Hermes Remote Backup

Hermes Remote Backup Skill

Backup and restore a remote Hermes Agent host from macOS via SSH. Uses only the official Hermes CLI (hermes backup, hermes import). No custom tier logic, no rsync/cp of HERMES_HOME internals.

Prerequisite: Non-Root User Setup

Before running backups as a non-root user, set up the target host with an automation user:

# One-time bootstrap (connects as root, creates "agent" user)
bash scripts/setup-remote-user.sh sg02 --ssh-config

This script:

1. Connects to the host as root (via existing SSH alias like sg02)
2. Creates the agent user (customizable via --user)
3. Adds agent to the sudo group
4. Configures passwordless sudo via /etc/sudoers.d/agent
5. Deploys your macOS SSH public key to ~agent/.ssh/authorized_keys
6. Optionally writes a ~/.ssh/config entry for <host>-agent

After setup, add the SSH config alias to ~/.ssh/config (or use --ssh-config):

Host sg02-agent
  HostName <IP-of-sg02>
  User agent
  Port 22
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
  IdentitiesOnly yes
  PreferredAuthentications publickey

Then use sg02-agent as the host alias for all backup commands.

Also supports direct connection: ssh agent@sg02 if the IP/hostname routes correctly.

Security note: After verifying non-root access works, consider disabling root SSH login:

ssh sg02 'sed -i "s/^PermitRootLogin yes/PermitRootLogin prohibit-password/" /etc/ssh/sshd_config && systemctl restart sshd'

Official CLI Reference

hermes backup                  # Full backup (config, skills, sessions, state.db, .env, auth)
hermes backup --quick          # Quick snapshot (config, state.db, .env, auth, cron only)
hermes backup -o /path.zip     # Custom output path
hermes import [--force] zip    # Restore from backup

Key facts:

• hermes backup is SQLite-safe — handles WAL mode correctly
• Does NOT support --tier flag (use --quick or no flag)
• Does NOT include profiles (handled separately if needed)
• Does NOT include systemd service files (handled separately if needed)
• Does NOT include rclone config (handled separately if needed)

Trigger Reference

See compound/hermes-backup-trigger-reference in the vault for the complete map of all Hermes Agent backup mechanisms, trigger events, and coverage gaps. Key points:

• 3 backup mechanisms: full-zip (hermes backup), quick-snapshot (--quick), curator snapshot (skills only)
• 5 trigger events: 3 manual (hermes backup, --quick, /snapshot), 2 event-driven (update, migrate)
• No routine/scheduled backup exists in Hermes — use setup-remote-cron.sh to fill this gap
• hermes backup excludes profiles, projects, systemd, and rclone config

Workflow

1. Run backup: bash scripts/remote-backup.sh sg01 --mode full
2. Optional extras: add --include-profiles --include-systemd for full coverage
3. Restore: bash scripts/remote-restore.sh archive.zip --target sg01

CLI Usage

Root (existing hosts like sg01)

# Full backup
bash scripts/host-backup-cli.sh --host sg01 --mode full

# Quick snapshot
bash scripts/host-backup-cli.sh --host sg01 --mode quick

Non-root (via SSH config alias, e.g. sg02-agent)

After running setup-remote-user.sh --ssh-config, use the <host>-agent alias:

# Full backup as non-root user
bash scripts/host-backup-cli.sh --host sg02-agent --mode full

# Quick snapshot as non-root user
bash scripts/host-backup-cli.sh --host sg02-agent --mode quick

# Direct connection (if DNS resolves hostname)
bash scripts/host-backup-cli.sh --host agent@sg02 --mode full

Full + profiles + systemd

bash scripts/host-backup-cli.sh --host sg01 --mode full --include-profiles --include-systemd

Restore

bash scripts/host-restore-cli.sh --archive ~/Desktop/backups/sg01/hermes-20260516-full.zip --target sg01

