Hermes Labyrinth Observability

Hermes Labyrinth Observability Plugin

Skill by ara.so — Hermes Skills collection.

Hermes Labyrinth is a read-only observability plugin for Hermes Agent that provides detailed monitoring of autonomous agent execution. It visualizes agent "journeys" as sequences of "crossings" (prompts, tool calls, results, failures, model switches, subagents) and generates exportable reports with built-in secret redaction.

Installation

Install into the Hermes user plugin directory:

mkdir -p ~/.hermes/plugins
git clone https://github.com/stainlu/hermes-labyrinth.git ~/.hermes/plugins/hermes-labyrinth

After installation, restart the Hermes dashboard:

hermes dashboard

The Labyrinth tab will appear in the dashboard UI at http://127.0.0.1:9119.

Docker Installation

For Docker-based Hermes installations, mount the plugin directory:

mkdir -p ~/.hermes/plugins
git clone https://github.com/stainlu/hermes-labyrinth.git ~/.hermes/plugins/hermes-labyrinth
cd ~/.hermes/plugins/hermes-labyrinth
git checkout v0.1.3  # Pin to reviewed version

Mount the Hermes home directory into your container and restart the dashboard.

Plugin Management

Rescan Plugins (Frontend Only)

Refresh discovered frontend manifests without full restart:

curl http://127.0.0.1:9119/api/dashboard/plugins/rescan

Note: Backend API changes require a full dashboard restart.

Disable/Remove Plugin

hermes plugins disable hermes-labyrinth
rm -rf ~/.hermes/plugins/hermes-labyrinth
curl http://127.0.0.1:9119/api/dashboard/plugins/rescan

API Reference

All endpoints are read-only and include automatic secret redaction.

Health Check

curl http://127.0.0.1:9119/api/plugins/hermes-labyrinth/health

Returns plugin status and Hermes state accessibility.

List Journeys

curl http://127.0.0.1:9119/api/plugins/hermes-labyrinth/journeys

Returns recent CLI, dashboard, gateway, cron, and delegated agent sessions.

Get Journey Details

curl http://127.0.0.1:9119/api/plugins/hermes-labyrinth/journeys/{journey_id}

Returns metadata for a specific journey including start time, status, and model usage.

Get Journey Crossings

curl http://127.0.0.1:9119/api/plugins/hermes-labyrinth/journeys/{journey_id}/crossings

Returns ordered sequence of crossings (messages, tool calls, results) for a journey.

Get Skills Inventory

curl http://127.0.0.1:9119/api/plugins/hermes-labyrinth/skills

Returns:

• skills: effective skills loaded
• shadowed: expected user-over-bundled overrides
• duplicates: true duplicate diagnostics
• errors: skill scan errors

Get Cron Configuration

curl http://127.0.0.1:9119/api/plugins/hermes-labyrinth/cron

Returns scheduled autonomy jobs, next run times, last failures, and working directories.

Get Guideposts

curl http://127.0.0.1:9119/api/plugins/hermes-labyrinth/guideposts

Returns generated observations backed by local evidence across journeys.

Export Reports

JSON format:

curl http://127.0.0.1:9119/api/plugins/hermes-labyrinth/reports/{journey_id}.json > journey.json

Markdown format:

curl http://127.0.0.1:9119/api/plugins/hermes-labyrinth/reports/{journey_id}.md > journey.md

Both formats include automatic secret redaction.

Python Plugin API Extension

Hermes Labyrinth extends the dashboard with custom backend routes. The core implementation is in dashboard/plugin_api.py.

Example: Custom API Route

from fastapi import APIRouter, HTTPException
from typing import Dict, Any
import os

router = APIRouter(prefix="/api/plugins/hermes-labyrinth")

@router.get("/custom-endpoint")
async def custom_endpoint() -> Dict[str, Any]:
    """Example custom endpoint for plugin."""
    hermes_home = os.environ.get("HERMES_HOME", os.path.expanduser("~/.hermes"))
    
    # Read-only access to Hermes state
    state_db = os.path.join(hermes_home, "state.db")
    
    if not os.path.exists(state_db):
        raise HTTPException(status_code=503, detail="Hermes state unavailable")
    
    return {
        "status": "ok",
        "hermes_home": hermes_home
    }

Accessing Hermes State

The plugin reads from:

• ~/.hermes/state.db: Sessions and messages (SQLite)
• ~/.hermes/skills/: User and bundled skills
• ~/.hermes/cron/: Scheduled job configurations

import sqlite3
import os

def query_journeys(hermes_home: str):
    """Query recent sessions from Hermes state.db"""
    state_db = os.path.join(hermes_home, "state.db")
    
    conn = sqlite3.connect(state_db)
    conn.row_factory = sqlite3.Row
    
    cursor = conn.cursor()
    cursor.execute("""
        SELECT session_id, created_at, updated_at, status, model
        FROM sessions
        ORDER BY updated_at DESC
        LIMIT 100
    """)
    
    sessions = [dict(row) for row in cursor.fetchall()]
    conn.close()
    
    return sessions

Frontend Development

The dashboard UI is built from modular JavaScript components.

