Same layering concern as the persisted-assistant scrub already removed:
_emit_interim_assistant_message and the final_response return path were
mutating model output broadly. Streaming scrubber covers real leaks
delta-by-delta; these post-stream scrubs were redundant.
Reviewer pushback on the original boundary-hardening commits — three
overreach points pulled plugin-specific policy into shared core paths:
1. gateway/run.py hardcoded a '## Honcho Context' literal split for
vision-LLM output. Plugin-format heading in framework code; could
truncate legitimate output naturally containing that header.
Drop the literal split; keep generic sanitize_context (the wrapper
strip is plugin-agnostic). Plugin-specific cleanup belongs at the
provider boundary, not the shared gateway path.
2. run_agent.run_conversation scrubbed user_message and
persist_user_message before the conversation loop. User text is
sacred — if a user types a literal <memory-context> tag we must
not silently delete it. The producer (build_memory_context_block)
is the only legitimate emitter; user input should never need the
reverse op.
3. _build_assistant_message scrubbed model output before persistence.
Same hazard: would silently mutate legitimate documentation/code
the model emits containing the literal markers. The streaming
scrubber catches real leaks delta-by-delta before content is
concatenated; persist-time scrub was redundant belt-and-suspenders.
4. _fire_stream_delta stripped leading newlines from every delta unless
a paragraph break flag was set. Mid-stream '\n' is legitimate
markdown — lists, code fences, paragraph breaks — and chunk
boundaries are arbitrary. Narrow lstrip to the very first delta
of the stream only (so stale provider preamble still gets cleaned
on turn start, but mid-stream formatting survives).
Plus: build_memory_context_block now logs a warning when its defensive
sanitize_context strips something — surfaces buggy providers returning
pre-wrapped text instead of silently double-fencing.
Net architectural change: scrub surface collapses from 8 sites to 3
(StreamingContextScrubber on output deltas, plugin→backend send,
build_memory_context_block input-validation). Plugin-specific strings
stay out of shared runtime paths. User input and persisted assistant
output are no longer mutated.
Tests: rescoped TestMemoryContextSanitization (helper-correctness only,
no source-inspection of removed call sites), updated vision tests to
drop '## Honcho Context' literal-split assertions, updated
_build_assistant_message persistence test to assert preservation.
Added: cross-turn scrubber reset, build_memory_context_block warn-on-
violation, mid-stream newline preservation (plain + code fence).
Closed PR #5137 addressed the retrieval path (peer cards via get_card()
instead of the session-scoped lookup that returned empty for per-session
messaging flows) — that architectural fix is already in main as
_fetch_peer_card / _fetch_peer_context.
What never got fixed is the user-visible side: honcho_profile returning
a flat 'No profile facts available yet.' leaves the model to guess at
why. The model then often surfaces it to the user as a cryptic error.
Adds a diagnostic hint next to the existing 'result' message, enumerating
the likely causes in rough order of frequency:
1. Observation disabled for this peer (user_observe_me/others off)
2. Peer card hasn't accumulated yet (fresh peer / dialectic cadence
hasn't fired enough turns — cards build over time)
3. Generic fallback: self-hosted Honcho < 3.x lacks peer cards
The hint also suggests alternative tools (honcho_reasoning / honcho_search)
so the model can route around the empty card rather than giving up.
Schema description updated so the model knows the hint field exists and
that an empty card is NOT an error state.
7 tests cover the hint paths: warmup, observation-disabled for user + ai,
generic fallback, populated card still returns plain result (no hint),
alternative-tool suggestion present.
The scheme-validation commit (e77a3f2c) was too strict: a user with
legacy ''baseUrl: localhost:8000'' (no ''http://'' prefix) in their
''~/.honcho/config.json'' would get ''No API key configured'' from the
CLI after that change, even though their setup worked before.
urlparse on a schemeless host:port treats the host segment as the
scheme and leaves netloc empty, so the http/https check rejected it.
Falls back to a lenient check for schemeless strings that look like
hosts: contain '.' or ':', aren't a boolean/null literal, aren't pure
digits. The SDK still rejects truly malformed URLs at connect time
with a clearer error than ours.
