Hermes skills

/hermes-skills — install a curated skill pack on a remote Hermes (SSH-first)

You are the engineer installing skills onto a self-hosted Hermes agent on the user's VPS. You (the AI agent — Hermes, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini, any of them) work over SSH as root against the VPS. Every hermes skills ... command in this skill runs on the VPS, not on the local machine.

Do everything autonomously; stop only for things a machine cannot do (decide which pack, approve a custom tap).

Honest picture (verified 2026-06): Hermes leaf skill names are version-dependent. A hardcoded id like anthropics/skills/pdf may resolve fine on 0.15.x and rename to anthropic/pdf on 0.17.x. Always hermes skills search <keyword> BEFORE installing and match the canonical id the runtime returns. Pre-trusted taps ship without tap add: openai/skills, anthropics/skills, huggingface/skills, NVIDIA/skills, garrytan/gstack. Anything else needs hermes skills tap add owner/repo first.

---

Before you start — gather (ask once, in one batch)

Variable	What	Where to get it
$VPS_IP	IP/hostname of the VPS running Hermes	User's hosting dashboard
$VPS_USER	SSH user (typically root)	User's hosting dashboard
$PACK	Space-separated keywords for the desired pack (e.g. "pdf k8s gstack")	User's intent — confirm aloud before installing
Custom taps (optional)	owner/repo for any non-pre-trusted tap	Their internal registry, if any

Confirm SSH access before doing anything:

ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=accept-new -o BatchMode=yes \
    "$VPS_USER@$VPS_IP" "echo ok" 2>&1 | grep -q '^ok$' \
  || { echo "ABORT: SSH to $VPS_USER@$VPS_IP failed. Run /setup-ssh-keys first."; exit 1; }

---

Step 1 — verify Hermes is reachable on the VPS

ssh "$VPS_USER@$VPS_IP" '
  set -e
  if command -v hermes >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    hermes --version
  elif docker ps --format "{{.Names}}" | grep -q hermes; then
    AGENT=$(docker ps --filter name=hermes --format "{{.Names}}" | head -1)
    docker exec "$AGENT" hermes --version
  else
    echo "FAIL: hermes not found on host or in container"; exit 1
  fi
' || { echo "ABORT: Hermes is not installed/running. Run /hermes-install first."; exit 1; }

Expected: 0.15.x or 0.17.x. The pre-trusted tap list above was verified on 0.15.2; on 0.17.x re-run hermes skills tap list to confirm before assuming any tap.

---

Step 2 — idempotency check (skip already-installed leaves)

For every keyword in $PACK, see what is already installed. Skip those and only act on the rest. This makes the skill safe to re-run.

INSTALLED=$(ssh "$VPS_USER@$VPS_IP" "hermes skills list 2>/dev/null" || echo "")
TODO=""
for kw in $PACK; do
  if printf '%s\n' "$INSTALLED" | grep -qi "$kw"; then
    echo "SKIP: '$kw' already present in 'hermes skills list'."
  else
    TODO="$TODO $kw"
  fi
done
if [ -z "$TODO" ] && [ "${FORCE:-0}" != "1" ]; then
  echo "All requested skills already installed. Set FORCE=1 to reinstall."
  exit 0
fi
echo "Will resolve + install:$TODO"

---

Step 3 — DRY RUN preview (always show before installing)

cat <<EOF
DRY RUN — the following will happen on $VPS_USER@$VPS_IP:
  1. For each keyword in '$TODO', run 'hermes skills search <kw>' and pick the top exact match.
  2. Refuse to proceed for any keyword whose top hit is not from a pre-trusted tap,
     unless the user explicitly approved it (custom tap requires 'hermes skills tap add' first).
  3. Run 'hermes skills install <canonical-id> --force' for each resolved id.
  4. Verify each landed via 'hermes skills list | grep -i <kw>'.
  5. Optionally enable 'skills.guard_agent_created: true' for unattended deploys.

No secrets are written. No gateway reload is required for skill install.
EOF

If the user confirms (or AUTO_APPROVE=1), proceed to Step 4.

---

Step 4 — resolve canonical ids (search BEFORE install)

Leaf names are version-dependent. Resolve every keyword first; capture the canonical id from the search output. Bundled skills (plan, systematic-debugging, test-driven-development, ...) already ship with Hermes — skip them with a clear log line instead of reinstalling.

BUNDLED_RE='^(plan|systematic-debugging|test-driven-development|brainstorming|writing-plans)$'
RESOLVED=""
for kw in $TODO; do
  if printf '%s\n' "$kw" | grep -qE "$BUNDLED_RE"; then
    echo "SKIP: '$kw' is bundled with Hermes — no install needed."
    continue
  fi
  HIT=$(ssh "$VPS_USER@$VPS_IP" "hermes skills search '$kw' 2>/dev/null" \
        | awk 'NR==1 {print $1}')
  if [ -z "$HIT" ]; then
    echo "FAIL: no skill matches '$kw'. Aborting before any install."
    exit 1
  fi
  echo "RESOLVED: $kw -> $HIT"
  RESOLVED="$RESOLVED $HIT"
done

Pre-trusted taps you can install from without tap add: openai/skills, anthropics/skills, huggingface/skills, NVIDIA/skills, garrytan/gstack.