Build Process

npm run build

Generates:

• dashboard/dist/labyrinth-bundle.js: Combined JS from src/parts/*.js
• dashboard/dist/labyrinth.css: Copied from src/labyrinth.css
• index.html: GitHub Pages demo with content hashes

Development Workflow

# Build and verify
npm run build
npm run check

# Run smoke tests
npm run smoke

# Test live demo
npm run smoke:live

Frontend Structure

// src/parts/01-state.js - Global state management
const LabyrinthState = {
  journeys: [],
  selectedJourney: null,
  crossings: [],
  mode: 'chronological'
};

// src/parts/02-api.js - API client
async function fetchJourneys() {
  const response = await fetch('/api/plugins/hermes-labyrinth/journeys');
  return response.json();
}

// src/parts/03-components.js - UI components
function renderJourneyCard(journey) {
  return `
    <div class="journey-card" data-id="${journey.id}">
      <h3>${escapeHtml(journey.title)}</h3>
      <time>${new Date(journey.created_at * 1000).toLocaleString()}</time>
    </div>
  `;
}

Configuration

Optional Theme

mkdir -p ~/.hermes/dashboard-themes
cp ~/.hermes/plugins/hermes-labyrinth/theme/hermes-labyrinth.yaml ~/.hermes/dashboard-themes/

Plugin Manifest

Located at dashboard/manifest.json:

{
  "name": "hermes-labyrinth",
  "version": "0.1.3",
  "title": "Labyrinth",
  "description": "Agent journey observability",
  "entry_js": "dist/labyrinth-bundle.js",
  "entry_css": "dist/labyrinth.css",
  "api_module": "plugin_api"
}

Common Patterns

Filtering Journeys by Status

# Get all journeys and filter with jq
curl -s http://127.0.0.1:9119/api/plugins/hermes-labyrinth/journeys | \
  jq '.journeys[] | select(.status == "completed")'

Analyzing Tool Call Patterns

# Get crossings and count tool types
curl -s http://127.0.0.1:9119/api/plugins/hermes-labyrinth/journeys/{journey_id}/crossings | \
  jq '.crossings[] | select(.type == "tool_call") | .tool_name' | \
  sort | uniq -c

Exporting Multiple Journeys

# Export last 10 journeys as JSON
curl -s http://127.0.0.1:9119/api/plugins/hermes-labyrinth/journeys | \
  jq -r '.journeys[].id' | head -10 | while read id; do
    curl -s "http://127.0.0.1:9119/api/plugins/hermes-labyrinth/reports/$id.json" > "journey_$id.json"
  done

Monitoring Agent Failures

# List failed journeys with error details
curl -s http://127.0.0.1:9119/api/plugins/hermes-labyrinth/journeys | \
  jq '.journeys[] | select(.status == "failed") | {id, error, updated_at}'

Security and Redaction

Labyrinth applies Hermes core secret redaction to all outputs:

from hermes.redactor import redact_secrets

def safe_export(content: str) -> str:
    """Apply redaction before export."""
    try:
        return redact_secrets(content)
    except Exception:
        # Fail closed if redactor unavailable
        return "[redaction unavailable]"

Verification Before Production

Test redaction with dummy secrets:

# Create test journey with dummy API keys in prompts/outputs
hermes chat "Test: sk-dummy-key-12345"

# Verify redaction in UI and exports
curl http://127.0.0.1:9119/api/plugins/hermes-labyrinth/reports/{journey_id}.json | grep "sk-dummy"
# Should return nothing if redaction works

curl http://127.0.0.1:9119/api/plugins/hermes-labyrinth/reports/{journey_id}.md | grep "sk-dummy"
# Should return nothing if redaction works

Testing

Run Full Test Suite

npm test

Includes:

• Build reproducibility checks
• JavaScript/Python parse validation
• API normalization fixture tests
• Headless Chrome smoke tests

Backend API Tests

python3 scripts/test-plugin-api.py

Tests timestamp normalization, redaction, and data structure handling.

Manual Smoke Test

npm run smoke

Runs headless Chrome against built demo:

• Map mode switching
• Route navigation
• Search functionality
• Dataset switching
• Threshold filtering

Troubleshooting

Plugin Not Appearing in Dashboard

1. Verify installation path:

ls -la ~/.hermes/plugins/hermes-labyrinth/dashboard/manifest.json

2. Restart dashboard (rescan doesn't mount new Python routes):

# Stop dashboard
hermes dashboard stop

# Start dashboard
hermes dashboard

3. Check dashboard logs for plugin API import errors.

Backend/API Diagnostic in UI

This means the Python API routes failed to load:

1. Restart dashboard completely (not just rescan)
2. Check Python imports:

python3 -c "import sys; sys.path.insert(0, '$HOME/.hermes/plugins/hermes-labyrinth/dashboard'); import plugin_api"

3. Verify Hermes home exists:

ls -la ~/.hermes/state.db

Redaction Unavailable Error

If reports show [redaction unavailable]:

1. Verify Hermes core is installed properly
2. Check redactor import:

from hermes.redactor import redact_secrets

3. This is a fail-closed safety mechanism — plugin won't export unredacted content

Empty Journeys List

1. Verify agent sessions exist:

sqlite3 ~/.hermes/state.db "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM sessions;"

2. Check file permissions:

ls -la ~/.hermes/state.db

3. Run health check:

curl http://127.0.0.1:9119/api/plugins/hermes-labyrinth/health

Build Failures

# Clean and rebuild
rm -rf dashboard/dist index.html
npm run build
npm run check

Development References

• Live demo: https://stainlu.github.io/hermes-labyrinth/
• Hermes Agent: https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent
• Plugin docs: docs/CONCEPT.md, docs/DESIGN_BRIEF.md, docs/FUNCTIONAL_SPEC.md
• License: MIT