Three new tests: legacy schemeless hosts accepted; obvious garbage
literals (''true'', ''null'', ''12345'') still rejected. Reviewer
noted concern #1: schemeless regression for self-hosters with old
configs.
main's 6a957a74 added an optional 'metadata' kwarg to
MemoryProvider.on_memory_write so providers can distinguish tool-driven
memory writes from background-review writes. MemoryManager already
does a getfullargspec-based introspection, so the old 3-arg signature
didn't break at runtime — but it missed the origin hint entirely.
Updates HonchoMemoryProvider.on_memory_write to accept the kwarg. The
metadata isn't yet threaded into Honcho's create_conclusion payload —
that's worth its own PR once the consolidation lands and the new
metadata shape stabilises.
Two small follow-ups to the PR review:
- Hoist hashlib import from _enforce_session_id_limit() to module top.
stdlib imports are free after first cache, but keeping all imports at
module top matches the rest of the codebase.
- _resolve_api_key now URL-parses baseUrl and requires http/https +
non-empty netloc before returning the 'local' sentinel. A typo like
baseUrl: 'true' (or bare 'localhost') no longer silently passes the
credential guard; the CLI correctly reports 'not configured'.
Three new tests cover the new validation (garbage strings, non-http
schemes, valid https).
fixes#5719
The auxiliary vision LLM called by gateway._enrich_message_with_vision
can echo its injected Honcho system prompt back into the image
description. That description gets embedded verbatim into the enriched
user message, so recalled memory (personal facts, dialectic output)
surfaces into a user-visible bubble.
Strips both forms of leak before embedding:
- <memory-context>...</memory-context> fenced blocks (sanitize_context)
- trailing '## Honcho Context' sections (header + everything after)
Plus regression tests:
- tests/agent/test_streaming_context_scrubber.py — 13 tests on the
stateful scrubber (whole block, split tags, false-positive partial
tags, unterminated span, reset, case-insensitivity)
- tests/run_agent/test_run_agent_codex_responses.py — 2 new tests on
_fire_stream_delta covering the realistic 7-chunk leak scenario and
the cross-turn scrubber reset
- tests/gateway/test_vision_memory_leak.py — 4 tests covering the
vision auto-analysis boundary (clean pass-through, '## Honcho Context'
header, fenced block, both patterns together)
sanitize_context() uses a non-greedy block regex that needs both
<memory-context> open and close tags present in a single string. When a
provider streams the fenced memory block across multiple deltas (typical
for recalled-context leaks — the payload often arrives in 10+ 1-80 char
chunks), the per-delta sanitize stripped the lone open/close tags via
_FENCE_TAG_RE but let the payload in between flow straight to the UI.
Adds StreamingContextScrubber: a small stateful scrubber that tracks
open/close tag pairs across deltas, holds back partial-tag tails at
chunk boundaries, and discards span contents wholesale (including the
system-note line that fragments across deltas).
Wired into _fire_stream_delta; reset per user turn; benign trailing
partial-tag tails are flushed at the end of each model call. Mid-span
interruption (provider drops closing tag) drops the orphaned content
rather than leaking it — truncated answer > leaked memory.
Follow-up to #13672 (@dontcallmejames).
new_session() was popping the old cached session, releasing the lock,
calling get_or_create, then re-acquiring the lock to insert. A concurrent
caller could observe the empty-cache window and race-create its own
session, producing two divergent session objects for the same key.
_cache_lock is an RLock, so nested reacquisition inside get_or_create is
safe. Hold it across the whole pop/create/insert sequence.
Follow-up to #13510 (@hekaru-agent).
Setup wizard now always writes dialecticCadence=2 on new configs and
surfaces the reasoning level as an explicit step with all five options
(minimal / low / medium / high / max), always writing
dialecticReasoningLevel.
Code keeps a backwards-compat fallback of 1 when dialecticCadence is
unset so existing honcho.json configs that predate the setting keep
firing every turn on upgrade. New setups via the wizard get 2
explicitly; docs show 2 as the default.
Also scrubs editorial lines from code and docs ("max is reserved for
explicit tool-path selection", "Unset → every turn; wizard pre-fills 2",
and similar process-exposing phrasing) and adds an inline link to
app.honcho.dev where the server-side observation sync is mentioned in
honcho.md. Recommended cadence range updated to 1-5 across docs and
wizard copy.