## What each mode covers

| Mode | `hermes backup` | Profiles | Systemd | Rclone config |
|------|-----------------|----------|---------|---------------|
| `quick` | `--quick` snapshot | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| `full` | Full backup | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| `full --include-profiles` | Full backup | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| `full --include-profiles --include-systemd` | Full backup | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| `full --include-rclone-config` | Full backup | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| All+ | Full backup | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |

## Retention (`prune-backups.sh`)

Keep N most recent backup sets per host, removing older archives:

```bash
# Keep 7 most recent per host
bash scripts/prune-backups.sh ~/Desktop/backups --retain 7

# Preview without deleting
bash scripts/prune-backups.sh ~/Desktop/backups --retain 7 --dry-run

Automatically runs after backup when --retain <N> flag is passed:

bash scripts/remote-backup.sh sg01 --mode full --retain 7

Cloud Upload (--upload flag)

After backup download, sync to S3/cloud via rclone on macOS:

# Requires rclone configured on macOS (brew install rclone)
bash scripts/remote-backup.sh sg01 --mode full --upload idrive:hermes-backups/sg01/
bash scripts/host-backup-cli.sh --host sg01 --mode full --upload idrive:hermes-backups/sg01/

Uses --backup-dir for archive rotation on the remote. Non-blocking — backup is still saved locally if upload fails.

Remote Cron Setup (setup-remote-cron.sh)

Fill the "no routine backup" gap by installing a daily hermes backup cron job directly on the remote host:

# Daily quick snapshot at 4am HKT, 7-day retention
bash scripts/setup-remote-cron.sh sg02-agent --quick

# Daily full backup + rclone sync to S3
bash scripts/setup-remote-cron.sh sg02-agent --full --rclone-dest "idrive:hermes-backups/sg02/"

# Custom time and retention
bash scripts/setup-remote-cron.sh sg02-agent --time 02:30 --retain-days 14

# Preview without installing
bash scripts/setup-remote-cron.sh sg02-agent --dry-run

The script:

1. Installs hermes-auto-backup.sh to ~/.hermes/scripts/ on remote
2. Adds a crontab entry (default: 4:00am HKT daily)
3. Optionally adds rclone sync and retention pruning
4. Verifies cron was installed
5. Logs output to /var/log/hermes-auto-backup.log

Gotchas

1. No --tier flag: hermes backup --tier standard silently fails. Correct: --quick or nothing.
2. Profiles not in backup: hermes backup skips profiles — add --include-profiles if needed.
3. Secrets in archive: Archives contain plaintext .env/auth.json. Encrypt for remote storage.
4. ~/wiki S3 mount: If ~/wiki is an S3 rclone mount, verify it's active before restore. A broken mount (noauto in fstab) silently writes files to local ext4 — they never reach S3, no alert fires. The test scripts pre-inspect.sh (check #7, hard fail) and restore-validate.sh (check #11, warn) catch this. Manual check: df -T ~/wiki | grep fuse.rclone.

Backup Validation

hermes backup has no built-in verify command. Validate externally:

# 1. Zip integrity
unzip -t archive.zip

# 2. SQLite integrity on state.db
unzip -p archive.zip state.db > /tmp/state.db
sqlite3 /tmp/state.db "PRAGMA integrity_check;"
rm /tmp/state.db

# 3. Content manifest (verify expected files exist)
unzip -l archive.zip | grep -E '(config\.yaml|\.env|auth\.json|state\.db|skills/)'

# 4. SHA256 checksum
sha256sum archive.zip > archive.zip.sha256

For comprehensive validation including archive integrity, SQLite PRAGMA checks, content manifest, and test restore dry-run, see queries/hermes-backup-validation-restore-preinspection in the vault.

