Imported from mintoriakamoto/Hercules (skills/autonomous-ai-agents/hercules-agent/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add mintoriakamoto/Hercules --skill hercules-agent. Copyright stays with the author (MIT).

Hercules Agent

Hercules Agent is an open-source AI agent framework that runs in your terminal, a native desktop app, messaging platforms, and IDEs. It's in the same category as Claude Code (Anthropic), Codex (OpenAI), and OpenClaw — autonomous coding and task-execution agents that use tool calling to interact with your system. Hercules works with any LLM provider (OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, DeepSeek, xAI, local models, and 20+ others) and runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, and WSL.

What makes Hercules different:

• Self-improving through skills — Hercules learns from experience by saving reusable procedures as skills. When it solves a complex problem, discovers a workflow, or gets corrected, it can persist that knowledge as a skill document that loads into future sessions. Skills accumulate over time, making the agent better at your specific tasks and environment.
• Persistent memory across sessions — remembers who you are, your preferences, environment details, and lessons learned. Pluggable memory backends (built-in, Honcho, Mem0, and more) let you choose how memory works.
• Multi-platform gateway — the same agent runs on Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, iMessage, Signal, Matrix, Teams, Email, and a dozen more platforms with full tool access, not just chat.
• Many surfaces — the same agent core drives the CLI, the Ink TUI, a native Electron desktop app, a web dashboard, and an ACP server for IDEs (VS Code / Zed / JetBrains).
• Provider-agnostic — swap models and providers mid-workflow without changing anything else. Credential pools rotate across multiple API keys automatically.
• Profiles — run multiple independent Hercules instances with isolated configs, sessions, skills, and memory.
• Extensible — plugins, MCP servers, custom tools, webhook triggers, cron scheduling, and the full Python ecosystem.

People use Hercules for software development, research, system administration, data analysis, content creation, home automation, and anything else that benefits from an AI agent with persistent context and full system access.

This skill helps you work with Hercules Agent effectively — setting it up, configuring features, spawning additional agent instances, troubleshooting issues, finding the right commands and settings, and understanding how the system works when you need to extend or contribute to it.

Docs: https://github.com/mintoriakamoto/Hercules/tree/main/website/docs/

Scope & Verification

This skill is a concise operating guide, not the complete source of truth for every Hercules feature. If a Hercules feature, command, or setting is not mentioned here, do not treat that absence as evidence that it does not exist. Check the live repository and official docs before giving a negative answer.

Good verification targets:

• CLI commands: hercules --help, hercules <command> --help, and hercules_cli/main.py
• User documentation: https://github.com/mintoriakamoto/Hercules/tree/main/website/docs/
• Source tree: https://github.com/mintoriakamoto/Hercules

Quick Start

# Install (shell installer — sets up uv, Python, the venv, and the launcher)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mintoriakamoto/Hercules/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

# Or via PyPI (ships the TUI bundle + shell launcher)
pip install hercules-agent       # or: uv pip install hercules-agent

# Interactive chat (default surface; set display.interface: tui to launch the Ink TUI instead)
hercules

# Single query
hercules chat -q "What is the capital of France?"

# Setup wizard  /  pick model+provider  /  health check
hercules setup
hercules model
hercules doctor

# Other surfaces
hercules desktop                 # launch the native desktop app (alias: hercules gui)
hercules dashboard               # web admin panel + embedded chat
hercules proxy                   # OpenAI-compatible local proxy backed by your OAuth provider

CLI Reference

Global Flags

hercules [flags] [command]

  --version, -V             Show version
  --resume, -r SESSION      Resume session by ID or title
  --continue, -c [NAME]     Resume by name, or most recent session
  --worktree, -w            Isolated git worktree mode (parallel agents)
  --skills, -s SKILL        Preload skills (comma-separate or repeat)
  --profile, -p NAME        Use a named profile
  --yolo                    Skip dangerous command approval
  --pass-session-id         Include session ID in system prompt

No subcommand defaults to chat.

Chat

hercules chat [flags]
  -q, --query TEXT          Single query, non-interactive
  -m, --model MODEL         Model (e.g. anthropic/claude-sonnet-4)
  -t, --toolsets LIST       Comma-separated toolsets
  --provider PROVIDER       Force provider (openrouter, anthropic, nous, etc.)
  -v, --verbose             Verbose output
  -Q, --quiet               Suppress banner, spinner, tool previews
  --checkpoints             Enable filesystem checkpoints (/rollback)
  --source TAG              Session source tag (default: cli)

Configuration

hercules setup [section]      Interactive wizard (model|terminal|gateway|tools|agent)
hercules model                Interactive model/provider picker
hercules config               View current config
hercules config edit          Open config.yaml in $EDITOR
hercules config set KEY VAL   Set a config value
hercules config path          Print config.yaml path
hercules config env-path      Print .env path
hercules config check         Check for missing/outdated config
hercules config migrate       Update config with new options
hercules doctor [--fix]       Check dependencies and config
hercules status [--all]       Show component status

Credentials (OAuth + API keys, with pooling) are managed under hercules auth — see the Credentials & Pools section below.