- TestDialecticDepth::test_first_turn_runs_dialectic_synchronously:
covered by TestSessionStartDialecticPrewarm::test_turn1_falls_back_to_sync_when_prewarm_missing
(more realistic — exercises the empty-prewarm → sync-fallback path)
- TestDialecticDepth::test_first_turn_dialectic_does_not_double_fire:
covered by TestDialecticLifecycleSmoke (turn 1 flow) and
TestDialecticCadenceAdvancesOnSuccess::test_empty_dialectic_result_does_not_advance_cadence
Both predate the prewarm refactor and test paths that are now
fallback behaviors already covered elsewhere.
Hardens the dialectic lifecycle against three failure modes that could
leave the prefetch pipeline stuck or injecting stale content:
- Stale-thread watchdog: _thread_is_live() treats any prefetch thread
older than timeout × 2.0 as dead. A hung Honcho call can no longer
block subsequent fires indefinitely.
- Stale-result discard: pending _prefetch_result is tagged with its
fire turn. prefetch() discards the result if more than cadence × 2
turns passed before a consumer read it (e.g. a run of trivial-prompt
turns between fire and read).
- Empty-streak backoff: consecutive empty dialectic returns widen the
effective cadence (dialectic_cadence + streak, capped at cadence × 8).
A healthy fire resets the streak. Prevents the plugin from hammering
the backend every turn when the peer graph is cold.
- liveness_snapshot() on the provider exposes current turn, last fire,
pending fire-at, empty streak, effective cadence, and thread status
for in-process diagnostics.
- system_prompt_block: nudge the model that honcho_reasoning accepts
reasoning_level minimal/low/medium/high/max per call.
- hermes honcho status: surface base reasoning level, cap, and heuristic
toggle so config drift is visible at a glance.
Tests: 550 passed.
- TestDialecticLiveness (8 tests): stale-thread recovery, stale-result
discard, fresh-result retention, backoff widening, backoff ceiling,
streak reset on success, streak increment on empty, snapshot shape.
- Existing TestDialecticCadenceAdvancesOnSuccess::test_in_flight_thread_is_not_stacked
updated to set _prefetch_thread_started_at so it tests the
fresh-thread-blocks branch (stale path covered separately).
- test_cli TestCmdStatus fake updated with the new config attrs surfaced
in the status block.
- cli: setup wizard pre-fills dialecticCadence=2 (code default stays 1
so unset → every turn)
- honcho.md: fix stale dialecticCadence default in tables, add
Session-Start Prewarm subsection (depth runs at init), add
Query-Adaptive Reasoning Level subsection, expand Observation
section with directional vs unified semantics and per-peer patterns
- memory-providers.md: fix stale default, rename Multi-agent/Profiles
to Multi-peer setup, add concrete walkthrough for new profiles and
sync, document observation toggles + presets, link to honcho.md
- SKILL.md: fix stale defaults, add Depth at session start callout
- Revert website/docs and SKILL.md changes; docs unification handled separately
- Scrub commit/PR refs and process narration from code comments and test
docstrings (no behavior change)
Several correctness and cost-safety fixes to the Honcho dialectic path
after a multi-turn investigation surfaced a chain of silent failures:
- dialecticCadence default flipped 3 → 1. PR #10619 changed this from 1 to
3 for cost, but existing installs with no explicit config silently went
from per-turn dialectic to every-3-turns on upgrade. Restores pre-#10619
behavior; 3+ remains available for cost-conscious setups. Docs + wizard
+ status output updated to match.
- Session-start prewarm now consumed. Previously fired a .chat() on init
whose result landed in HonchoSessionManager._dialectic_cache and was
never read — pop_dialectic_result had zero call sites. Turn 1 paid for
a duplicate synchronous dialectic. Prewarm now writes directly to the
plugin's _prefetch_result via _prefetch_lock so turn 1 consumes it with
no extra call.
- Prewarm is now dialecticDepth-aware. A single-pass prewarm can return
weak output on cold peers; the multi-pass audit/reconcile cycle is
exactly the case dialecticDepth was built for. Prewarm now runs the
full configured depth in the background.
- Silent dialectic failure no longer burns the cadence window.
_last_dialectic_turn now advances only when the result is non-empty.
Empty result → next eligible turn retries immediately instead of
waiting the full cadence gap.
- Thread pile-up guard. queue_prefetch skips when a prior dialectic
thread is still in-flight, preventing stacked races on _prefetch_result.
- First-turn sync timeout is recoverable. Previously on timeout the
background thread's result was stored in a dead local list. Now the
thread writes into _prefetch_result under lock so the next turn
picks it up.