Restore Target Pre-Inspection

Before restoring to a target, verify readiness. Two target types:

Standard SSH host (sg03, Debian ARM64)

# Quick discovery (reuses discover-remote.sh)
bash scripts/discover-remote.sh <host> --verbose

# Manual checklist:
ssh <host> "uname -m"              # Must be aarch64
ssh <host> "python3 --version"      # Must be 3.10+
ssh <host> "curl --version | head -1"
ssh <host> "df -h ~"               # Need >5GB free
ssh <host> "free -h"               # Need >2GB RAM
ssh <host> "hermes --version 2>/dev/null || echo NOT_INSTALLED"
ssh <host> "df -T ~/wiki 2>/dev/null | grep fuse.rclone || echo WARN: ~/wiki not on S3 mount"  # Only if ~/wiki exists

devsh PVE LXC container (restricted)

Key constraints (verified 2026-05-16 on live VM):

• devsh sync — NOT supported ("not supported for pve-lxc instances yet")
• devsh ssh — NOT supported ("ssh is not supported for pve-lxc instances")
• systemctl --user — FAILS (no systemd user bus in LXC container)
• Stdin piping to devsh exec — NOT supported
• BUT: devsh exec, HTTP file transfer, and systemd system mode all work

# Pre-inspect via devsh exec
VM_ID=$(devsh ls --json | python3 -c "import json,sys; vms=[v for v in json.load(sys.stdin) if v['provider']=='pve-lxc' and v['status']=='stopped']; print(vms[0]['id'] if vms else '')")
devsh resume "$VM_ID"
devsh exec "$VM_ID" "uname -m"            # x86_64 (not ARM64!)
devsh exec "$VM_ID" "python3 --version"    # Must be 3.10+
devsh exec "$VM_ID" "df -h /"              # Need >5GB free
devsh exec "$VM_ID" "free -h"              # Need >2GB RAM
devsh exec "$VM_ID" "hermes --version 2>/dev/null || echo NOT_INSTALLED"
devsh exec "$VM_ID" "systemctl --user status 2>&1 | head -3"  # Expected to fail

# File transfer: HTTP serve from macOS
MAC_IP=$(ipconfig getifaddr en1 2>/dev/null || ifconfig | grep 'inet ' | grep -v 127.0.0.1 | awk '{print $2}' | head -1)
cd /path/to/backups && python3 -m http.server 19999 &
devsh exec "$VM_ID" "curl -s -o /tmp/hermes-backup.zip http://${MAC_IP}:19999/archive.zip"

# Service validation (no --user flag, use system services or direct exec)
devsh exec "$VM_ID" "hermes --version && hermes doctor"
devsh exec "$VM_ID" "curl -s http://127.0.0.1:8642/health"

pve-lxc VMs are x86_64 (not ARM64), have 8GB RAM, 32GB disk, Ubuntu 24.04, run as root. For full access, use morph provider instead.

Service Validation Procedure

After hermes import --force, run this sequence:

# 1. CLI health
ssh <target> "hermes --version && hermes doctor"

# 2. Services
ssh <target> "systemctl --user status hermes-gateway.service --no-pager | head -10"
ssh <target> "sudo systemctl status hermes-dashboard.service --no-pager | head -10"

# 3. Health endpoint (direct, bypasses Caddy)
ssh <target> "curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' http://127.0.0.1:8642/health"
# Expected: 200

# 4. API models
API_KEY=$(ssh <target> "grep '^API_SERVER_KEY=' ~/.hermes/.env | cut -d= -f2")
ssh <target> "curl -s -H 'Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY' http://127.0.0.1:8642/v1/models" | python3 -c "import sys,json; d=json.load(sys.stdin); print(f'{len(d.get(\"data\",d))} models')"

# 5. Content
ssh <target> "du -sh ~/.hermes/state.db && echo 'Skills:' && ls ~/.hermes/skills/ | wc -l"
ssh <target> "cat ~/.hermes/cron/jobs.json 2>/dev/null | python3 -c 'import sys,json; print(len(json.load(sys.stdin)), \"cron jobs\")' 2>/dev/null || echo 'No cron jobs'"

For a complete automated validation, use restore-validate.sh from the vault's deep research.

Key reference values (sg01 baseline)