Tools & Skills

hercules tools                Interactive tool enable/disable (curses UI)
hercules tools list           Show all tools and status
hercules tools enable NAME    Enable a toolset
hercules tools disable NAME   Disable a toolset

hercules skills list          List installed skills
hercules skills search QUERY  Search the skills hub
hercules skills install ID    Install a skill (ID can be a hub identifier OR a direct https://…/SKILL.md URL; pass --name to override when frontmatter has no name)
hercules skills inspect ID    Preview without installing
hercules skills config        Enable/disable skills per platform
hercules skills check         Check for updates
hercules skills update        Update outdated skills
hercules skills uninstall N   Remove a hub skill
hercules skills publish PATH  Publish to registry
hercules skills browse        Browse all available skills
hercules skills tap add REPO  Add a GitHub repo as skill source

MCP Servers

hercules mcp serve            Run Hercules as an MCP server
hercules mcp add NAME         Add an MCP server (--url or --command)
hercules mcp remove NAME      Remove an MCP server
hercules mcp list             List configured servers
hercules mcp test NAME        Test connection
hercules mcp configure NAME   Toggle tool selection

How the built-in MCP client connects servers (stdio/HTTP), auto-discovers their tools, and exposes them as first-class tools, plus catalog install (hercules mcp install <name>): skill_view(name="hercules-agent", file_path="references/native-mcp.md").

Gateway (Messaging Platforms)

hercules gateway run          Start gateway foreground
hercules gateway install      Install as background service
hercules gateway start/stop   Control the service
hercules gateway restart      Restart the service
hercules gateway status       Check status
hercules gateway setup        Configure platforms

Supported platforms (20+): Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp (Baileys bridge + official Business Cloud API), iMessage (Photon — hercules photon setup, the BlueBubbles successor with no Mac relay), Signal, Email, SMS, Matrix, Mattermost, Microsoft Teams, LINE, SimpleX, ntfy, Google Chat, Home Assistant, DingTalk, Feishu, WeCom, Weixin (WeChat), Raft (agent network), API Server, Webhooks. Open WebUI connects via the API Server adapter. Most adapters ship under plugins/platforms/, so new ones drop in without touching core.

Platform docs: https://github.com/mintoriakamoto/Hercules/tree/main/website/docs/user-guide/messaging/

Sessions

hercules sessions list        List recent sessions
hercules sessions browse      Interactive picker
hercules sessions export OUT  Export to JSONL
hercules sessions rename ID T Rename a session
hercules sessions delete ID   Delete a session
hercules sessions prune       Clean up old sessions (--older-than N days)
hercules sessions stats       Session store statistics

Cron Jobs

hercules cron list            List jobs (--all for disabled)
hercules cron create SCHED    Create: '30m', 'every 2h', '0 9 * * *'
hercules cron edit ID         Edit schedule, prompt, delivery
hercules cron pause/resume ID Control job state
hercules cron run ID          Trigger on next tick
hercules cron remove ID       Delete a job
hercules cron status          Scheduler status

Webhooks

hercules webhook subscribe N  Create route at /webhooks/<name>
hercules webhook list         List subscriptions
hercules webhook remove NAME  Remove a subscription
hercules webhook test NAME    Send a test POST

Full setup, route config, payload templating, and event-driven agent-run patterns: skill_view(name="hercules-agent", file_path="references/webhooks.md").

Profiles

hercules profile list         List all profiles
hercules profile create NAME  Create (--clone, --clone-all, --clone-from)
hercules profile use NAME     Set sticky default
hercules profile delete NAME  Delete a profile
hercules profile show NAME    Show details
hercules profile alias NAME   Manage wrapper scripts
hercules profile rename A B   Rename a profile
hercules profile export NAME  Export to tar.gz
hercules profile import FILE  Import from archive

Credentials & Pools

hercules auth                 Interactive credential manager
hercules auth add [PROVIDER]  Add OAuth or API-key credential
                            (e.g. nous, openai-codex, qwen-oauth, anthropic)
hercules auth list [PROVIDER] List pooled credentials
hercules auth remove P INDEX  Remove by provider + index
hercules auth reset PROVIDER  Clear exhaustion status

Multiple credentials per provider form a pool that rotates automatically and skips exhausted keys.

Other

hercules insights [--days N]  Usage analytics
hercules update               Update to latest version
hercules desktop / gui        Launch the native desktop app
hercules dashboard            Web admin panel + embedded chat
hercules proxy                OpenAI-compatible local proxy backed by an OAuth provider
hercules kanban <verb>        Multi-agent work-queue board (init/create/list/show/assign/…)
hercules pairing list/approve/revoke  DM authorization
hercules plugins list/install/remove  Plugin management
hercules secrets bitwarden …  External secret store (Bitwarden Secrets Manager)
hercules memory setup/status/off  Memory provider config
hercules send                 Send a one-off message through a gateway platform
hercules completion bash|zsh  Shell completions
hercules acp                  ACP server (IDE integration)
hercules claw migrate         Migrate from OpenClaw
hercules uninstall            Uninstall Hercules

For the full, authoritative command list run hercules --help (and hercules <command> --help). Plugin- and provider-supplied subcommands (e.g. hercules photon setup for iMessage) only appear once their plugin is installed/active.

