays hidden as before.
Refs #2785
Four code-review comments from the automated Copilot reviewer on this PR:
1. `_journal_tool_already_present` dedupe was session-wide, so a
legitimately-repeated tool (e.g. a second `terminal: ls` in an
earlier turn) could cause the retry path to falsely skip
materializing the recovered tool card. The helper now takes a
keyword `stream_id` argument; when supplied, a tool card whose
`_recovered_stream_id` is set AND differs from the candidate is no
longer treated as a duplicate. Untagged tool cards (live tools, or
tool cards carried over from a pre-tagging core transcript) still
match, preserving the existing 'core transcript already has this
tool, don't duplicate' invariant. Two new tests in
`TestJournalToolDedupeScoping` cover both legs of the rule.
2./3. The troubleshooting FAQ pointed at `~/.hermes/webui/sessions/session_<sid>.json`
and `~/.hermes/_run_journal/...`. The actual sidecar filename has
no `session_` prefix and the run-journal lives under the WebUI
sessions dir (`~/.hermes/webui/sessions/_run_journal/<sid>/<stream>.jsonl`,
default). Both paths fixed and an explicit note added about
`HERMES_WEBUI_STATE_DIR` overriding the state root.
4. Drop unused `json` / `queue` / `Path` imports from
`tests/test_session_lost_response_regression.py` so the file stops
carrying noise that future linting would flag.
CHANGELOG: append an Unreleased / Fixed entry describing the user-visible
behaviour change (interrupted-turn marker now self-heals on the next
session read; gives up gracefully after 12 retries or 24h).
docs/troubleshooting.md: add a 'Symptom → Why → Diagnostic → Fix →
Caps → When to file a bug' entry for the
'no agent output was recovered' marker so users who hit the lost-response
shape on WSL2 / network FS can recognise it, verify the run-journal on
disk, and know that reloading the session is enough.
