Hermes yesterday, October 13, 2026: 512 commits, then the release

512 commits hit main, more than double any day this series has covered, and the release was cut right behind them: v0.22.0 stable shipped overnight from the day’s last commit. The headline: a fresh Desktop install now opens a setup chat, and the free model turns into a one-time trial for it. Here are the 10 that matter.

1. A fresh Desktop install opens a setup chat

Before: first-run setup lived in a separate hermes-setup profile, started with /initiate-setup, asked its questions on generic cards and handed off to a new chat at the end. After: a fresh Desktop install opens one chat in the default profile that walks through your name, an accent color, a layout, apps to connect, plugins, a quick tour and up to four first tasks picked for you, one card per step; typing in the composer answers the waiting card. Skip setup ends it, closing the app midway starts it over on the next launch, and Settings > Run onboarding again replays it on your configured model. Along the way the agent gained set_theme (it replaces apply_layout), so make it violet, dark mode works in any Desktop chat, and manage_connections can show a browsable connector directory card. Heads-up: /initiate-setup is gone on every surface, and an existing hermes-setup profile stays as an ordinary profile.

Pull requests: Onboarding backend, Setup chat and set_theme, Old setup flow removed, Connector directory card.

2. The free model becomes a one-time Desktop trial

Before: only the Microsoft Store build had the free model, and there it was on for the whole process: every CLI, gateway and backend boot created an anonymous Nous account, even with another provider configured, and any guest account could run inference. After: the free nous/welcome model is a one-time trial for the first Desktop install of an OS user who never used Hermes on that computer, on any bundle, and only on the Desktop’s local backend. The CLI, TUI and messaging gateway no longer create an account at boot or offer the free model; connectors still create their connectors-only identity on first use. Desktop guests that already chatted on the free model keep it, a lost trial (signed in, auth.json deleted) is never claimed again, and the split between trial and connector guests is enforced on the client until a server-side check lands.

Pull request: The free model becomes a one-time Desktop trial.

3. Memory edits stop wiping neighboring facts

Before: to change one fact, the memory tool’s replace rewrote the whole entry, and models often dropped the other facts in it: NVIDIA measured Opus 4.8 doing it in 19 of 40 tasks. A write without a target fell back to MEMORY.md, so user facts could land there. After: replace is gone and patch is the only edit: it changes exactly one span inside an entry and keeps the rest (1 of 40 in the same test), and a span that appears twice is refused with a request for more context. Every write needs a top-level target. Writes staged for approval before the change still replay, and external memory providers receive a patch as a whole-entry replace. Heads-up: patch does not yet match a span retyped with straight quotes, a plain dash or re-wrapped lines where the entry has the original; a fix is in review.

Pull requests: Patch and targets, Retyped-span fix in review.

4. Stable installs stay on stable

Before: rerunning the installer moved a stable install back to main, because Hermes-Setup bakes --branch main, and its update mode dropped the channel the Desktop asked for. The update check then offered an older stable release as a new update. After: an installer rerun keeps an install whose recorded channel is not main where it is and leaves the move to hermes update, and Hermes-Setup forwards the channel. When the checkout is newer than the chosen stable release, Desktop, hermes update --check, hermes --version and the dashboard call it a rollback (Roll back to v0.21.7) instead of an update. Installs with no channel record, a main record or an explicit --commit behave as before. Not run for real yet: the macOS Hermes-Setup app; the Windows installer is covered by CI tests only.

Pull request: Stable installs stay on stable.

5. Connector tools send and save real files

Before: a connector tool that takes a file, like a mail attachment or a drive upload, asked the model for a storage key only the tool gateway can create, so every such call failed, and files a tool returned came back as storage links that expire in about an hour. After: the model passes a local path; Hermes checks it, uploads it (up to 20 MB) and runs the tool, and returned files are saved under downloads/connectors in the Hermes home, where the model can send them on with MEDIA:. Which files may leave follows the MEDIA: rule: on a default install any regular file outside the credential and system denylist, in strict mode (gateway.strict) only caches, allowed folders and recent files. SSH, Modal and other remote terminal backends are refused, downloads stay until you delete them, and the PR’s live checks against the real gateway were listed without results when it merged.

Pull request: Connector tools send and save real files.