Slash Commands (In-Session)

Type these during an interactive chat session. New commands land fairly often; if something below looks stale, run /help in-session for the authoritative list or see the live slash commands reference. The registry of record is hercules_cli/commands.py — every consumer (autocomplete, Telegram menu, Slack mapping, /help) derives from it.

Session Control

/new (/reset)        Fresh session
/clear               Clear screen + new session (CLI)
/retry               Resend last message
/undo                Remove last exchange
/title [name]        Name the session
/compress            Manually compress context
/stop                Kill background processes
/rollback [N]        Restore filesystem checkpoint
/snapshot [sub]      Create or restore state snapshots of Hercules config/state (CLI)
/background <prompt> Run prompt in background
/queue <prompt>      Queue for next turn
/steer <prompt>      Inject a message after the next tool call without interrupting
/agents (/tasks)     Show active agents and running tasks
/resume [name]       Resume a named session
/goal [text|sub]     Set a standing goal Hercules works on across turns until achieved
                     (subcommands: status, pause, resume, clear)
/redraw              Force a full UI repaint (CLI)

Configuration

/config              Show config (CLI)
/model [name]        Show or change model
/personality [name]  Set personality
/reasoning [level]   Set reasoning (none|minimal|low|medium|high|xhigh|max|ultra|show|hide)
/verbose             Cycle: off → new → all → verbose
/voice [on|off|tts]  Voice mode
/yolo                Toggle approval bypass
/busy [sub]          Control what Enter does while Hercules is working (CLI)
                     (subcommands: queue, steer, interrupt, status)
/indicator [style]   Pick the TUI busy-indicator style (CLI)
                     (styles: kaomoji, emoji, unicode, ascii)
/footer [on|off]     Toggle gateway runtime-metadata footer on final replies
/skin [name]         Change theme (CLI)
/statusbar           Toggle status bar (CLI)

Tools & Skills

/tools               Manage tools (CLI)
/toolsets            List toolsets (CLI)
/skills              Search/install skills (CLI)
/skill <name>        Load a skill into session
/reload-skills       Re-scan ~/.hercules/skills/ for added/removed skills
/reload              Reload .env variables into the running session (CLI)
/reload-mcp          Reload MCP servers
/cron                Manage cron jobs (CLI)
/curator [sub]       Background skill maintenance (status, run, pin, archive, …)
/kanban [sub]        Multi-profile collaboration board (tasks, links, comments)
/plugins             List plugins (CLI)

Gateway

/approve             Approve a pending command (gateway)
/deny                Deny a pending command (gateway)
/restart             Restart gateway (gateway)
/sethome             Set current chat as home channel (gateway)
/update              Update Hercules to latest (gateway)
/topic [sub]         Enable or inspect Telegram DM topic sessions (gateway)
/platforms (/gateway) Show platform connection status (gateway)

Utility

/branch (/fork)      Branch the current session
/handoff <platform>  Hand the live session off to a messaging platform (CLI)
/fast                Toggle priority/fast processing
/browser             Open CDP browser connection
/history             Show conversation history (CLI)
/save                Save conversation to file (CLI)
/copy [N]            Copy the last assistant response to clipboard (CLI)
/paste               Attach clipboard image (CLI)
/image               Attach local image file (CLI)

Info

/help                Show commands
/commands [page]     Browse all commands (gateway)
/usage               Token usage
/insights [days]     Usage analytics
/status              Session info (gateway)
/profile             Active profile info
/debug               Upload debug report (system info + logs) and get shareable links

Exit

/quit (/exit, /q)    Exit CLI

Key Paths & Config

~/.hercules/config.yaml       Main configuration
~/.hercules/.env              API keys and secrets (under $HERCULES_HOME if set)
$HERCULES_HOME/skills/        Installed skills
~/.hercules/sessions/         Gateway routing index, request dumps, *.jsonl transcripts (and optional per-session JSON snapshots when sessions.write_json_snapshots: true)
~/.hercules/state.db          Canonical session store (SQLite + FTS5)
~/.hercules/logs/             Gateway and error logs
~/.hercules/auth.json         OAuth tokens and credential pools
~/.hercules/hercules-agent/     Source code (if git-installed)

Profiles use ~/.hercules/profiles/<name>/ with the same layout.

Config Sections

Edit with hercules config edit or hercules config set section.key value.

Full config reference: https://github.com/mintoriakamoto/Hercules/tree/main/website/docs/user-guide/configuration

Providers

20+ providers supported. Set via hercules model or hercules setup.

Full provider docs: https://github.com/mintoriakamoto/Hercules/tree/main/website/docs/integrations/providers

Toolsets

Enable/disable via hercules tools (interactive) or hercules tools enable/disable NAME.