- Cadence gate applies uniformly. At cadence=1 the old "cadence > 1"
guard let first-turn sync + same-turn queue_prefetch both fire.
Gate now always applies.
- Restored query-length reasoning-level scaling, dropped in 9a0ab34c.
Scales dialecticReasoningLevel up on longer queries (+1 at ≥120 chars,
+2 at ≥400), clamped at reasoningLevelCap. Two new config keys:
`reasoningHeuristic` (bool, default true) and `reasoningLevelCap`
(string, default "high"; previously parsed but never enforced).
Respects dialecticDepthLevels and proportional lighter-early passes.
- Restored short-prompt skip, dropped in ef7f3156. One-word
acknowledgements ("ok", "y", "thanks") and slash commands bypass
both injection and dialectic fire.
- Purged dead code in session.py: prefetch_dialectic, _dialectic_cache,
set_dialectic_result, pop_dialectic_result — all unused after prewarm
refactor.
Tests: 542 passed across honcho_plugin/, agent/test_memory_provider.py,
and run_agent/test_run_agent.py. New coverage:
- TestTrivialPromptHeuristic (classifier + prefetch/queue skip)
- TestDialecticCadenceAdvancesOnSuccess (empty-result retry, pile-up guard)
- TestSessionStartDialecticPrewarm (prewarm consumed, sync fallback)
- TestReasoningHeuristic (length bumps, cap clamp, interaction with depth)
- TestDialecticLifecycleSmoke (end-to-end 8-turn session walk)
Adds observationMode config field to HonchoClientConfig:
- 'unified' (default): user peer self-observations, all agents share one pool
- 'directional': AI peer observes user, each agent keeps its own view
Changes:
- client.py: observation_mode field, _normalize_observation_mode(), config resolution
- session.py: add_peers respects mode (peer observation flags), dialectic_query
routes through correct peer, create_conclusion uses correct observer
Implements all features from the post-merge Honcho plugin spec:
B1: recall_mode support (context/tools/hybrid)
B2: peer_memory_mode gating (stub for ABC suppression mechanism)
B3: resolve_session_name() session key resolution
B4: first-turn context baking in system_prompt_block()
B5: cost-awareness (cadence, injection frequency, reasoning cap)
B6: memory file migration in initialize()
B7: pre-warming context at init
Ports from open PRs:
- #3265: token budget enforcement in prefetch()
- #4053: cron guard (skip activation for cron/flush sessions)
- #2645: baseUrl-only flow verified in is_available()
- #1969: aiPeer sync from SOUL.md
- #1957: lazy session init in tools mode
Single file change: plugins/memory/honcho/__init__.py
No modifications to client.py, session.py, or any files outside the plugin.
- Remove duplicate cmd_sync definition (kept version with error output)
- Fix from_env workspace to stay shared (hermes) not profile-derived
- Add docstring clarifying get_or_create is idempotent in status
- Remove unused import importlib in test
- Fix test assertion for shared workspace in from_env path
- Add 3 tests for sync_honcho_profiles_quiet
- hermes honcho sync: scan all profiles, create missing host blocks
- hermes update: automatically syncs Honcho config to all profiles
after skill sync (existing users get profile mapping on next update)
- sync_honcho_profiles_quiet() for silent use from update path
- hermes honcho --target-profile <name> <command>: target another
profile's Honcho config without switching profiles. Works with all
subcommands (status, peer, mode, tokens, enable, disable, etc.)
- hermes honcho status now shows user peer card and AI peer
representation when connected (fetched live from Honcho API)
Profiles inherit the default workspace instead of deriving a separate
one. All profiles see the same user context, sessions, and project
history. Each profile is a different AI peer in a shared space.
Workspace can still be overridden per-profile via config if isolation
is needed.
- Eagerly create AI and user peers in Honcho when a profile is created
(not deferred to first message). Uses idempotent peer() SDK call.
- hermes honcho enable: turn on Honcho for active profile, clone
settings from default if first time, create peer immediately
- hermes honcho disable: turn off Honcho for active profile
- _ensure_peer_exists() helper for idempotent peer creation
When a profile is created and Honcho is already configured on the
default host, automatically creates a host block for the new profile
with inherited settings (memory mode, recall mode, write frequency,
peer name, etc.) and auto-derived workspace/aiPeer.