If a resolved id is from a different owner, run this first (only with user approval):

ssh "$VPS_USER@$VPS_IP" "hermes skills tap add <owner>/<repo>"

---

Step 5 — install each resolved skill (idempotent with --force)

for id in $RESOLVED; do
  ssh "$VPS_USER@$VPS_IP" "hermes skills install '$id' --force" \
    || { echo "FAIL: install of '$id' failed. Rolling back."; rollback; exit 1; }
done

--force makes re-runs idempotent: it re-fetches the leaf even if a stale copy exists in ~/.hermes/skills/, which is the documented mitigation for the "self-evaluated skill went quietly broken" pitfall below.

---

Step 6 — (optional) enable guard agent for unattended deploys

If the agent is expected to author its own skills (e.g. via /skill-creator in an unattended loop), turn on the guard so written skills are scanned for dangerous shell patterns before they are registered. No gateway reload needed — it picks up on next call.

ssh "$VPS_USER@$VPS_IP" "hermes config set skills.guard_agent_created true"

Skip if the user only wants curated installs.

---

Step 7 — verify each skill landed (poll up to 30s)

hermes skills install returns 0 on a successful fetch but the registry refresh can lag. Poll hermes skills list until every requested keyword shows up.

for kw in $TODO; do
  printf '%s\n' "$kw" | grep -qE "$BUNDLED_RE" && continue
  LANDED=0
  for i in $(seq 1 6); do
    if ssh "$VPS_USER@$VPS_IP" "hermes skills list 2>/dev/null" | grep -qi "$kw"; then
      LANDED=1
      echo "OK: '$kw' visible in 'hermes skills list'."
      break
    fi
    sleep 5
  done
  if [ "$LANDED" != "1" ]; then
    echo "FAIL: '$kw' did not appear in 'hermes skills list' after 30s. Rolling back."
    rollback
    exit 1
  fi
done

---

Step 8 — live invocation smoke test

For each installed skill, ask Hermes to describe it. A clean description (not "skill not found") confirms the runtime parsed the SKILL.md frontmatter.

for id in $RESOLVED; do
  LEAF=$(printf '%s\n' "$id" | awk -F/ '{print $NF}')
  OUT=$(ssh "$VPS_USER@$VPS_IP" "hermes skills describe '$LEAF' 2>&1" || true)
  case "$OUT" in
    *"not found"*|*"unknown skill"*)
      echo "FAIL: '$LEAF' installed but describe failed: $OUT"
      rollback
      exit 1
      ;;
    "")
      echo "WARN: 'describe $LEAF' produced no output; check manually."
      ;;
    *)
      echo "OK: '$LEAF' described."
      ;;
  esac
done

hermes skills describe is the closest analogue to a tool-call smoke test for skills — it confirms the leaf parses and the registry can route to it.

---

Rollback (auto-runs on any failure above)

rollback() {
  for id in $RESOLVED; do
    ssh "$VPS_USER@$VPS_IP" "hermes skills uninstall '$id' 2>/dev/null || true"
  done
  ssh "$VPS_USER@$VPS_IP" "hermes config unset skills.guard_agent_created 2>/dev/null || true"
  echo "Rolled back. Requested skills are no longer installed."
}

No gateway reload is needed — skills are loaded lazily on first invocation, so removing them from the registry is enough.

---

Pitfalls

#	Pitfall	Why it bites	Prevention
1	Hardcoding unverified leaf names	Leaf ids are version-dependent; rename between 0.15.x and 0.17.x	Always hermes skills search <kw> first; install the canonical id the runtime returns
2	Reinstalling bundled skills	plan, systematic-debugging, test-driven-development ship in-box; reinstall can shadow the bundled copy	Skip the bundled regex list in Step 4
3	Installing from an untrusted tap without tap add	Hermes refuses the fetch; user sees an opaque error	Confirm owner is in the pre-trusted list, otherwise hermes skills tap add owner/repo with explicit user approval
4	"Confidently uses a skill that broke last week"	Self-evaluated skills can go quietly broken between versions	Periodically re-run with FORCE=1; review ~/.hermes/skills/
5	Unattended deploys with no guard	Agent-authored skills can run dangerous shell unscanned	hermes config set skills.guard_agent_created true (Step 6)
6	gateway restart after install	Restart does NOT reliably re-read config; also unnecessary for skills	Skill install is a registry write, lazy-loaded — no reload needed
7	echo "x" >> ~/.hermes/.env for any side-config	Can merge onto a prior line without trailing newline	Always hermes config set for any config write
8	Secrets sneaking into a skill payload	A community skill could ship a stub that reads .env at runtime	Review the SKILL.md before approving a custom tap; keep ~/.hermes/.env chmod 600
9	sed with / delimiter on tokens	Custom tap urls/tokens may contain /+=	Always use | delimiter when patching config
10	Container vs host confusion	Skill installed in a container that gets rebuilt is lost	Always whoami; hostname check; confirm install path is on a mounted volume

---

Definition of done

• SSH to $VPS_USER@$VPS_IP succeeded
• Hermes version verified on the VPS (0.15.x / 0.17.x)
• Idempotency check passed (or FORCE=1 overrode) — already-installed leaves skipped
• Dry-run shown; user approved (or AUTO_APPROVE=1)
• Every keyword resolved to a canonical id via hermes skills search (no hardcoded leaves)
• Custom taps (if any) approved by user and tap add-ed before install
• Each resolved id installed with hermes skills install --force
• No secret was echoed; no echo >> used; any side-config went via hermes config set
• No gateway reload performed (not needed for skills)
• hermes skills list shows every requested keyword within 30s
• hermes skills describe <leaf> returns a clean description for each
• Rollback function defined and tested (re-run with FORCE=1 reinstalls cleanly)

See reference/TROUBLESHOOTING.md for tap and skill-registry failure modes.