Full enumeration lives in toolsets.py as the TOOLSETS dict; _HERCULES_CORE_TOOLS is the default bundle most platforms inherit from.

Tool changes take effect on /reset (new session). They do NOT apply mid-conversation to preserve prompt caching.

Project Context Files

Hercules injects project-level instructions into the system prompt by reading context files from the working directory. The discovery order is first match wins — only one project context source is loaded per session.

SOUL.md (in $HERCULES_HOME) is independent and always loaded when present — it sets the agent's identity, not project rules.

Pick the right one

• Use .hercules.md when you want Hercules-specific behavior that lives above the cwd (root + subtree), or when you want rules to inherit from a parent directory. The parent walk stops at the git root, so a home-level .hercules.md won't leak into every project (a git repo's root is the boundary).
• Use AGENTS.md when the same project will also be worked on by other agents (Codex, Claude Code, OpenCode). Those tools all have their own conventions for AGENTS.md, and the "cwd only" contract keeps the file portable.
• Don't put project rules in ~/.hercules/AGENTS.md (or any other home-level location). When Hercules runs with that directory as cwd, the file loads — but only for that one directory. For cross-project context, use SOUL.md (in $HERCULES_HOME, identity-only) or install a skill via hercules skills install.

Size and truncation

Each context file is capped at 20,000 characters. Files longer than that get head + tail truncated (the middle is dropped, with a [...truncated...] marker). For large project rules, prefer splitting into multiple skills over cramming one file.

Security

All context files pass through the threat-pattern scanner before reaching the system prompt. Patterns matching prompt injection or promptware are replaced with a [BLOCKED: ...] placeholder. This means an AGENTS.md containing obvious injection attempts won't reach the model — the scanner blocks the content, not the file, so the rest of the file still loads.

Disable for one session

hercules --ignore-rules skips auto-injection of all project context files (.hercules.md, AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, .cursorrules) and SOUL.md identity, plus user config, plugins, and MCP servers. Use it to isolate whether a problem is your setup or Hercules itself.

Example: a small .hercules.md

# My Project

Hercules: when working in this repo, follow these rules.

## Build
- Always run `make test` before declaring a change done.
- Use `uv run` for Python, not `pip install`.

## Style
- Prefer `pathlib.Path` over `os.path`.
- No `print()` in production code — use the `logger`.

That file at /home/me/projects/myrepo/.hercules.md is auto-loaded when Hercules runs in any subdirectory of /home/me/projects/myrepo, but not when it runs in /home/me/other-project.

Security & Privacy Toggles

Common "why is Hercules doing X to my output / tool calls / commands?" toggles — and the exact commands to change them. Most of these need a fresh session (/reset in chat, or start a new hercules invocation) because they're read once at startup.

Secret redaction in tool output

Secret redaction is on by default — tool output (terminal stdout, read_file, web content, subagent summaries, etc.) is scanned for strings that look like API keys, tokens, and secrets before it enters the conversation context and logs. Leave it enabled for normal use:

hercules config set security.redact_secrets true       # keep enabled globally

Restart required. security.redact_secrets is snapshotted at import time — toggling it mid-session (e.g. via export HERCULES_REDACT_SECRETS=false from a tool call) will NOT take effect for the running process. Tell the user to change it in config from a terminal, then start a new session. This is deliberate — it prevents an LLM from flipping the toggle on itself mid-task.

Disable only when you deliberately need raw credential-like strings for debugging or redactor development:

hercules config set security.redact_secrets false

PII redaction in gateway messages

Separate from secret redaction. When enabled, the gateway hashes user IDs and strips phone numbers from the session context before it reaches the model:

hercules config set privacy.redact_pii true    # enable
hercules config set privacy.redact_pii false   # disable (default)

Command approval prompts

By default (approvals.mode: smart), Hercules asks an auxiliary LLM to assess shell commands flagged as destructive (rm -rf, git reset --hard, etc.). The modes are:

• smart — auto-approve a low-risk command once, deny high-risk commands, and prompt when uncertain (default)
• manual — always prompt
• off — skip all approval prompts (equivalent to --yolo)

hercules config set approvals.mode smart       # recommended middle ground
hercules config set approvals.mode off         # bypass everything (not recommended)

Per-invocation bypass without changing config:

• hercules --yolo …
• export HERCULES_YOLO_MODE=1

Note: YOLO / approvals.mode: off does NOT turn off secret redaction. They are independent.

Shell hooks allowlist

Some shell-hook integrations require explicit allowlisting before they fire. Managed via ~/.hercules/shell-hooks-allowlist.json — prompted interactively the first time a hook wants to run.

Disabling the web/browser/image-gen tools

To keep the model away from network or media tools entirely, open hercules tools and toggle per-platform. Takes effect on next session (/reset). See the Tools & Skills section above.

Voice & Transcription

STT (Voice → Text)

Voice messages from messaging platforms are auto-transcribed.

