Inbox

Labs plugin: works, but unsupported. Nous Research built it and does not maintain it. See what "labs" means.

hermes inbox shows everything Hermes has in flight for the active profile in one read-only view: what needs your attention, what is running, which background results are waiting, what is scheduled and which chat surfaces are open. Inspired by Cursor's Inbox.

$ hermes inbox

  ◆ Needs attention (4)
    ⚠ cron 'nightly-backup'  last run FAILED: Script exited with code 1 stderr: backup target /mnt/nas not mounted
    ⚠ cron 'feed-watch'  paused (waiting on API key)
    ⚠ process proc_9f2c44  [GONE (stale checkpoint), 3h13m]  pytest -x tests/ --watch
    ⚠ kanban t_12200367  [blocked]  Get Stripe test keys from finance

  ◆ In progress (2)
    ◐ process proc_7c1e02  [running, 22m]  npm run dev -- --port 5173
    ◐ delegation dlg_41a7  [running, 5m ago]  Research venue pricing for 40 people in Austin

  ◆ Finished, result not yet delivered (1)
    ✔ delegation dlg_3b90  [completed, 3m ago]  (result awaiting delivery)  List every caller of charge_customer()

  ◆ Scheduled (2 active job(s))
    ⏱ nightly-backup  next: 2026-10-21T06:08:46.190275-07:00
    ⏱ morning-digest  next: 2026-10-21T08:00:00-07:00

  ◆ Open surfaces (2)
    ◎ session [cli] pid=1197440  Plan the offsite
    ◎ session [tui] pid=1197519  Refactor the billing module

Install

hermes plugins install inbox

It adds one CLI command (hermes inbox). No model tools, no hooks, nothing runs during chats. No dependencies beyond Hermes itself. The agent can still use it: ask it to run hermes inbox --json in the terminal.

Usage

hermes inbox            # the view above
hermes inbox --json     # the same snapshot as JSON, for scripts and dashboards
hermes -p work inbox    # another profile's inbox (install the plugin in that profile too)

Sections with nothing in them are left out, except "Needs attention" and "In progress", which always print so an empty inbox reads as all clear.

Section	What appears
Needs attention	Stalled or `unknown` delegations, delegation results dropped after failed deliveries (last 7 days), cron jobs whose last run failed or that were paused with a reason, background processes still in the checkpoint whose PID is gone, kanban tasks that are blocked or waiting for review.
In progress	Live background processes, running async delegations, running kanban tasks.
Finished, result not yet delivered	Delegations that completed but whose result has not reached its conversation yet.
Scheduled	Enabled cron jobs and the next five runs.
Open surfaces	Open CLI, TUI, Desktop and gateway chat sessions whose process is still alive, with the session title.

What it reads

Everything is read-only: JSON files are read as files, SQLite databases are opened with mode=ro, and session titles come from Hermes' read-only SessionDB attach. It never writes, repairs or prunes a store (SQLite may create a database's -wal/-shm sidecar files, as it does for any reader), and works whether or not a gateway is running. Paths resolve against the active profile's home (HERMES_HOME, or hermes -p <profile>), except the kanban board, which Hermes shares across profiles.

Source	Store	If it is missing or unreadable
Background processes	`<home>/processes.json` (the process registry checkpoint). Host PIDs are re-checked with `psutil`; PIDs inside a sandbox backend can't be probed and show as `sandboxed`.	Section empty; listed under "Not read".
Async delegations	`async_delegations` table in `<home>/state.db`	Same. A locked database gives up after 2 seconds instead of hanging.
Cron jobs	`<home>/cron/jobs.json`	Same.
Open chat surfaces	`<home>/runtime/active_sessions.json` (active-session leases), titles from `state.db` via `SessionDB(read_only=True)`. A lease counts only while its PID is alive and, when recorded, its process start time still matches (a recycled PID is not counted).	Same; without `state.db` the session id shows instead of the title.
Kanban	The current board's `kanban.db`, resolved the documented way: `HERMES_KANBAN_DB`, else `HERMES_KANBAN_BOARD`, else `<root>/kanban/current`, else `<root>/kanban.db`, with `<root>` = `HERMES_KANBAN_HOME` or the default Hermes root.	Same.

Every section that could not be read is named at the bottom of the text view ("Not read") and in the sources field of the JSON ("read", "absent" or "unreadable (...)").

Not shown: pending approvals and clarify prompts. They live in the memory of the process that asked (the gateway or an open CLI), with no store another process can read, so answer them in that chat.

Configuration

None.

Development

cd inbox
HERMES_AGENT_REPO=../../hermes-agent PYTHONPATH=../../hermes-agent python -m pytest -q

The tests seed a temp HERMES_HOME through Hermes' own writers (SessionDB for state.db, kanban_db.init_db for kanban.db), so the queries run against core's real schema, and they check that building the inbox writes nothing to the home it reads.

Origin: hermes-agent PR #81507 (hermes inbox), moved out of core into this plugin.

inbox

README