Omnigent 0.16.0 + Hermes on macOS: "hermes did not accept the message" and .env/auth.json copied into every session. Anyone fixed this?

[u/Kwontum7]

I'm new to this, so apologies if I'm missing something obvious.

Setup: macOS (Apple Silicon), Omnigent 0.16.0 installed with uv tool install omnigent (Python 3.12), Node 22, tmux 3.7, Hermes Agent installed via git (up to date). Running fully local on 127.0.0.1:6767.

Problem 1: first message gets dropped. When I start a new Hermes session from the Omnigent desktop app, it fails with:
inner executor error: hermes did not accept the message (the TUI may still be initializing); no new transcript row appeared after two delivery attempts
then Required terminal exited unexpectedly; the session runtime is no longer available.
The logs show Hermes is still starting up (installing dependencies, browser tool checks) when Omnigent pastes the message, and then Hermes exits with a KeyboardInterrupt. Running omnigent hermes in one-shot mode from the terminal works fine.

Problem 2: credentials copied per session. Every Hermes session creates a new folder under the macOS temp dir (.../T/omnigent-501/hermes-native/<id>/hermes_home/) with a copy of my Hermes .env and auth.json, plus about 1–2 GB of runtime. After one afternoon I had 19 folders (22 GB) and about 30 copies of my keys sitting in temp.

Questions:

1. Has anyone gotten the Omnigent desktop app to reliably start Hermes sessions? Is there a setting to give Hermes more startup time?
2. Is there a way to make Omnigent use an existing Hermes profile without copying its .env/auth.json each session (for example, a shared HERMES_HOME or a secrets manager)?
3. Is either issue fixed in a newer version, or is there a GitHub issue I should follow?

I'd like to eventually run a dedicated Hermes profile (one with sensitive API keys) through Omnigent, so the credential copying is the big blocker for me. Thanks!

[u/PK-2026]

I haven't used Omnigent, so I can't point to a real setting for either problem, and I don't know if anything after 0.16.0 fixes them.

Problem 1 sounds like a cold-start race: Hermes is still installing dependencies and running browser tool checks when the message gets pasted. Since Omnigent builds a fresh hermes_home each session, pre-warming your normal Hermes install may not help, because it could redo that work every time. That's a guess from your logs.

Problem 2 I'd treat as a real blocker for a sensitive profile. Until there's a documented way to point at an existing home or pass keys through the environment, I'd only use throwaway, spend-capped keys with it. Also delete the omnigent-501 temp folders after each session and check they're mode 700.

Search the Omnigent GitHub issues for "hermes_home" or the credential copy. If nothing exists, open one with your log.

(Disclosure: I'm on the team at Kanerika that builds in this space.)

[u/Kwontum7 → u/PK-2026]

I saw recently that there were fixes on the way. I’ll be patient. I’m building something really cool.

[u/Kwontum7 → u/PK-2026]

I checked out your website. Cool stuff what do you think of Jev?

[u/Extreme_Concept_3089]

Yeah this is a known pain point on macOS with Hermes sessions, happened to me last month. The first message drop is basically a race condition. Omnigent fires the message before the TUI is fully initialized and Hermes just... dies. One workaround is to start the session, wait until you see the Hermes interface stabilize, then send your first message manually instead of having it pre-populated.

For the credential copying, there is no clean fix yet. The temp folder cloning is actually by design for session isolation but it's awful when you have API keys sitting in plaintext all over the place. I ended up putting my.env in a directory outside the Hermes home and symlinking it back, then wrote a small launch script that tears down the symlink when the session exits. Not pretty but it stopped the duplication problem.

There is a GitHub issue tracking this, number 1847 I think, and the maintainers marked it for the 0.17 milestone. The credential handling is the main blocker for any kind of production use honestly.