Provider priority (auto-detected):

1. Local faster-whisper — free, no API key: pip install faster-whisper
2. Groq Whisper — free tier: set GROQ_API_KEY
3. OpenAI Whisper — paid: set VOICE_TOOLS_OPENAI_KEY
4. Mistral Voxtral — set MISTRAL_API_KEY

Config:

stt:
  enabled: true
  provider: local        # local, groq, openai, mistral
  local:
    model: base          # tiny, base, small, medium, large-v3

TTS (Text → Voice)

Voice commands: /voice on (voice-to-voice), /voice tts (always voice), /voice off.

Spawning Additional Hercules Instances

Run additional Hercules processes as fully independent subprocesses — separate sessions, tools, and environments.

When to Use This vs delegate_task

One-Shot Mode

terminal(command="hercules chat -q 'Research GRPO papers and write summary to ~/research/grpo.md'", timeout=300)

# Background for long tasks:
terminal(command="hercules chat -q 'Set up CI/CD for ~/myapp'", background=true)

Interactive PTY Mode (via tmux)

Hercules uses prompt_toolkit, which requires a real terminal. Use tmux for interactive spawning:

# Start
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s agent1 -x 120 -y 40 'hercules'", timeout=10)

# Wait for startup, then send a message
terminal(command="sleep 8 && tmux send-keys -t agent1 'Build a FastAPI auth service' Enter", timeout=15)

# Read output
terminal(command="sleep 20 && tmux capture-pane -t agent1 -p", timeout=5)

# Send follow-up
terminal(command="tmux send-keys -t agent1 'Add rate limiting middleware' Enter", timeout=5)

# Exit
terminal(command="tmux send-keys -t agent1 '/exit' Enter && sleep 2 && tmux kill-session -t agent1", timeout=10)

Multi-Agent Coordination

# Agent A: backend
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s backend -x 120 -y 40 'hercules -w'", timeout=10)
terminal(command="sleep 8 && tmux send-keys -t backend 'Build REST API for user management' Enter", timeout=15)

# Agent B: frontend
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s frontend -x 120 -y 40 'hercules -w'", timeout=10)
terminal(command="sleep 8 && tmux send-keys -t frontend 'Build React dashboard for user management' Enter", timeout=15)

# Check progress, relay context between them
terminal(command="tmux capture-pane -t backend -p | tail -30", timeout=5)
terminal(command="tmux send-keys -t frontend 'Here is the API schema from the backend agent: ...' Enter", timeout=5)

Session Resume

# Resume most recent session
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s resumed 'hercules --continue'", timeout=10)

# Resume specific session
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s resumed 'hercules --resume 20260225_143052_a1b2c3'", timeout=10)

Tips

• Prefer delegate_task for quick subtasks — less overhead than spawning a full process
• Use -w (worktree mode) when spawning agents that edit code — prevents git conflicts
• Set timeouts for one-shot mode — complex tasks can take 5-10 minutes
• Use hercules chat -q for fire-and-forget — no PTY needed
• Use tmux for interactive sessions — raw PTY mode has \r vs \n issues with prompt_toolkit
• For scheduled tasks, use the cronjob tool instead of spawning — handles delivery and retry

Durable & Background Systems

Four systems run alongside the main conversation loop. Quick reference here; full developer notes live in AGENTS.md, user-facing docs under website/docs/user-guide/features/.

Delegation (delegate_task)

Spawn a subagent with an isolated context + terminal session.

• Single: delegate_task(goal, context).
• Batch: delegate_task(tasks=[{goal, ...}, ...]) runs children in parallel, capped by delegation.max_concurrent_children (default 3).
• Background: delegate_task(background=true) returns a handle immediately and keeps the parent loop going; the child's result re-enters the conversation as a new turn when it finishes.
• Roles: leaf (default; cannot re-delegate) vs orchestrator (can spawn its own workers, bounded by delegation.max_spawn_depth).
• Not durable. A backgrounded child is still process-local — if the parent process exits, the child is lost. For work that must outlive the process, use cronjob or terminal(background=True, notify_on_complete=True).

Config: delegation.* in config.yaml.

Cron (scheduled jobs)

Durable scheduler — cron/jobs.py + cron/scheduler.py. Drive it via the cronjob tool, the hercules cron CLI (list, add, edit, pause, resume, run, remove), or the /cron slash command.

• Schedules: duration ("30m", "2h"), "every" phrase ("every monday 9am"), 5-field cron ("0 9 * * *"), or ISO timestamp.
• Per-job knobs: skills, model/provider override, script (pre-run data collection; no_agent=True makes the script the whole job), context_from (chain job A's output into job B), workdir (run in a specific dir with its AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md loaded), multi-platform delivery.
• Invariants: 3-minute hard interrupt per run, .tick.lock file prevents duplicate ticks across processes, cron sessions pass skip_memory=True by default, and cron deliveries are framed with a header/footer instead of being mirrored into the target gateway session (keeps role alternation intact).