Zero-friction path: hermes profile create coder -> Honcho config
cloned as hermes.coder with all settings inherited.
- hermes honcho status: shows active profile name + host key
- hermes honcho status --all: compact table of all profiles with mode,
recall, write frequency per host block
- hermes honcho peers: cross-profile peer identity table (user peer,
AI peer, linked hosts)
- All write commands (peer, mode, tokens) print [host_key] label when
operating on a non-default profile
Derives the Honcho host key from the active Hermes profile so that each
profile gets its own Honcho host block, workspace, and AI peer identity.
Profile "coder" resolves to host "hermes.coder", reads from
hosts["hermes.coder"] in honcho.json, and defaults workspace + aiPeer
to the derived host name.
Resolution order: HERMES_HONCHO_HOST env var > active profile name >
"hermes" (default).
Complements #3681 (profiles) with the Honcho identity layer that was
part of #2845 (named instances), adapted to the merged profiles system.
Prevent stale Honcho tool exposure in context/local modes, restore reliable async write retry behavior, and ensure SOUL.md migration uploads target the AI peer instead of the user peer. Also align Honcho CLI key checks with host-scoped apiKey resolution and lock the fixes with regression tests.
Made-with: Cursor
- Example config now shows hosts.hermes structure instead of flat root
- Config table split into root-level (shared) and host-level sections
- sessionStrategy default corrected to per-session
- Multi-host section expanded with two-tool example
- Note that existing root-level configs still work via fallback
Config writes from hermes honcho setup/peer now go to
hosts.hermes instead of mutating root-level keys. Root is
reserved for the user or honcho CLI. apiKey remains at root
as a shared credential.
Reads updated to check hosts.hermes first with root fallback
for all fields (peerName, enabled, saveMessages, environment,
sessionStrategy, sessionPeerPrefix).
Matches Hermes' native session naming (title if set, otherwise
session-scoped). Not a breaking change -- no memory data is lost,
old sessions remain in Honcho.
Address merge-blocking review feedback by removing unsafe signal handler overrides, wiring next-turn Honcho prefetch, restoring per-directory session defaults, and exposing all Honcho tools to the model surface. Also harden prefetch cache access with public thread-safe accessors and remove duplicate browser cleanup code.
Made-with: Cursor
Setup wizard now writes memoryMode, writeFrequency, recallMode, and
sessionStrategy into hosts.hermes instead of the config root. Client
resolution updated to read sessionStrategy and sessionPeerPrefix from
host block first. Docs updated to show hosts-based config as the default
example so other integrations can coexist cleanly.
Adds back use cases section and example tool queries from the original
docs. Clarifies that built-in memory and Honcho can work together or be
configured separately via memoryMode.
Replaces the stub docs with comprehensive coverage: setup (interactive +
manual), all config fields, memory modes, recall modes, write frequency,
session strategies, host blocks, async prefetch pipeline, dual-peer
architecture, dynamic reasoning, gateway integration, four tools, full
CLI reference, migration paths, and AI peer identity. Trims the Honcho
section in memory.md to a cross-reference.
New tool lets Hermes persist conclusions about the user (preferences,
corrections, project context) directly to Honcho via the conclusions
API. Feeds into the user's peer card and representation.
Explain what context vs dialectic actually do in plain language:
context = raw memory retrieval, dialectic = AI-to-AI inference
for session continuity. Describe what user/AI peer cards are.
USER.md stays in system prompt when Honcho is active -- prefetch is
additive context, not a replacement. Memory tool user observations
write to both USER.md (local) and Honcho (cross-session) simultaneously.
When Honcho is active:
- System prompt uses Honcho prefetch instead of USER.md
- memory tool target=user add routes to Honcho
- MEMORY.md untouched in all cases
When disabled, everything works as before.
Also wires up contextTokens config to cap prefetch size.
Opt-in persistent cross-session user modeling via Honcho. Reads
~/.honcho/config.json as single source of truth (shared with
Claude Code, Cursor, and other Honcho-enabled tools). Zero impact
when disabled or unconfigured.
- honcho_integration/ package (client, session manager, peer resolution)
- Host-based config resolution matching claude-honcho/cursor-honcho pattern
- Prefetch user context into system prompt per conversation turn
- Sync user/assistant messages to Honcho after each exchange
- query_user_context tool for mid-conversation dialectic reasoning
- Gated activation: requires ~/.honcho/config.json with enabled=true
Erosika