6. A dead MCP login stops hammering the server

Before: an OAuth MCP server whose refresh token was rejected re-sent that dead token on every new session (Desktop and TUI rediscover on every agent build while nothing is connected, the gateway once per cron job), four requests each time. One user hit about 200 failed refreshes a minute and got his IP rate-limited out of the Nous Portal. After: the parked server stays quiet until hermes mcp login or a Desktop re-auth rewrites its token files, then comes back on the next session. The 5-minute self-probe still retries, and three fixes for that slower drip are still in review.

Pull requests: Fix, In review, self-probe, In review, self-probe, In review, self-probe.

7. Gemini 4 Argon, and Gemini thinking settings that stick

Before: Argon was not in the model lists, any reasoning effort left it at its medium default, and output past 32,768 tokens was cut and reported as a normal stop. On Gemini 3.x, turning reasoning off sent a budget of 0 that those models reject or ignore. After: gemini-4-argon is selectable on Gemini, Vertex, OpenRouter and Nous (Gemini 3.8 Flash stays the default), and effort maps to Google’s thinkingLevel by version number for every Gemini 3 and up. On the native endpoints, xhigh and max turn on long decode, up to 262,144 and 1,048,576 output tokens, with a hop ceiling so a server cannot keep billing, and a dropped stream resumes from its last checkpoint instead of starting over. Gaps: no long decode on OpenRouter, proxies or the OAuth Vertex provider, and after a resume the tokens generated before the drop are missing from reported usage. Introductory price: $2 in, $10 out per million tokens, doubling on 1 Dec per Google.

Pull requests: Argon and long decode, Thinking by version, hop ceiling, Stream resume.

8. Typing answers the question card

Before: in Desktop, typing in the composer while a clarify card waited cancelled the card with every question unanswered and sent your words as a separate steer, so the model did not know which question they answered. After: the words answer the card’s first open question, text that matches a choice label picks that choice, and each Enter answers one question. Slash commands, attachments and an empty Enter (Stop) work as before. The onboarding cards, theme pickers and the connector directory take typed words the same way; the CLI, TUI and messaging apps are unchanged.

Pull request: Typing answers the question card.

9. MCP tool schemas: reloads and $refs that work

Before: /reload-mcp said reloaded, but a tool that kept its name also kept its old description and parameters. And values behind a $ref in an MCP tool’s schema, common with pydantic and zod servers, reached the tool as the model typed them: 5 as a string for an integer field, first_name where the server named the key first name. After: an explicit reload publishes same-name schema changes (the automatic refresh between turns still does not, to protect the prompt cache), and local $refs are followed for type conversion and key mapping. Still not parsed: a JSON string sent for a union with no top-level type.

Pull requests: /reload-mcp, $ref arguments.

10. 29 new plugins in the catalog

Keeping an eye on the agent is the day’s theme: two ledgers, an independent verifier, runtime guardrails and a fleet operations page. BrowserPaw, delisted on 3 Oct, is back with credential-free MCP delegation. Catalog entries do not wait for a release: they go live once the published catalog refreshes.

• Oversight and observability: agent-ledger, context-audit, hermes-call-ledger, hermes-guide, hermes-verifier, llm-antidote, operations
• Memory and context: betterdb, hermes-vcc, kumiho-memory, long-conversations, wicked-memory
• Workflows and automation: auto-pin, heartbeat2, myswarm
• Data and search: colorado-traffic, event-read, index-search
• Shopping and ads: adwhispr, channel3
• Languages: hermes-lang-ca, hermes-lang-el, hermes-lang-th
• Phones and apps: hermes-mobile, phone-harness
• Models and accounts: account-pool, netmind-provider
• Messaging and voice: telegram-stickers, ttsbuddy

Meanwhile, in the engine room

Dozens of fixes landed yesterday that you will probably never see. Most of them went into polishing the new Desktop onboarding before the release cut.

• Telemetry that stopped sending after an update dropped a value old rows still held, like a v0.21.6 Spotify row, now re-buckets or skips that row and sends the rest of the day (pull request).
• On Linux, a git exiting anywhere on the machine during the launch-time index.lock check no longer fails the Hermes launch (pull request).
• Windows Store and App Installer updates get past Could not register automatic relaunch, which aborted them before installing (pull request).
• hermes://plugin/install catalog links, broken since they shipped, now ask the backend for the entry (pull request).

If you noticed none of this, it worked.

All on main and already shipped. Latest stable: v0.22.0.

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