User docs: https://github.com/mintoriakamoto/Hercules/tree/main/website/docs/user-guide/features/cron

Curator (skill lifecycle)

Background maintenance for agent-created skills. Tracks usage, marks idle skills stale, archives stale ones, keeps a pre-run tar.gz backup so nothing is lost.

• CLI: hercules curator <verb> — status, run, pause, resume, pin, unpin, archive, restore, prune, backup, rollback.
• Slash: /curator <subcommand> mirrors the CLI.
• Scope: only touches skills with created_by: "agent" provenance. Bundled + hub-installed skills are off-limits. Never deletes — max destructive action is archive. Pinned skills are exempt from every auto-transition and every LLM review pass.
• Cost: the deterministic inactivity/prune sweep runs for free. The aux-model "consolidate overlapping skills into umbrellas" pass is off by default — opt in with curator.consolidate: true or hercules curator run --consolidate. Routine background curation costs zero tokens.
• Telemetry: sidecar at ~/.hercules/skills/.usage.json holds per-skill use_count, view_count, patch_count, last_activity_at, state, pinned.

Config: curator.* (enabled, interval_hours, min_idle_hours, stale_after_days, archive_after_days, backup.*). User docs: https://github.com/mintoriakamoto/Hercules/tree/main/website/docs/user-guide/features/curator

Kanban (multi-agent work queue)

Durable SQLite board for multi-profile / multi-worker collaboration. Users drive it via hercules kanban <verb>; dispatcher-spawned workers see a focused kanban_* toolset gated by HERCULES_KANBAN_TASK, and orchestrator profiles can opt into the broader kanban toolset. Normal sessions still have zero kanban_* schema footprint unless configured.

• CLI verbs (common): init, create, list (alias ls), show, assign, link, unlink, comment, complete, block, unblock, archive, tail. Less common: watch, stats, runs, log, dispatch, daemon, gc.
• Worker/orchestrator toolset: kanban_show, kanban_complete, kanban_block, kanban_heartbeat, kanban_comment, kanban_create, kanban_link; profiles that explicitly enable the kanban toolset outside a dispatcher-spawned task also get kanban_list and kanban_unblock for board routing.
• Dispatcher runs inside the gateway by default (kanban.dispatch_in_gateway: true) — reclaims stale claims, promotes ready tasks, atomically claims, spawns assigned profiles. Auto-blocks a task after failure_limit consecutive spawn failures (default 2; configurable via kanban.failure_limit or per-task max_retries).
• Isolation: board is the hard boundary (workers get HERCULES_KANBAN_BOARD pinned in env); tenant is a soft namespace within a board for workspace-path + memory-key isolation.

User docs: https://github.com/mintoriakamoto/Hercules/tree/main/website/docs/user-guide/features/kanban

Surfaces & Other Capabilities

Beyond the CLI and gateway, a few things worth knowing about:

• Desktop app (hercules desktop / hercules gui) — native Electron app for macOS/Linux/Windows: streaming chat, session list, drag-and-drop + clipboard-paste files, Cmd+K palette, status-bar model picker, rebindable shortcuts, native notifications, live subagent watch-windows, VS Code Marketplace themes, and per-profile remote-gateway login (OAuth or username/password) so a thin local GUI can drive a heavy remote agent.
• Web dashboard (hercules dashboard) — full admin panel: configure every messaging channel, the MCP catalog, webhooks/hooks, memory, and a complete profile builder (model + skills + MCPs) from the browser, plus an embedded hercules --tui chat. Secured behind an OAuth/token gate.
• OpenAI-compatible proxy (hercules proxy) — exposes a http://localhost:port OpenAI API backed by whichever OAuth provider you're signed into (Claude Pro, ChatGPT Pro, SuperGrok). Point Codex CLI, Aider, Cline, Continue, or any script at it — no API key.
• Automation Blueprints — pick a named automation and Hercules asks for what it needs (no cron syntax). One definition renders as a dashboard form, a slash command, an agent conversation, and a docs-catalog entry.
• memory tool batch operations — pass an operations array of add/replace/remove edits applied atomically against the final character budget, so a single call can free space and add entries even when an add alone would overflow.
• session_search — FTS5-backed, no aux-LLM, effectively free. One tool, three modes inferred from which args are set: discovery (query), scroll (session_id + around_message_id), browse (no args).
• xAI Grok via SuperGrok OAuth — sign in with your xAI account (no API key); includes Cursor's grok-composer-2.5-fast coding model.

Windows-Specific Quirks

Hercules runs natively on Windows (PowerShell, cmd, Windows Terminal, git-bash mintty, VS Code integrated terminal). Most of it just works, but a handful of differences between Win32 and POSIX have bitten us — document new ones here as you hit them so the next person (or the next session) doesn't rediscover them from scratch.

Input / Keybindings

Alt+Enter doesn't insert a newline — Windows Terminal (and mintty) grab it for fullscreen before prompt_toolkit sees it. Use Ctrl+Enter instead (the CLI binds it to newline on Windows; raw Ctrl+J does the same, harmlessly). To inspect how your terminal reports a keystroke, run python scripts/keystroke_diagnostic.py from the repo root.

