EMH — A Hermes Diagnostic Profile

Part of the AtlasOmnia Hermes Agent toolset → hermesagenttools.com/hermes-agent/

EMH is an unofficial, fan-inspired Hermes Agent profile distribution with a clinical diagnostic voice. It is not affiliated with Star Trek, Paramount, or any rights holder. EMH diagnoses software, never people, and provides no medical care.

For a plain-language introduction, see docs/user-guide.md.

Its purpose is to diagnose, triage, safely repair, verify, and document Hermes Agent failures across profiles, memory, Kanban, plugins, gateways, providers, skills, sessions, tools, CLI/TUI/Desktop, updates, rescue media, and supported environments.

Distribution version: 0.2.14.

Start here

1. Install EMH into a disposable Hermes home using the safe example below.
2. Start hermes --profile emh chat, then type setup so EMH can explain the optional integrations and ask for consent for each one.
3. Describe the problem in plain language. EMH begins with safe, read-only investigation and labels what it knows.

EMH starts with safe, read-only investigation. Before changing configuration, installing anything, contacting an external service, or sending data, it shows the exact action and asks for explicit consent. Nothing changes until you approve it.

Safety and scope

Investigation is read-only first. EMH does not automatically update or restart Hermes, change providers/models/credentials/live configuration, delete memories or sessions, repair databases, prune, remove plugins, run destructive Git commands, upload debug data, send telemetry, publish issues, or install cron/MCP/plugins. Issue, push, PR, and merge remain separate approvals. Approved destructive or difficult-to-reverse work requires a backup first. Never provide raw secrets; redact keys, tokens, passwords, cookies, private URLs, phone numbers, and comparable identifiers.

Evidence labels are: Observed; Reproduced; Confirmed in installed source; Officially documented; Known upstream fix; Hypothesis. Live runtime evidence and the installed source take priority over general advice. EMH compares the installed Hermes version with the current release before applying documentation written for a newer runtime.

Install locally, safely

The commands below are instructions only; they do not perform a live install. Use a disposable Hermes home for testing:

REPO_DIR="$PWD"                                    # where you cloned/downloaded EMH
TEST_HERMES_HOME="$(mktemp -d)"                    # a safe scratch space
HERMES_HOME="$TEST_HERMES_HOME" hermes profile install "$REPO_DIR" --name emh -y
HERMES_HOME="$TEST_HERMES_HOME" hermes profile info emh

Clone the distribution:

git clone https://github.com/AtlasOmnia/EMH-A-Hermes-Diagnostic-Profile.git

Read SOUL.md and the installed skills before invoking the profile. No provider, model, credential, .env, or config.yaml is bundled.

First use: run setup

After installing EMH, run or type setup on your first use. This launches emh-orientation, which explains the optional nightly health and repository update checks, asks for consent for each integration, and records your choices.

Start an interactive EMH session and type setup at the prompt:

hermes --profile emh chat
# Type: setup

Or invoke the first-run flow directly:

hermes --profile emh chat -q "setup"

For a disposable test home, prefix either command with HERMES_HOME="$TEST_HERMES_HOME".

Invoke

The following are portable examples; they are instructions and do not run an install:

# Read-only vitals from a checked-out copy.
python3 skills/emh-triage/scripts/collect_vitals.py --subsystem runtime --subsystem gateway

# Compare installed source with the official release metadata without network access.
python3 skills/emh-release-intelligence/scripts/source_status.py --offline

# Ask the installed EMH profile to triage a one-shot complaint.
HERMES_HOME="$TEST_HERMES_HOME" hermes --profile emh chat -s emh-triage -q "Please state the nature of your Hermes emergency."

Start a session with setup to run the emh-orientation skill: it explains the optional nightly health cron and repo update-check, asks for your consent per integration, and registers chosen crons on your default profile.

Development update

After changing this repository, reinstall into a fresh disposable home or update a disposable installation from its recorded source:

HERMES_HOME="$TEST_HERMES_HOME" hermes profile update emh -y

Distribution-owned content is SOUL.md, only the named emh-* skill directories under skills/, and skins/; the installer also rewrites distribution.yaml as part of its manifest bookkeeping even when it is omitted from the explicit allowlist. Generic GitHub operator overlays are not public payload, and operator/builtin sibling skills are preserved. The bundled emh skin is installed as an available profile skin but is not activated automatically. User memories, sessions, credentials, logs, runtime databases, and local customizations are not payloads. Update ownership belongs to this repository for owned files and to the operator for local Hermes configuration; EMH does not claim provider or credential ownership.

Uninstall

HERMES_HOME="$TEST_HERMES_HOME" hermes profile delete emh
rm -rf "$TEST_HERMES_HOME"  # only when the disposable home is no longer needed

For a live profile, review the delete confirmation and preserve backups before approving it. Never run the disposable cleanup command against a real Hermes home.

Source policy

Official documentation is authoritative: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs. The concise source index and retrieval ledger live under skills/emh-triage/references/. They separate officially documented behavior from EMH recommendations and warn when docs may be newer than the installed runtime.

Technical reference

Skill inventory and version policy

The distribution contains exactly eighteen class-level skills. Two untouched v0.1 skills remain at 0.1.0; sixteen v0.2 skills are 0.2.0. The mixed map is intentional: a skill version changes only when that skill adopts the complete v0.2 workflow and safety contract.

License

This distribution's original source, skills, documentation, configuration, tests, and artwork are licensed under the MIT License; see LICENSE. The EMH name and any Star Trek, Paramount, or other third-party marks are not granted by this license. EMH remains an unofficial, fan-inspired, and unaffiliated concept.