Config / Files

HTTP 400 "No models provided" on first run — config.yaml was saved with a UTF-8 BOM (Notepad does this). Re-save as UTF-8 without BOM; hercules config edit writes correctly.

execute_code / Sandbox

WinError 10106 from the sandbox child process — it can't create an AF_INET socket. Root cause is usually Hercules's env scrubber dropping SYSTEMROOT/WINDIR/COMSPEC (Python's socket needs SYSTEMROOT to find mswsock.dll), not a broken Winsock LSP. The _WINDOWS_ESSENTIAL_ENV_VARS allowlist in tools/code_execution_tool.py covers it; if you still hit it, echo os.environ inside an execute_code block to confirm SYSTEMROOT is set.

Testing on Windows

scripts/run_tests.sh is POSIX-only (expects .venv/bin/activate); the Hercules-installed venv/Scripts/ has no pip/pytest (stripped for size). Install pytest into a system Python and run directly with -n 0 (pyproject.toml's addopts already sets -n):

"/c/Program Files/Python311/python" -m pip install --user pytest pytest-xdist pyyaml
export PYTHONPATH="$(pwd)"
"/c/Program Files/Python311/python" -m pytest tests/foo/test_bar.py -v --tb=short -n 0

(POSIX-only tests need skip guards — see the cross-platform guard list in the Contributor section below.)

Path / Filesystem

Line endings. Git may warn LF will be replaced by CRLF. Cosmetic — the repo's .gitattributes normalizes. Don't let editors auto-convert committed POSIX-newline files to CRLF.

Forward slashes work almost everywhere. C:/Users/... is accepted by every Hercules tool and most Windows APIs. Prefer forward slashes in code and logs — avoids shell-escaping backslashes in bash.

Troubleshooting

Voice not working

1. Check stt.enabled: true in config.yaml
2. Verify provider: pip install faster-whisper or set API key
3. In gateway: /restart. In CLI: exit and relaunch.

Tool not available

1. hercules tools — check if toolset is enabled for your platform
2. Some tools need env vars (check .env)
3. /reset after enabling tools

Model/provider issues

1. hercules doctor — check config and dependencies
2. hercules auth — re-authenticate OAuth providers (or hercules auth add <provider>)
3. Check .env has the right API key
4. Copilot 403: gh auth login tokens do NOT work for Copilot API. You must use the Copilot-specific OAuth device code flow via hercules model → GitHub Copilot.

Changes not taking effect

• Tools/skills: /reset starts a new session with updated toolset
• Config changes: In gateway: /restart. In CLI: exit and relaunch.
• Code changes: Restart the CLI or gateway process

Skills not showing

1. hercules skills list — verify installed
2. hercules skills config — check platform enablement
3. Load explicitly: /skill name or hercules -s name

Gateway issues

Check logs first:

grep -i "failed to send\|error" ~/.hercules/logs/gateway.log | tail -20

Common gateway problems:

• Gateway dies on SSH logout: Enable linger: sudo loginctl enable-linger $USER
• Gateway dies on WSL2 close: WSL2 requires systemd=true in /etc/wsl.conf for systemd services to work. Without it, gateway falls back to nohup (dies when session closes).
• Gateway crash loop: Reset the failed state: systemctl --user reset-failed hercules-gateway

Platform-specific issues

• Discord bot silent: Must enable Message Content Intent in Bot → Privileged Gateway Intents.
• Slack bot only works in DMs: Must subscribe to message.channels event. Without it, the bot ignores public channels.
• Windows-specific issues (Alt+Enter newline, WinError 10106, UTF-8 BOM config, test suite, line endings): see the dedicated Windows-Specific Quirks section above.

Auxiliary models not working

If auxiliary tasks (vision, compression, session_search) fail silently, the auto provider can't find a backend. Either set OPENROUTER_API_KEY or GOOGLE_API_KEY, or explicitly configure each auxiliary task's provider:

hercules config set auxiliary.vision.provider <your_provider>
hercules config set auxiliary.vision.model <model_name>

Where to Find Things

Contributor Quick Reference

For occasional contributors and PR authors. Full developer docs: https://github.com/mintoriakamoto/Hercules/tree/main/website/docs/developer-guide/

Project Layout

hercules-agent/
├── run_agent.py          # AIAgent — core conversation loop
├── model_tools.py        # Tool discovery and dispatch
├── toolsets.py           # Toolset definitions
├── cli.py                # Interactive CLI (HerculesCLI)
├── hercules_state.py       # SQLite session store
├── agent/                # Prompt builder, context compression, memory, model routing, credential pooling, skill dispatch
├── hercules_cli/           # CLI subcommands, config, setup, commands
│   ├── commands.py       # Slash command registry (CommandDef)
│   ├── config.py         # DEFAULT_CONFIG, env var definitions
│   └── main.py           # CLI entry point and argparse
├── tools/                # One file per tool
│   └── registry.py       # Central tool registry
├── gateway/              # Messaging gateway
│   └── platforms/        # Platform adapters (telegram, discord, etc.)
├── cron/                 # Job scheduler
├── tests/                # Extensive pytest suite (run via scripts/run_tests.sh)
└── website/              # Docusaurus docs site

Config: ~/.hercules/config.yaml (settings), ~/.hercules/.env (API keys) — both under $HERCULES_HOME when it is set.

Adding a Tool

Two files. Auto-discovery imports any tools/*.py with a top-level registry.register() call, but a tool is only exposed to an agent once its name appears in a toolset.

1. Create tools/your_tool.py:

import json, os
from tools.registry import registry

def check_requirements() -> bool:
    return bool(os.getenv("EXAMPLE_API_KEY"))

def example_tool(param: str, task_id: str = None) -> str:
    return json.dumps({"success": True, "data": "..."})

registry.register(
    name="example_tool",
    toolset="example",
    schema={"name": "example_tool", "description": "...", "parameters": {...}},
    handler=lambda args, **kw: example_tool(
        param=args.get("param", ""), task_id=kw.get("task_id")),
    check_fn=check_requirements,
    requires_env=["EXAMPLE_API_KEY"],
)

2. Wire it into a toolset in toolsets.py — add the name to _HERCULES_CORE_TOOLS (every platform) or to a specific toolset.

All handlers must return JSON strings. Use get_hercules_home() for paths, never hardcode ~/.hercules. For custom/local-only tools, write a plugin in ~/.hercules/plugins/ instead of editing core — see the developer docs.

Adding a Slash Command

1. Add CommandDef to COMMAND_REGISTRY in hercules_cli/commands.py
2. Add handler in cli.py → process_command()
3. (Optional) Add gateway handler in gateway/run.py

All consumers (help text, autocomplete, Telegram menu, Slack mapping) derive from the central registry automatically.

Agent Loop (High Level)

run_conversation():
  1. Build system prompt
  2. Loop while iterations < max:
     a. Call LLM (OpenAI-format messages + tool schemas)
     b. If tool_calls → dispatch each via handle_function_call() → append results → continue
     c. If text response → return
  3. Context compression triggers automatically near token limit

Testing

Use the canonical runner — it enforces CI-parity (hermetic env, unset credentials, TZ=UTC, xdist workers, per-test subprocess isolation):

scripts/run_tests.sh                          # full suite
scripts/run_tests.sh tests/tools/             # one directory
scripts/run_tests.sh tests/tools/test_x.py    # one file
scripts/run_tests.sh -v --tb=long             # pass-through pytest flags

• Tests auto-redirect HERCULES_HOME to temp dirs — never touch real ~/.hercules/.
• The script probes .venv, then venv, then the shared worktree venv.
• Windows: the wrapper is POSIX-only; see the Windows-Specific Quirks section above for the direct-pytest workaround.

Cross-platform test guards: tests using POSIX-only syscalls need a skip marker. Common ones already in the codebase:

• Symlink creation → @pytest.mark.skipif(sys.platform == "win32", reason="Symlinks require elevated privileges on Windows") (see tests/cron/test_cron_script.py)
• POSIX file modes (0o600, etc.) → @pytest.mark.skipif(sys.platform.startswith("win"), reason="POSIX mode bits not enforced on Windows") (see tests/hercules_cli/test_auth_toctou_file_modes.py)
• signal.SIGALRM → Unix-only (see tests/conftest.py::_enforce_test_timeout)
• Live Winsock / Windows-specific regression tests → @pytest.mark.skipif(sys.platform != "win32", reason="Windows-specific regression")

Monkeypatching sys.platform is not enough when the code under test also calls platform.system() / platform.release() / platform.mac_ver(). Those functions re-read the real OS independently, so a test that sets sys.platform = "linux" on a Windows runner will still see platform.system() == "Windows" and route through the Windows branch. Patch all three together:

monkeypatch.setattr(sys, "platform", "linux")
monkeypatch.setattr(platform, "system", lambda: "Linux")
monkeypatch.setattr(platform, "release", lambda: "6.8.0-generic")

See tests/agent/test_prompt_builder.py::TestEnvironmentHints for a worked example.

System prompt's execution-environment block

Factual host/backend guidance (OS, $HOME, cwd, terminal backend, shell) is emitted by agent/prompt_builder.py::build_environment_hints(). The key invariant for prompt authors: with a remote terminal backend (docker, singularity, modal, daytona, ssh, managed_modal), host info is suppressed and every file tool runs inside the backend container — the prompt must never describe the host the agent can't touch.

Commit Conventions

type: concise subject line

Optional body.

Types: fix:, feat:, refactor:, docs:, chore:

Key Rules

• Never break prompt caching — don't change context, tools, or system prompt mid-conversation
• Message role alternation — never two assistant or two user messages in a row
• Use get_hercules_home() from hercules_constants for all paths (profile-safe)
• Config values go in config.yaml, secrets go in .env
• New tools need a check_fn so they only appear when requirements are met